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Jay

New Commission Structure is ridiculous?!?

Does anyone else feel that this new commission structure is ridiculously unfair? They are now going to take a commission from our cleaning fees?!?

 

Have I misunderstood something? Is there a way around this that I'm not aware of?

 

Their 15% is already one of the highest commission rates in the industry, do they really need to be dipping into our cleaning fees as well?

 

 


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Follett Rachel 7 months ago

Sorry to be a dissenting voice but...Surely, a guest when booking a room will be interested in the TOTAL price for the night. Room rental service will ALWAYS include providing them with clean sheets and the expectation that on arrival the room will be cleaned is ALWAYS there. It sounds daft that owners feel entitled to separate CLEANING as an unrelated charge to the service of providing a clean and comfortable night stay. To me its entirely reasonable that Booking.com collect 15% of the fees charged to customers and this to my mind should include cleaning. I suppose they could just charge a higher percentage of our profit, after all costs but that would be a bit daft? Would one expect to stay in a hotel and arrive to find it dirty or a need to clean it on departure? Would one expect to pay for a car hire then have to pay extra for the bloke to clean it? The fees charged cover the full service and I dont think its reasonable to expect to avoid paying fees just because the critical and compulsory cleaning element of the service is considered as different from, lets say, electricity used, insurance paid, mortgage costs or any other expense. I have 1 room that i rent out pretty much every night via booking.com To do my own international marketing would cost me way more that the percentage I pay booking.com so of course I choose to do business with them. If the complaint is that the fee is coming out of something that is not charged to make a profit from, then charge the customers extra but include it within the one fee. Presumably youre not charging extra for bottles of cleaning products or charging extra for each part of the clean? Its just a singular service that has costs. Make it work. Its to easy to charge a small amount for the room hire, pay a small amount of commission and then overcharge elsewhere without commission costs. Low flight carriers do this but ultimately its better to give your customer one charge, include all your costs when setting a price point and then everyone can make a fair and simple choice. 

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SWLinPHX 7 months ago

No one said if you rent a single room in your own home or if you are a hotel you should charge a cleaning fee.  However it sounds like you've never advertised anywhere except Booking.com.  Consider the following:

 

  1. It is standard to charge one separately for vacation rental homes on all the vacation rental sites (VRBO/HomeAway, TripAdvisor, AirBnB, and all the smaller ones) and many of us have been doing it that way for years.
  2. We actually pay 18% commission to Booking.com, whereas on most sites it is anywhere from 3-8%.
  3. If they wanted to keep it all together in one total price that is exactly what they had before the change.  They just decided to add the commission to the cleaning fee to make money off of that.
  4. We already have to charge guests separately for the security deposit which we do about a week before arrival since it is refunded if they cancel and by this time they are most likely not canceling -- and this way they are often checked out and refunded the security deposited before they even have to pay for it on their credit card, versus charging weeks or months in advance.  Likewise, even for non-refundable bookings we always refund the cleaning fee if canceled before cleaned for them (about 3 days before arrival) so it behooves us to collect it at the same time as the refundable deposit which we have to collect anyway.
  5. Collecting security deposit and cleaning fee separately is something all the Expedia sites (Booking.com's #1 competitor) make allowance for.

It seems rather short-sighted to assume you can speak for everyone's situation or that you know all the reasons for something, especially if you are renting a room in your own home (not an entire separate home) and if you have never advertised on standard vacation rental sites.

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Follett Rachel 7 months ago

But just because some sites allow a customers booking to be broken down into separate charges doesnt mean it makes sense to the customer OR that Booking.com should follow suit. Ryanair charge for a flight then in some cases charge MORE than the cost of the flight to take a bag with you. They charge again to check in and again to board first and again to choose a seat. BA and Virgin dont they charge once and include all the essential services. To my mind cleaning is essential. You cant opt out so why charge it separately? The only advantage to the owner is that they can avoid fees which doesnt seem fair to the agent. Its like selling a house via an estate agent then trying to sell the garage and garden seperately to avoid paying agents commission. If you dont like it dont use an agent. My point is that if you dont want to pay booking.com a percentage for the entire booking (including all the essential parts of that booking) then stop using them. Rely on the others you mentioned. 

