How we increased our direct bookings by 250% (and how we'll do it better in 2023)
If we learned anything in 2022 it is that solely relying on one booking platform can be a disaster for your short term rental business. Even with our direct booking website and listings on VRBO, our occupancy rates still took a big hit after each of Airbnb’s algorithm updates.
This year, we’ll still be working on keeping our Airbnb rankings high, but we’ll also be putting a lot of attention into our website, social media channels and marketing strategy, so that we will (hopefully!) see a big upswing in direct bookings in 2023.
At the start of 2022 we set a very simple goal for our business - drive more traffic to our website - which we did, and our direct bookings increased from around 4% to around 10% over the course of last year. But this year we’re focusing on SMART goals - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound in an effort to 3x that amount this year.
We’re sharing these goals with you today for our own accountability and also to hopefully spark some ideas for you to implement in your own short term rental business. And if you don’t have your direct booking website up and running yet, keep watching, because you can actually get started on building your email list today even before your website is ready.
________________________
First time Airbnb hosts can earn $40 by signing up through our link:
www.arrivls.com/airbnb
____________________________
Create beautiful landing pages and email marketing that converts with Flodesk. Use this link for 50% off your first year!
flodesk.com/c/KYLEEANDSTEVEN
____________________________
Connect with us:
instagram.com/kyleeandsteven
____________________________
Short term rental hosting tips for beginners | Airbnb hosting mistakes | Airbnb hosting tips and tricks
we built a 289 sq ft tiny house in our backyard and started renting it this month, already at 85% occupancy in our first month. Your channel has been so incredibly helpful!
Hey Kylee and Steven, just wanna say you guys are awesome. Thanks so much!
These are fantastic ideas! Thank you for sharing!
I want to hit the biggest possible 👍👍👍 for this video. Thank you guys for the amazing ideas and information.
Thanks Guys for these awesome videos. Love all of your info about sending guests to your website. How do you background check and protect yourselves such as with Aircover, etc?
❤️🤣 I love these videos. Thanks for your efforts
This was so helpful!! Thank you!
Great video. You are brilliant. QR code is a winner.
Thanks for another video! Do you guys offer coaching? I have a property in Miami Springs doing pretty well, but would like to expand, systematize etc. I also have a question: How do you get comfortable with having to compete to perform financially with your properties year-after-year? Thanks again! :)
Brilliant! Marketing geniuses
thank you for the information! i recently launched two arbitrage units in cincinnati, oh and want to set our business up for the most success. i want to implement all the things you mentioned here, especially setting up a direct booking site. i want to build that out. this will help me get started on the right foot.
Hey guys, great advice I’m thinking about reopening my direct booking website. Just curious on how you guys are doing now with the direct booking and how your SEO’s and SEM’s are working
You got this 😍 #bookdirect
How do you manage insurance outside or Airbnb AirCover. What protection is there for you and your guest? I’ve been wanting to get into the direct booking idea but this question always pops in my head and no one seems to address it when they make videos about direct booking. I absolutely love your videos and binge watch them all like a Netflix series that I can’t stop watching 🤪
I've been hosting since 2001, using direct & platform bookings. Insurance is eeze peeve, Proper Insure is a big player in this Incredible Industry. I use my local (National) insurance company. It's the same one I use for all my real estate - my home & regular long-term rentals.
Has anyone ever used the airbnb insurance?
Kylee and Steven, where is the link you promised at the end of the video? I didn’t see it. The information you shared was very helpful. Thank you!
The Flodesk discount link is in the video description 😊
Thank you for sharing all your strategies are really helpful. Can you share where you build your website? Thanks
Have they answered this for you?
What website do you use to create direct booking website? I try to avoid the one provided by CMS because I don't like my direct booking tied to any CMS.
