The Direct Booking Advantage: Take Control of Your Short-Term Rental Business

In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, we welcome Abby Grous, Senior Product Manager at Hospitable. Abby joins us to discuss Hospitable Direct, designed to help hosts break free from the pain points associated with using OTAs and take control of their short-term rental business.

Abby gives us an inside look at Hospitable’s Direct Premium offering and discusses how it mitigates risks associated with direct bookings and supports hosts at every stage of the guest journey. Abby also shares tips on how to get started with direct bookings and highlights the game-changing features on the Hospitable Direct product roadmap.

Press Play now to find out how Hospitable handles the complexities of direct bookings and helps hosts grow their business confidently.

Do you prefer to read the highlights? We’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below.

Why Hosts Should Consider Having a Direct Booking Website

“I think if you aren't already doing direct today, you should get started as soon as you can,” Abby says. “Because if you're not, you’re only relying on the channels like Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com for your business. And you’re essentially letting them control your business, your terms of service, and the relationship with your guests as a customer. You’re also missing out on a significant amount of revenue.”

For example, the average booking value for Hospitable’s customers on Direct is $1,500. If you compare the fees that you would pay using Hospitable Direct Premium with Airbnb, there’s at least a 10% difference in the fees that you would pay on those bookings. “That means for every booking that you get direct vs through Airbnb, that’s an extra $250 in your pocket.”

Abby underlines that with Hospitable, getting started on Direct is super easy. You can set up a direct booking website within a couple of minutes. “And so you get to take control of your business, you get to keep more of your revenue.”

Accepting Direct Bookings without the Risk

“The problem is going out and taking direct bookings isn't super simple unless you have a plan because there are a lot of risks that come along with getting control of taking over your own bookings,” Abby points out. Hosts need to take care of vetting guests, processing payments, handling chargebacks, and managing taxes.

“All of those things are blockers to being able to go and really make direct a significant part of your business. So when we built Direct Premium, we built it to give our customers the guardrails and support that they need around those compliance and risk-related things,” Abby says.

She explains how Hospitable supports hosts and helps them manage risks:

• As the Merchant of Record, Hospitable handles payments and accepts liability for refunds and chargebacks.
• We vet guests and verify their identity on every single reservation before they stay.
• We offer damage protection to bridge the gap that you get with AirCover and Airbnb.
• We calculate and collect taxes for all direct bookings, and we remit taxes in a growing number of states and jurisdictions within the US.

New Hospitable Direct Features

Abby says she’s really excited about the recent product launch. Now Hospitable supports the whole direct booking experience in multiple languages: English, Spanish, French, and German. “All you have to do is go in, add a language, and we will translate all of the content on your site into that language. When you make updates to your property information, we translate them as well. It’s all done automatically. And then, when your guests go to your website, they will interact with your website in their preferred language.”

The Best Way to Get Started with Direct Bookings

Direct bookings are more than just creating a website that highlights your properties. You need to put in effort to bring guests to your website and convince them to book directly. “Probably the easiest thing to do, which everyone should start doing if they're not doing it already, is getting their returning guests who come in through Airbnb, Vrbo, to book with them directly.”

Ensure that your returning guests are aware of how to book directly with you. So, Abby suggests leaving a QR code at your property that your guests can scan to access your booking site. You may also offer them a promo code to book directly with you, or you can utilize other marketing tools, such as StayFi for Wi-Fi marketing.

“And then, for guests coming in and finding you for the first time, we integrate with Google Vacation Rentals. That takes almost no time at all to publish your listing to Google Vacation Rentals, and so you can get some leads that way as well.”

What Is On the Hospitable Direct Roadmap?

Abby gives us a sneak peek at how Hospitable Direct is going to evolve. She says that the product team has been focused on three core challenges for Direct, and that’s what guides the roadmap and how the product evolves. For a while, the product development has been focused on the first two challenges—protection for hosts and building trust within Direct websites.

“We've invested so much there with Direct Premium,” Abby notes. “But we're starting to think a lot more about the third one of helping you stand out and bringing more direct bookings to our customers already on Direct.” The product team plans to give Hospitable sites a makeover, allowing hosts to add multiple pages and blogs, making their sites truly stand out. They’re thinking about providing more support with marketing and building marketing automation.

The product team is also focused on expanding access to Direct Premium and bringing it to more geographies. “80% of our customers choose Direct Premium, but it's only available in the US, UK, and Australia, so we want to expand access,” Abby says. “We're looking at Canada first and then the EU from there. There are obviously many challenges that come along with that, because we have to figure out taxes. We need to address some compliance-related matters, but we also want to bring Direct Premium and Direct to as many people as possible. And so that’s the goal.”

Tune in to the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast to discover how Hospitable helps vacation rental hosts build their own direct booking business and achieve success.