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SWLinPHX 7 months ago

Again, that is a false equivalency as airlines began adding all sorts of ridiculous fees nickel-and-diming customers whereas I don't remember when cleaning fees weren't a separate part of a vacation rental.  And again, even when separate but paid together Booking.com did not charge a fee on cleaning because the recognized that is not a for-profit fee, but just what cleaning charges. 

 

Sorry, but the many reasons I have given over the last few posts I go with the majority and call that greedy because they have always been separate and go to two separate entities for the most part, which you would know if you had been in our position or had the experience.  But since it appears you neither rent a full place out as a rental or have any experience with other sites I have to consider where you're coming from that you find it so unusual. I provided you with multiple reasons and you just completely ignored and dismissed them.

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Follett Rachel 7 months ago

Only a comparative handful of people are representing your view here. The disgrutled minority. Booking.com have many thousands of partners who despite not being delighted about the requirement to pay a fee for using a service (we would all rather pay no fee or a lowewr fee) remain using booking.com as it is an invaluable tool. I think to assume that because a handful of people are vociferous and vocal, they must represent the majority would be erroneous. Most people accept i would imagine, that cleaning charges might once have been accepted as an option but in fact it is not and is part of the essential service. My point about airlines is that some things are essential and some are not. Cleaning is not like seat selection or speedy boarding or extra hold baggage. Hotel or room cleaning is essential as using the boarding steps. To refer to the historical tretment of cleaning fees as a justification that it is an optional extra and some sort of seperate expense for you that should be carved aside from all your other expenses like utility bills, staff, etc etc is to ignore the fact that it has been misused as a mechanism to avoid fees. Charging a commision on the whole fee charged helps keep a level and fairer system for hotels, guest houses and the like who already pay a commision because they have not historically charged a fee to stay and a fee to leave (cleaning). It a different view to your and I accept your position is what it is but I wanted to point out that there are ALWAYS 2 ways to look at something. Two sides to a debate and I felt that this thread was not being balanced by the view that we are all in business to make money and booking.com are perhaps justified in ensuring that they collect fees on the services provided 

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SWLinPHX 7 months ago

This is about a longstanding tradition charged separately for a reason, not by accidental oversight all these years (maybe not for you specifically as a room renter and someone who is inexperienced with vacation rental sites and their long history as well as renting out an entire home).  Your persistently equating it with hotels -- which admittedly Booking.com and Expedia was originally and primarily intended for and what your situation is more like -- shows you have an unbalanced viewpoint without reference.  Perhaps you should defer to how and why things evolved to be the way they are now (different for rooms and hotels) not just what you see today as "right", based on two hotels sites (Booking.com and Expedia) that only in recent years started expanding into vacation rentals.  Hotels work differently where cleaning is not considered a different business; it is paid to the hotel as part of their cost and their own employed crew.   When it is an entire home and there is a lot more involved (like often five to ten times the space of what you or a hotel are renting) it is a different story and it doesn't matter that you don't understand or haven't had the experience or aren't in the same boat.  Just the fact you keep mentioning hotels and the one room you rent continues to emphasize the viewpoint from which you are looking at it.  I feel those of us with the experience and history and who are actually in that position are better qualified to comment on this.

 

But despite and setting aside even all that, you continue to gloss over the whole point of this thread; which is the change in commission policy, not in separating cleaning fees and providing for them separately.  Booking.com also understands that cleaning fees are customarily separate for vacation rentals; they did in the beginning and they still do now which is why they provide to include them separately.  You are attempting to question the validity of cleaning fees (you are welcome to start another thread of course on that issue) instead of the topic of this thread which is that cleaning fees are recognized and provided to be separate fees (always and still) but they decided they are now entitled to a commission on that when at first they did not due to their very nature.  That is the entire topic (read the first post).

 

I personally don't care to discuss what you think of the history of cleaning fees and whether they should have been included or not, or should be now (I would look for a thread on that topic if so).  I came here to discuss the OP's topic and that is the money-grab and change of policy that, despite handling it in the recognized traditional way as has always been customary, they now feel the separate fee we set aside to be paid to a separate business (which we do not profit from) is something they should also dip their hands into and take a cut of the cleaning crew's earnings. That is the topic (the change in commission policy while still recognizing cleaning fees are separate) which you have yet to address. What you said makes perfect sense for your situation and hotels, but not all situations as precedent has always shown.  I don't understand why you can't seem to see and respect that.

