How to Free Yourself from Airbnb and Get Direct Bookings

0:00What's the big benefit that you see with direct bookings over using the they call them OTAs for people who aren't familiar with it but otaa is online travel agencies which is Airbnb verbo all those so what what's the advantage with direct bookings over those yeah and an OTA is basically anyone who takes a commission got it okay there's listing sites as well which are great tool to have in your toolkit if they're driving traffic to your website and not taking a commission but the OTAs and they're not you know they're not the big bad guys I use them I even use them for research or places that I want to stay I always try to book direct because if anybody saw me booking on Airbnb I'd probably be called out

0:49Yes so the real reason that I was doing this was because I couldn't stand out on on the likes of Airbnb and that I needed to I needed to pay that mortgage I needed my own guests what it gave me was first a sense of accomplishment and confidence that I could do it but also it gave me control over the entire guest's Journey so all of the communication everything I could tailor it exactly what I wanted my cancellation policy my check-in my check out everything I could tailor it exactly I wanted there was no one there telling me what I had to do or didn't have to do so I could tailor that I saved the commissions and and what

1:38I do is organic marketing so I yes there's a bit of investment needed for a website and a property management system however I was still making more than I was laying out so more money in my pocket more control and more happy guests because they were dealing with me direct and we could build that relationship and they could come back too you know it was just it's just nice it's just a nice feeling yeah yeah yeah no that's great yeah and I think a lot of people don't realize that that Airbnb charges guess around 14% on top of what you know the the 14% of the gross income so

2:26That includes like the cleaning fee you know in there and then that charges the host 3% so that's 177% on top before taxes are calculated in and so you know I I kind of look at that as a as a marketing fee because Airbnb is marketing the property but you know that's that's a huge chunk of change so do you you know obviously if you if you price the property the same direct booking and on the OTAs then the guest saves that that 177% it's it's not like you're getting that 177% as additional Revenue do you have a pricing strategy that like around direct booking verse OTAs or do you typically is it is it the same pricing or how does that work I usually

3:15Put the the the price on the otaa way up okay okay that's normally what I do now I am not a pricing expert and the great thing about direct bookings is you can do whatever you want you know if you want to a night for $500 a night do it if you want to do it for $1,500 a night if there people out there willing to pay that go for it but I always jack up the prices on the OTAs I put on my booking site what I would like you know what that fair price is Airbnb always adds on top but the problem with booking.com is that they love to Discount and I swear they have like a breathing discount like if you're breathing we're going to give you a discount and you never know what price it is that they're putting out there so

4:04I really try to make those as high as possible so that I am not left you know having to having to pay people to stay in my place but I try you know the idea is that the guests get a better price when they come direct got it that's sort of the bottom line you don't have to give them a further discount you know you're just telling them look this is going to going to save you money rather than booking on the OTAs yeah yeah and when it comes to screening guests you know I think one of the security blankets a lot of people have with Airbnb is like I can see the guest previous positive reviews they have this 2 million doll host guarantee which can be hit or miss whether they actually honor it and then

4:52You know you can you just have like a more of a you I guess you feel like you're B by this big company as opposed to just taking a direct booking and you don't have any information about that guest so how do you how do you look at that and how do you make sure that you screen your guest to know that you're getting a quality guest stay I I'll say this that I screen all my guests even the ones that come through the platforms OTAs I screen everyone I hear a lot of the time this is a big a big obstacle for those wanting to get into direct bookings because they feel so comforted by airbnb's air cover however you have to think about Airbnb in their business model they

5:41Have done an amazing job their marketing is second to none you know we're all walking around talking about our short-term rentals as airbnbs the guests with the guests are saying as well but the guests it's a guest Centric platform and I know that there are hosts there that have had issues and that have been able to use air cover but when you look across the board the guest is the one that the Airbnb wants to keep hosts can be replaced guests are the ones because they've they have done a lot of marketing to get them onto that platform and to book so going back to your question I'll get off my Soap Box a bit go back to my your question about vetting there's a couple of companies out there that can help with this one is safely and one is super hog and I

