Frequently, we chat with other hosts about everything short-term rental, Airbnb, shared housing, and DIY BnB hosting. It almost always comes down to the good, the bad, the ugly, and the how do we make more money. If our experiences can help other hosts, we’d love to share the resources and tips we’ve compiled to streamline short term housing hosting and maximize profits. Currently we’re working on uploading some templates that help make life easier for us and alongside that we’ll share some of what we find to be best practices in the industry.
Listing your Short-Term Rental or AirBnB on other Websites/Platforms
AirBnB isn’t the only game in town when it comes to short term rental platforms. They may boast to have the most traffic, bookings, or spend the most in advertising/marketing- but certainly they are not the only option for renting out property for short term or shared housing purposes. Some of the major AirBnB competition include: VRBO, Booking.com, etc. Another option, either in addition to or in place of any of these would be self-hosting and taking your own bookings through your own website. With resources available like Owner Rez and their turn-key solutions, you might not even have to hire a website developer if you are a little web-savvy.
Self-Hosting your AirBnB Listing
There are pros and cons to using AirBnB. Anyone who has used the platform as a host, for any amount of time will most likely have a lengthy list. What do we use at ChicagoBnBs for our real estate booking website? We use a combination of OwnerRez – vacation rental software!
and self-hosted wordpress. Owner Rez is a comprehensive solution for those looking for an alternative or addition to AirBnB, VRBO, or Booking.com. Benefits to using a solution such as OwnerRez include:
- Being able to start growing your OWN short term rental business (in case anything ever happens to your primary booking site or you get kicked off- heck, it unfortunately happens!) If you don’t have an alternative lined up and waiting on the side-lines, you’ll miss out on revenue if you suddenly are unable to book through your only listing platform.
- YOU control your security deposit- nobody else can deny your claim.
- Options for short term rental insurance are built right in. They are optional, but you can chose to pay just per reservation and avoid the high costs of monthly rates through general insurance carriers you’d have to grab on your own.
- Accept and decline reservations without penalty. Trust your gut and don’t get forced into hosting someone you aren’t comfortable with, just because the platform will penalize you if you won’t.