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Follett Rachel 7 months ago

So this thread is reserved for those who agree with your view? Those that have a different perspective should stick to a different thread? OK I understand. Do bear in mind that this thread will be unbalanced and that those posting will all have the same view and will all wind each other up on the understanding that there is only the perspective of the client vs that of Booking.com. I was trying to point out that there is another perspective and it might be more widely held than this thread suggests. By reserving it for those with your view, your mindset will become even more entrenched. I have an idea that im sure youve considered... Why dont you stick with those sites that charge less and use historic pricing policies? Is it because in fact Booking.com bring in more customers of fill your empty dates? If you feel they are overcharging AND there are other options, why are you still here and moaning? X

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SWLinPHX 7 months ago

LOL, you are too much!  One last time for you so you can understand:  This thread is to discuss the topic not your personal peeve about the history or validity of cleaning fees, especially as someone looking at it from a hotel/room perspective.  Because you do not respect that and continue to vomit out your own opinion on a different topic and to disregard the topic of this thread I will let you indulge yourself and type all night and day if you like.  Please know I will not be reading it as I have blocked you due to your lack of respect for others' experiences, situations and the topic of the post which you have hijacked by changing the subject and then insist that you know best despite the fact it does not apply to your situation at all.

So I am going to take the high road and bequeath to you the last word because you keep responding rapid-fire (constant email notifications of yet another post from you before I can even respond to the previous) and I don't value your opinion since you will not respect the topic of the thread or others experience, but feel what you want to discuss and your different situation is all that matters -- and again this is not about hotels/single rooms.  Just realize I will never see nor be notified of your "last word", but will if and when another poster chimes in, hopefully one who respects staying on topic and isn't so insistent to hijack the thread to say the same thing over and over about their own situation and feelings which have nothing to do with it.  Cheers!  :)

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Follett Rachel 7 months ago

and incidentally I have been in the service industry for many years running health clubs and a wedding venue. Ive also let 2 holiday homes, one in the uk and 1 in spain and I NEVER charged customers extra for cleaning when they left as it was all factored in. This was before the days of air b and b and it still amazes me that today some sites allow a headline advertised rate to be marketed when some non negotiable and fixed additions are inevitably going to get charged. Yours is an entrenched mindset that seems unable to accept that your cleaning fee is an integral part of your booking. You justify this by saying it is not for profit but within your fees to customers do you separate separate other expenses?For eg your staff costs... Would you consider asking customers to pay extra for check in and check out (airlines do this of course.). If there is an option this might be reasonable ie online check in is free while face to face is not. BUT if there is no option and check in is just face to face, it would be unreasonable to offer a rental price then charge extra for that essential service (check in like cleaning is simply an essential element of your non negotiable not optional service). Then to avoid paying commission on that check in element to booking.com because that check in fee to the customer was not for profit and went in full to staff would be unjustifiable. If you can see it from a different perspective it will help recognise why you are being charged the fee. Booking.com presumably recognise how easy it is to have a nice low advertised headline grabbing rate which would attract a low fee and then hit the customers with an overpriced cleaning fee which has no communion structure. To call THEM greedy for closing that loophole seems a bit unfair. Im not saying you do this of course but suspect MANY do and dont blame them for trying. My guess is that those who only charged a small fee for cleaning have silently accepted the tiny extra element that goes to booking.com. Those that exploited a loophole will be losing more sleep I suspect?

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SWLinPHX 7 months ago

...and again you missed the point (see my previous post).  Booking.com is not "closing any loophole", nor are they saying cleaning fees should be included.  You are on the wrong thread.  They are saying that while they always have and still understand that they are different and why (basically because of the reasons I explained ad nauseam) that they nevertheless want a cut of it too.

If they decide to take away the option of them being separate then your argument makes sense. One last time:  This is about Booking.com recognizing the difference but deciding that they'd still like to dip their hands in it too.

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Jay 7 months ago

Yes, unfortunately you've missed the point of the post. You're free to run your business however you choose. If you include cleaning that's so wonderful and I'm sure your guests appreciate it! 

 

However, we've grown to the point where we have to use a cleaning service. We still offer 1 night stays to our guests because travel needs are different for everyone—no one is forcing our guests to book and pay the cleaning fee. They are free to choose my accommodation or yours. Mine charges a cleaning fee, yours does apparently does not. My post was never about should hosts be charging a cleaning fees.

