Pros & Cons of Hosting Your Own Booking Website
Midtown Tudor, Wilmington, North Carolina
Do you solely rely on Airbnb, VRBO, Homeaway, or another short-term rental platform to book your vacation rental? While these household names are recommended for last-minute reservations and properties new to the market, long-time hosts and guests are becoming agitated at the snowballing fees and scam requests coming through these tried and true booking platforms.
Short-term rental hosts are now seeking new ways to connect directly with guests and build their own websites and booking platforms with the help of STR tech companies like Guesty, Lodgify, and Uplisting. This independent technology allows hosts to direct book online without major players like Airbnb and VRBO taking a cut of the commission. However, it would be best to consider all the pros and cons of hosting online booking platforms before choosing a provider to ensure that the software works for you.
Pros of Hosting Your Own Online Booking
ATTRACT YOUR IDEAL GUEST
A custom website with your own booking software allows you to speak directly to the guest you’d like to invite into your vacation home. It also allows you to share more information about local attractions, recommendations, house rules, and amenities without the limited display of an app. Take a look at how The Palmetto Place has developed an entire experience to help welcome new guests with activities, up-sell luxury services, and provide travel advice prior to even booking a stay.
Maximizing Reservations
Most time, customers who seek out your rental and complete their reservation through a private website are more likely to show up. If a customer wishes to cancel their reservations, it will automatically show that the space is available online, allowing another customer to fill that space.
Maximizing your reservations allows you to show all unused reservations available.
Faster Payments & discretionary refunds
Customers can make prepayments for activities and rentals with an online booking platform keeping money in your account and not having to wait for a payout from third-party referrals. When the customers do this, you don't have to worry about them not making payment on time, plus you have more discretion on your refund policy if there are any hiccups during a stay.
Managing Your Calendar Is Easier
Most short-term rental booking software allows you to integrate your online platform with the big players like Airbnb and VRBO so your calendar automatically syndicates. You can check your reservation and other availabilities using a computer or a mobile phone any time you want to. You can also manage your schedule from any location. This means all your eggs don’t have to be in one basket and you can expand your marketing to multiple platforms while you build brand awareness.
Getting Valuable Business Insights & Improved processes
An online booking system provides you with analytics on a dashboard that shows you the ins and outs of your business. You can get information quickly, such as the most requested slots and the most popular add-on services. You can also manage your email marketing and vendor scheduling like your cleaning team on most platforms.
Cons of Hosting Your Own Online Booking Platform
mORE RESPONSIBILITY
One main disadvantage of hosting on an online platform is that you’re making the final call now and don’t have a service team separating you and the guest. So if odd circumstances arise, you’ll need to be prepared to handle disgruntled guests.
No Review Screening, Like on an Airbnb
One of the best features of OTAs is their review system which is available for both hosts and guests. Without reviews, you won't be able to screen guests beforehand or make decisions and changes based on their reviews as guests.
No Host Guarantee
A primary disadvantage of hosting an online booking platform is losing the Host Guarantee offered by Airbnbs. A Host guarantee is a type of protection provided to hosts for any damage that occurs for both host and guests.
Without the host guarantee, you have to ensure you have a security deposit in place; this ensures that you have protection if there are damages. However, one detail to pay attention to is a host guarantee isn't always available on all platforms.
IT’S AN ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT
Hosting your own booking platform can cost you from $100/month or greater, depending on which platform is best for you and your properties. You’ll also need to consider the costs of purchasing a domain name and website hosting if you’d like a custom website. In addition to cost, be prepared to commit more time to set up your account and managing your properties.
As the vacation rental industry continues to thrive, we’re seeing an increased need to develop special relationships with your guests to stand apart from the competition and create the ultimate luxury rental. A brand story and a custom experience will help foster guest loyalty and repeat bookings.