Contact Brett at Floorspace (we’ve used them for years) and also BoostlyUK and see which one you like better! Let them know we sent you 😊
How do you make sure that your booking calendars -- on VRBO, AirbNB, your website etc--- all link up?
www.uplisting.io/?via=arrivls We’ll be doing a review video soon but we’re very happy with them as our channel manager. Turno is free for Uplisting users as well. 😊
*When you guys speak about Direct Booking are you talking about by-passing Airbnb and other platforms and booking directly through you? I'm asking because if that's what you are talking about, how do you protect yourself against say for example, Squatters? I'm curious* I had a guy once book for a weekend. During our conversation via Airbnb, he asked me if he paid for three months in advance if we could do it off of Airbnb? Thankfully when I first got into Airbnb, I seen a news story of a woman who agreed to rent her shared space with a couple off of the Airbnb platform for on month at a discounted rate. She agreed. The promptly moved in the hole family and took over her house. There was video in the kitchen of one of the men walking around in the middle of the night naked eating food out of her fridge and it literally took months' to get them out. BTW when I explained to that guest that I would NOT go off of the Airbnb platform, he canceled his weekend booking.
We have a direct booking website where guests can book and pay. The booking process includes a contract and that contract includes verbiage that the guest is there on a temporary basis (not establishing residency). In an actual squatter situation there’s not much Airbnb can do, it’s going to be on you to have them removed regardless of the booking platform.
Exactly. I think many people really overestimate the perceived protections Airbnb might be giving them.
Do you have a recommendation for website creation ?
We use FloorSpace
What platform do you use for generating your QR codes out of curiosity?
We use Canva
@@kyleeandsteven Thank you!
Isn't direct booking very risky - you don't get the protection that AirBnB and VRBO affords? Like the old adage says...you get what you pay for?
Airbnb strongly sides with guests so I don’t know what protection they provide and my experience with their insurance has been awful so I would definitely look at their coverage as a secondary policy and consider using proper insurance or any other short term rental insurance companies out there. The rates are actually not that high.
Consider different marketing strategies for STRs vs STVRs. Vacationers staying for one week will return to the same property year after year vs the STR visitor who is not as loyal or frequent yearly. If you have co host on site they should be providing concierge services for guests to improve guest returns. I hope you intend on using text messaging with MMS messages to improve direct bookings. More texts are opened % compared to e mails
While it is true, that more MMS are opened than emails, personally I block everybody who is sending me commercial information via SMS, MMS, WhatsApp because I find that commercial strategy too intrusive.
@@SylvieMischel it’s not intrusive if you have signed up to receive vacation information for a specific location.
Isn’t this illegal? Basically you are taking away customers from Airbnb who actually sending this customers to you to your door and you are offering this customers discount if they book directly through you. obviously, no one is loyal when it comes to 15% discount so if quarter of Airbnb hosts adopt a strategy Airbnb will be out of business and there will be a lot of self proclaimed short term rental business owners majority of which will end up being in different lawsuits with renters because most of them wouldn’t know how to run the legal end of this business. Great 😂
They keep the booking on Airbnb. We just hope that, if they choose to return, they book directly next time. Not a new concept with short term rentals. 😊
If you get that customer to come directly to you for the second booking. That’s fair
@@barbaravanerp4598 if you get the customer come directly to you by giving them return customer discounts, and this customer comes directly to you using Airbnb platform, that’s 100% fair. Otherwise this is stealing customers from them, and if there was no Airbnb you would never have that customer base to email to. I don’t work for Airbnb. I’m just looking at it from another perspective. I’m sure if you own a business and someone uses your business to build a clientele and eventually leave you and take some percentage of your customers. You wouldn’t like it either.
@@kyleeandsteven yeah, I am familiar with this concept and it’s not only with short term rentals it’s in every business. The concept is not debatable, the moral and fairness of this concept is what’s debatable. Not arguing, just stating my point of view
Hi Niko, there are many ways to look at this. Here is one of several points: 1) A major national chain store advertising gets me in thier door. I buy stuff from them. On the way out of their store I notice a mom & pop that sells some of the same product and not I buy from them. If it wasn't for the chain store (& all their advertising), I would have never have found the mom & pop store