 

Our smallest cottage rents at $149 a night. A commercial cleaning service charges us $100-$140 per cleaning. We can't absorb $140 on a one-night stay at $149/night, plus give 15-18% to booking.com plus a percentage to our government for income tax. Plus insurance. Plus the cost of those cleaning supplies you mentioned. Plus heating and AC costs etc. 

 

If we were a hotel with 200+ rooms booking every night, we could absolutely cover the cost of hiring cleaning staff because our gross nightly revenue would be significantly higher at that one property. But renting stand alone cottages is quite different than renting a spare room or a multi-unit hotel. Each cottage has only one guest booking per night. The revenue flow is quite different. 

Subsequently, it's become quite common for hotels to charge a "resort fee" on top of their nightly rate. So for accommodations to charge additional fees is not absurd within the hospitality industry. 

 

For Booking.com to take a portion of a cleaning fee, is a money grab. We don't pocket that cleaning fee, it's used to pay for an additional service we use to help opperate our business. As it is, we still absorb a portion of our cleaning costs because we feel charging guests $140 for a cleaning fee is too high. So taking yet another hit from Booking.com was not feasible for us and we removed our properties from their platform. 

I'm currently looking for a way to delete my original post because this tread is now irrelevant to me. 

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Jay 4 years ago

Please send this message or something similar back to Booking.com:

MY RESPONSE TO BOOKING.COM EMAILS:

Please clarify how this new commission structure is more "consistent". When you take it off the nightly rate, that's pretty straight forward. How does applying a commission charge to our "additional fees" make anything more consistent?! It looks like a greedy money grab to me.

Those fees cover costs that are now mandatory to the operation of my business. My cleaning fees go straight to a service that I hire. Now you're dipping into that and I'll have to pay out of pocket to make up the difference. I can raise my cleaning fee but that reflects poorly on me and on booking.com. I try to keep things as reasonable as possible for the traveler while allowing myself to keep my business open.

I don't have an issue paying services out of my own pocket to run my business. BUT I do have an issue paying Booking.com twice! Now we will be paying Booking.com for a service that they themselves are not even offering. How is that allowed, realistic or expected?

It's so ridiculous. Your current 15% is already among the highest in the industry. I'll be blocking off the remaining dates in my Booking.com calendars and removing all my properties from Booking.com at the end of the season. Then you'll be entitled to zero of my dollars... that seems like a pretty consistent commission for you to figure out.

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Glaciers Reach 2 years ago

When i work out the commission I pay over my rental rate it can some to 25-30% when booking charges fees on my cleaning fee as well. How can this make sense? 

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SWLinPHX 2 years ago

As I had stated in a previous post simply increase your Admin fee to 7% over your commission fee (so charge 22% admin fee for 15% commission or 25% admin fee for 18% commission).  Your rates will come out the same that way.  But yes, by charging these fees you may get less bookings.  That is due to Booking.com's exorbitant commission to begin with, even before they started applying it to our cleaning and admin fees as well.  But that's okay, we book solidly thru all the other sites that charge only 3-8% commission.

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Captainsquarters21 4 years ago

READ THEY ARE CLAMPING DOWN ON THE LAS VEGAS HOTELS AS THEY CHARGE HARDLY ANYTHING TO BOOK THE HOTEL BUT THEN THE GUEST ON ARRIVAL HAS TO PAY MANDATORY RESORT FEES TO INCLUDE WIFI, GYM ETC AND SO THE HOTEL GETS TO PAY THEBOOKING AGENT NEXT TO NOTHING IN COMMISSION.

THEY HAVE TO BE SEEN TO BEING FAIR BY DOING IT ACROSS THE BOARD. MY ADVICE WOULD BE TO CONTACT THE GUESTS DIRECT WITH THE EXTRA FEE AND NOT HAVE IT POSTED ON YOUR SITE.

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Jay 4 years ago

Captiansquarters 21:

How hotels in Vegas choose to use their booking.com account is not my problem. If booking.com feels they are abusing the system then those specific hotel accounts should be suspended.

I have tried charging guests on arrive separate fees because Airbnb does not allow every country to charge applicable sales taxes that are governed by our federal laws. I can tell you that NO ONE likes to be charged extra fees on arrival, so while that seems like an easy solution, it is not. It also created a lot of extra admin time with explanations and cancelations once they find out there are "hidden" fees associated with my properties.

