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is there a difference between Booking.com and Airbnb guests?

My first guests are coming soon. Have you noticed any difference between the guests who used Booking from the ones who used Airbnb?


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Janefryer 4 years ago

*** All Eastern block and most do not reply to my messages even though I am using google translate.

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Sephlindaric 4 years ago

Interesting. Hopefully they will someday.

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pibomarco 4 years ago

AirBnB guests = personal level
Booking.com guests = business level

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Brixtony1 4 years ago

Less communication from Booking.com guests.

Less feedback.

Booking.com guests expect "hotel standards"

Reviews are more critical than Airbnb so don;t take it personally.

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Janefryer 4 years ago

I suppose less communication is because they dont have to converse in the first place unlike airbnb. (unless you do instant book which I dont). I think its ok to expect hotel standards, we hope we provide that but the lack of communication is worrying. Some people are coming and I have heard nothing about when...in fact nothing at all. I guess the reviews also are not personal because they have not bonded with the host in anyway. I am usually on friendly terms before the guest comes on the sites that I can use without instant book. Its certainly very different but I have to say bdc is the only one getting me bookings at all this summer so I have to take my hat off to that !

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pibomarco 4 years ago

If you activate instant book you'll rank better in search and most likely receive more bookings.

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Janefryer 4 years ago

Don't like Instant book pibomarco - don't even like on-line booking. Take me back to the good old days when you could really chat through everything with your guests before they booked. Result=, always 5 star reviews.

But......things change and here we are making the best of things. Brexit has a lot to answer for.

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pibomarco 4 years ago

I have 300 reviews on AirBnB, instant book, 4.9 star, and I don't like to chat at all. To each their own. :)

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Waikoninihomestead 4 years ago

Booking.com guests are so different to airbnb guests. They do not read the information provided then complain. They do not respond to messages. And they give awful reviews, even though they tell me they have enjoyed their stay and have written positive comments in the visitors book.

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pibomarco 4 years ago

That's because review system is different here. I guess you treat 7,5 as a horrible score (as many hosts does).
Guests who scored 7,5 acutally ENJOYED their stay.

:( - 2,5
:| - 5,0
:) - 7,5
:D - 10,0

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fluff 4 years ago

This is where the 4-face system the guests get to use is out of whack with the 10.0 system we get listed with.

Any review of less than your average score drags your average down. Therefore, lets say you have a 9.0 average score and then receive a few reviews from HAPPY guests of 7.5 to 8.0, now your score will drop below 9.0.

This leads us to view any score less than our average as bad! The guests should see the same 1-10 scale that we are labeled with.

On the other hand, we have reason to be pleased when the last scores from the previous team fell off the system and our score rose up.

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Brixtony1 4 years ago

The other difference from Airbnb is that there is no private feedback section on the reviews.

This means that all negative comments, even if very minor, are published. This takes a while to get used to and makes you feel that some of the issues are more significant than what they actually are. Often they are offering helpful feedback.

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pibomarco 4 years ago

I guess it could be a struggle for very small businesess that doesn't receive many reviews per year.
I have aprox 600 reviews, so the oevrall score is solid (9.3), even if I receive a negative review or reviews from those HAPPY guests. Arithmetic mean works.

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Katerinka12 4 years ago

People, who want to spend minimum money (but post maximum pics on Instagram) on accommodation in cute country with free cute guide (and handsome) included. Guess where they come from ?

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Mwatson 4 years ago

Interestingly we only use B.C now. Found their demographic profile closer to our ideal guest. Bigger spenders & a little more confident about what they booked. Our ABnB guests seemed to miss that we were a full service BnB, maybe that blurred line between traditional BnB and what it can mean now. They were more stand-offish when being treated. Just odd. We always communicate with our guests prior to their stay, didn't particularly find the ABnB any more or less communicative than B.C. But guests are guests. You still have to read them when they arrive and just provide the service you think they are looking for. I don't think their booking channel defines them.

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fluff 4 years ago

In answer to the OP.

We don't deal with AirBnB at all! We found their platform almost impossible to apply to a hotel and their support was, while responseful, wholly unhelpful. They also messed about with our rates without permission and caused big headaches. We tried them twice, had the same bad experiences both times. I'm always agog at how other hotel type businesses make it work. I have spoken to some local bizzes that have used them and they have similar experience to me.

Mighty strange.

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pibomarco 4 years ago

Not that odd, AirBnB was primarily based as a home rental platform... Most hosts were renting their private homes, meaning AirBnB guests generally shows more respect for the property they stay in and being more humble / less demanding. Also the next factor is review system, where hosts can also rate their guests.
Agree with that BDC guests are better spenders.

I applied our property as "hotel" sucesfully (Basicly it's called "Professional Hosting with Airbnb" - AirBnB's Proffesional tools & features).
I also decided that I pay the comission and airbnb service (fixed 14%) so guest only pay for the accommidation, so basicly for me there is no difference between the AirBnB or BDC. The only difference are guests, which are generally nicer from my experiance. But again I receive more bookings through BDC.