6:29I think there's probably more now too but they help with the vetting so they take in I don't have to deal with driver's licenses passports all that kind of stuff they take that for me and they vet them they go through a rigorous process to make sure that they're not criminals and that their mobile phone is not a burner these kind of things and then I get that report saying that they are cleared they've confirmed they're fine and go ahead but they also can pick up warning signs of things so it's not a case of looking at reviews which I know a lot of Airbnb hosts that's what they do they look at the reviews and think oh should I take this person should I not take this

7:17Person and I just don't want to get bogged down with that I'm not chasing reviews or whatnot I just want good guests that will come and book direct and will hopefully come back back and so in that mindset using the vetting they know that I've been vetted I am who I say I am and they can see that on my website and my socials and all that kind of stuff but they also know I'm using a vetting company that I am I am a standup person and and I and I hope they are too yeah yeah it's going to dissuade I I found that it's tools like that dissuade the the people who are just looking for the lowest hanging fruit to take advantage of you know so if they see that there's a a vetting process they just you

8:06Know move on to the guy who doesn't do that and and you know is looking for the easy scam so just by having that in place it prevents a lot I think what what is the process do you just send a link to the guests then once they say they're interested and then you know if everything comes back as normal you move forward with the booking or how does that work I have them book it so they book it okay no matter however they book and then I put in their details into the platform the the vetting platform their their mobile phone number their cell number their email address their their name and then I let the platform take over they ask for I believe now don't totally quote me on this because it's been a while since I've done it myself but I think they take some

8:54Sort of governmen issued ID and they want a selfie and I don't know what else they take but then they go away and do their checks and come back I've never had anyone fail it I've had Flags come up you know and then I can look at the information and see what the what the issue is and then take it from there but the thing is when you're direct I can cancel that booking if I want yeah that's a you know now you don't want to because people are you know saving for their for their vacations this could be their only annual vacation they take and they're really you know looking forward to it so I don't want to just cancel something willy-nilly however if I ever felt like I needed to I can cancel I don't have to really

9:43Say a reason because it's my business and there's no penalty yeah there's no big brother looking over my shoulder going you can't do that yeah that's such a great point you make because I think hosts feel like they're prisoners with to Airbnb you know a lot of cases like oh I I have to bend over backwards give a full refund because this person said there was a you know piece of dust on the floor because you know I'm at the mercy of their review and it'll ruin my business if they leave a bad review so that's that's great with direct bookings you don't really have reviews obviously they can they can talk about you online and that sort of thing but you know it's well you still ask for reviews you still want you know Google reviews or Facebook reviews you still want reviews because it's good social proof that you are who

10:31You say you are and you're doing a great job with your accommodation and that but you're not beholden to them in the same way they're not used as a a retaliative method yeah you know if something something goes goes wrong you know it's your it's your business you can sort of direct the The Narrative if you will and you don't have to worry that okay I told them they couldn't I had this I last month I had someone leave me not the most polite review and it was all because I wasn't able to give them a late checkout and you know it didn't really bother me because there's nobody looking over my shoulder there's no one checking you

11:20Know I've just replied to it and I just said I'm really sorry I wasn't able to give you a late checkout as you wanted yeah you know but but that's it you know and I know that people reading through the reviews will see that because it stands out as being an odd thing against all the other reviews right yeah so they're still important but you're not feeling this pressure that you have to do everything in your power to get that five star that makes sense that makes sense and do you have a booking contract with them that kind of outlines the the booking agreement nope nope I have the the booking terms and conditions on my website and that outes the or outes the outlines the word is outlines the

12:09The cancellation policy and all that that they are to read now that you could have one you could have a a a contract that people sign a booking agreement and that I know a lot of people do do that I just feel with my vetting and with them reading the t's and C's that is enough a