There are more strategic ways to resolve the issue. On a technicality those hotels have not broken any rules, they have found a legal loophole within Booking.com's policies. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. If what you say is true, the bottom line is still that Booking.com feels they could be making more money so they are greedily charging a commission on everyone's cleaning fee. That is going to result in millions of additional revenue in their pocket and more money out of mine for doing absolutely nothing at all.

What will I get for the extra money that I'll be paying them?

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Glaciers Reach 2 years ago

Nothing - you lose more money. What a joke. I keep rooms open on airbnb and pay less fees versus more bookings on booking and pay more fees and wear and tear. Work it out! Its a scam 

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Info 4 years ago

Thank you for voicing your opinions on these new commission fees. I find it very offensive that Booking.com now collects a commission on the cleaning fee and will be reconsidering our use of this service.

While Booking.com already charges up to 5 times the commission rate compared to other similar services (Airbnb, VRBO, FlipKey), this is an affront to small property owners who provide them business.

Most people I know pass along the same fee to the customer as to what they are charged. By applying a 15% commission rate to the cleaning fee, they are essentially charging us not for the nightly rental but for the costs of maintaining a property. I find this no different then if they decided to charge the commission fee against the TAXES we collect and the utilities we pay.

There is a BIG difference in what should be considered commission able. Nightly rates is absolutely viable, but costs of maintenance? No. This is just plain greedy.

I am going to think about this for a couple of days but right now I am extremely disappointed with this decision and expect we will discontinue our use of Booking.com.

It's good to know I am not alone in this.

Roanne Mayer

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Jay 4 years ago

Agreed, it's not fair to apply it globally. They should penalize the ones who are abusing the system.

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Katerinka12 4 years ago

They should penalize the ones who are abusing the system. I also think the same. But practically how will they do that? And how much it will cost them?

In the end of the day the property owners will increase the total price and more guests will go to Airbnb. That is what I see now with all my properties...

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Barbara Biggs 2 years ago

They could put a limit of extra charges as a percentage of the rental amount. Simple. Anything over that is charged a commission.

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Jay 4 years ago

Do we really care how much it costs them? They don't care how much this change costs us! lol.

If they can build a global booking platform to manage millions of properties around the world and provide security measure to collect personal and financial information, I'm quite sure they can isolate what hotels are "breaking the rules" and suspend their account until the issue is resolved. They just don't want to do it that way.

Regardless, these conversations go nowhere... Booking.com doesn't care what we think.

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Gary & Lynne Franks 4 years ago

I agree, this is unfair practice by B.C. In our part of the world their comm is a minimum of 15%, which we increased to 18% in the beginning to improve our ranking. It worked well for  a while and we got lots of bookings from them, but gradually we have got less and less. Fortunately we have been successful in picking up the slack through our own marketing efforts, and now only about 30% of our bookings come from b.c.

If the reason for them now charging comm on cleaning fees etc is to block loopholes that some hotels have exploited, then that's very stupid since everyone is being penalised for the sake of some. Either that or it's totally greed.

Does anyone know how to adjust the commission percentage? I adjusted it long ago and now can't find it anywhere on the extranet. Have they taken control of that away?

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Jay 4 years ago

It used to be a promotion where you could determine what increase you wanted and then you would "get more visibility" it never worked for me and I think it was a bit of a scam. 

I would check your promotions section of your Xtranet. If you don't find it call them. Their customer support is usually helpful. 

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savithree Naidoo 2 years ago

Hi, I am new with booking.com I have set my commission rate 18% as well, to pick up my ratings but a big chunk of my money is being taken,

I'm just curious to know if you managed to find a way to reduce the commission percentage and if you can please assist me by sharing the info?

Thank you so much

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Jay 2 years ago

I stopped using Booking.com completely. I pretty much do everything through Airbnb now. 

The commission rates were just too high. Airbnb only takes 3% from hosts. 

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fluff 4 years ago

If you mean reducing your commission back to 15% (assuming that is the base commission in your country) then you need to request being taken off the Preferred Partner Programme.

I've only been doing this three years but I don't remember BDC having an actual adjustable percentage directly (other sites yes). It's all done via programmes, campaigns and boosters.....AFAIK....