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fluff 4 years ago

Yes, I'm aware AirBnB is firstly a private homes platform, as I alluded to in my second sentence. (same as you see home owners having troubles making BDC, primarily hotel based, fit their properties)

I'll need to have another look at the "Professional Hosting with Airbnb" - AirBnB's Professional tools & features) you refer to, to check if I may just have missed a trick there.

If you have any other tips to make it hotel friendly I'm all ears!

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pibomarco 4 years ago

You are right.
I was responding more to Mwatson comment in the first part. :)

About the problems you're having you'll have to be more specific.
Regarding the rates that you were mentioning I guess you activated "Smart pricing" which the system automaticly sets the price based on the demand ect... soemthing like that. I don't use this feature.

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fluff 4 years ago

The "Smart Pricing" was deffo not selected, no way I'd leave an OTA in control of my pricing......crikey, perish the thought. Plus it was extreme, to the tune of....normal rate 1,000.....AirBnB rate 250....completely nuts.

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pibomarco 4 years ago

Weird, that never happened to me.

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Katerinka12 4 years ago

This what was happening many months ago, but only now Airbnb admitted that they have "glitch" and offering compensation to disappointed partners, who lost their money...

Their email:

Check your prices: Action required due to Smart Pricing glitch

Dear Kat,

Due to a glitch during our regular update of Smart Pricing that began on May 23rd and was resolved on May 26th, some of your manually set prices were inadvertently altered by our Smart Pricing suggestions.

During this period, guests may have booked one or more of your listings at a different price than you had set in your calendar. If this happened to one of your nights and the price was lower, we logged the issue in our records and will reach out to you separately to make sure that you are appropriately compensated for those nights.

We have resolved the issue, and your previous prices should now be restored. Please double-check your calendar and pricing settings—particularly for any changes you made on May 23rd and 24th—to ensure they reflect your desired settings.

Thank you for your patience. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. We value your partnership and will be working with you and any other impacted hosts to ensure that you’re appropriately compensated for bookings made during the affected period.

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Don Burns 4 years ago

When my wife and I started renting our home's downstairs guestrooms in June 2018, we used Airbnb as our only booking platform.  But our Airbnb bookings greatly slowed during the last winter season.  We live in a semi-remote Northern California mountain region.

 

In March 2019, I added Booking,com, TripAdvisor and FlipKey to our online booking platforms.  Since then, 80% of our guestroom reservations have been made through Booking,com.

 

I believe the frequent USA television advertising Booking,com purchases is the main reason we do so well with them.

 

Airbnb does not buy TV ads.  Plus, the Airbnb support staff told me I must use Instagram to better promote my rental guestrooms.

 

Airbnb reservations platform charges by the number of guests.  Booking,com charges by the bedroom, which is my preferred fee method.

 

The host must write the lodging's complete online description; while Booking,com will paraphrase the guestroom description.

 

Our guestroom website is:  www.MeadowsLair.com

 

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Janefryer 4 years ago

Well, we are coming to the end of our first summer renting and only bdc have got us the bookings.  Much to our surprise reading above, we have received 10/10 reviews from just about everybody and I still believe a lot of it is to do with post booking chat.   By the time the guests arrive we are familiar with each other.  They love our home as we do and they look after it because they see we are sincere. Airbnb only got me one booking (again 5* review) but this is because airbnb insist on putting the wrong location on the map despite my protestations, in order to protect our privacy ?!?!?!  What a shame that Airbnb cannot see why.

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Sephlindaric 4 years ago

How do you protect your rentals when guests booked for 1-3 months in advance then cancel?  

I have flexible cancellation and now I’m forced to change to strict because of cancellations. 

Do you think I’ll get less bookings with my strict cancellation policy?  I just think I loose potential guests when I have flexibility. What do you think?

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Janefryer 4 years ago

Re Strict versus flexible  -  I have always only operated under strict/non refundable.  If I have lost any bookings I did not know about, no matter as I had others who knew what they wanted.  I have just booked an airbnb myself in Istanbul and immediately paid in full because I took my time to find what was perfect for me and will not change it or cancel.  If Ill health were to stop me going then the host would be paid through my travel insurance as is only fair.

I actually cannot understand why the flexibility is even offered. What is the point if people can just faff around. Why is it so unfair to expect them to make a committment and stick with it?

Just my thinking ......................

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pibomarco 4 years ago

"Airbnb reservations platform charges by the number of guests.  Booking,com charges by the bedroom, which is my preferred fee method."
You can set the same pricing model on both platforms. Either charge by the number of guests, or by the total number of guests (max occupancy). 

 

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Sephlindaric 4 years ago

Thanks for your comment. I totally agree with you. 

Because I change to strict, Airbnb take me off as a place to work claiming people who travel for work need flexibility. It seems like Airbnb only care about the guests and not the hosts. How do we protect ourselves from guests who booked months in advance then cancel a week before they come or cancel a month later?

Strict cancellation policy shouldn’t affect my place as work eligibility.  

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pibomarco 4 years ago

Do you receive many guests for their purpose of work? 

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Sephlindaric 4 years ago

Not really. Most of the guests who comes for work will come between June and July. 

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pibomarco 4 years ago

As someone already suggested, set your policies strict to avoid cancelations. I have strict policies on all booking portals. 

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Sephlindaric 4 years ago

That’s what I did. Thanks for your input.