 

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SWLinPHX 2 years ago

You can easily up your administrative/service fee percentage.  Now that Booking takes their commission off of everything you charge (rental, cleaning fees, admin. fees, etc.) you will need to compensate by charging guests 7% more in service fees than Booking.com charges you in commission: so if you pay 15% commission then your service fee needs to be 22%.  For Preferred Partners you'll have to up it to a whopping 25%!

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Dominique Payn… 2 years ago

I’m thinking about moving on.. they are trying to rake their loss in through being greedy.. it’s been hard for us as well. 

really not happy.. 

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Jay 2 years ago

Yes, I have moved all of my listing over to Airbnb... their commission is only 3%. At first I didn't like Airbnb but it's been working quite well for us now. 

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savithree Naidoo 2 years ago

Thank you for feedback, I will probably have to look into that as well

I am South African an the lowest commission with BDC is 15% but I picked it up to 18% to pick up my rating,

I have also did some promos and getting guests through them but losing like 40 to 50%, it's just a waste of my time 

However, I appreciate your response and will try to do the same, one quick question though, how do you get more exposure from airbnb,any tips?

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Jay 2 years ago

I honestly haven't had any issues with getting exposure on Airbnb... it was a little slow at first once you start getting some reviews it really picks up on its own. Also reaching the "Super Host" status also boosts your listing performance. And that's not a hard status to reach. 

Two things that have really helped me though are using social media to promote our cottages and having direct links to our airbnb listings. 

And secondly, we have a Nordic Spa that open 15 minutes away from our cottages. It's been a huge draw for the community, so in the name of my listing in included "Close to Nordic Spa". That way anyone coming into the area for the spa will is that in their search results before they even click on our listing. That has worked really well for me... so I suggest doing the same if there is an attraction close to your rentals. 

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SWLinPHX 2 years ago

As I had stated previously, you can easily up your administrative/service fee percentage.  Now that Booking takes their commission off of everything you charge (rental, cleaning fees, admin. fees, etc.) you will need to compensate by charging guests 7% more in service fees than Booking.com charges you in commission: so if you pay 15% commission then your service fee needs to be 22%.  For Preferred Partners you'll have to up it to a whopping 25%!

 

Let me add that if you also list your vacation rental with Expedia Partners (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, Hotels.com, trivago, etc.) you'll see they charge the same high commission, except they don't have the option to add a percentage-based admin. fee, only a flat surcharge.  Therefore you have to actually raise your nightly rates by percentage there in your accommodation/rental charge.

 

And yes, I agree.  I am so tired of being bombarded with "Opportunities", 95% of which are that we should lower our rates or minimum stay to get more bookings, and do away with a cleaning fee.  Gee, really?  Heck, for that matter why not just charge $10/nt.?  I'm sure that would get more bookings too!

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Jay 2 years ago

Yah, I used to like booking.com when I first started but once I calculated how much a year they were taking in fees, it was hard to justify. And what traveler wants to see: fee1, fee2, fee3, fee 4 tagged on to their invoice. There's pros and cons to every platform I guess. Airbnb is not perfect but it's been working ok for me the past 2 years during the pandemic. It seems to be the app that locals are using for staycations. Booking.com primarily used to bring be European guests so it didn't make sense to continue using it the past 2 years. 

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SWLinPHX 2 years ago

Oh we are filling up all our rentals just fine on other sites and don't need Booking.com.  That's why we are able to charge a one lump percentage fee to offset costs.  If people are willing to pay it so we make the same we would make on any other site or when they book directly so be it.  If not, that's okay too.  But we do get a lot of bookings (moreso now than ever).

 

And I like the variety of guests (more international) and also the way you can fine tune rates like a hotel (offering a traveler multiple rate options for the same rental for the same dates, depending on how strict/refundable the cancellation fee is for instance).  Now that we have been with Booking so long it is easier to onboard with all the Expedia sites which operate almost identically (Extranet, 15-18% commission, small discount to longtime clients, etc.).

 

We'll advertise all over if A) it is a popular site that produces bookings for us and  B) it doesn't cost us any more in subscription or commission fees that we would otherwise make.  And sometimes we make a lot more on cancellations if we offer a great rate with no cancellation refund and then they cancel --and we then go on to fill those dates to someone else anyway.

 

And of course, the advantage of being on a site people also use to book travel and hotels, etc. is more exposure than just the vacation rental demographic.