Hospitable.com offers a direct booking solution that’s a little different from other software providers.

 

Not only does Hospitable offer professional, easy-to-customise website templates, and the ability to add their booking flow to your externally built website (including with popular partners such as Boostly and CraftedStays), but they also provide a whole host of features that provide a safety net for hosts.

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Accept bookings with confidence thanks to an integrated, AI-powered identity, fraud, and risk assessment system powered by Autohost. 

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Keep your property covered with Superhog’s US$5M damage protection coverage. 

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And don’t worry about chargebacks and cancellation fees – Hospitable manages all chargebacks and indemnifies hosts against fraud chargebacks, plus covers payment processing fees lost on cancelled and refunded bookings.

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There are also solutions to help with growing your direct booking business. Grow your business by prominently listing your rental on Google with their Google Vacation Rentals integration. 

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Use instant book, promo codes, and custom quotes to fill your direct booking calendar by speeding up the booking process and by offering promotional rates to select guests. Optimise conversions on long lead times and large bookings by offering guests the option to pay in up to three instalments at no additional cost.

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Direct booking

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Direct booking offers an opportunity to fully own one of your booking channels – deciding who you accept and reject as guests and keeping more of the revenue for yourself.

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But how do you start to grow your direct booking business if you have previously been relying on the likes of Airbnb?

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Build a website

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A website is an obvious first step. Property management software such as Hospitable allows you to create a website from scratch, utilising your existing Airbnb listing – perfect for beginners. If you’re looking for a more professionally designed website, you can look at providers such as Boostly and CraftedStays, or another website builder.

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With providers such as Hospitable, you can still use an external website builder but make use of their direct booking system to manage your calendar, payments, communication, guest vetting, and more.

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Start with a brand

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Maximising direct booking profits and building stronger relationships with guests ­– that’s a goal for many vacation rental hosts. To make it happen, you need to create a consistent brand. 

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Your listing needs a brand. The key is to have something people can search for that's unique to you – starting with a name, something that people can find online.

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Your first win with direct bookings is when someone goes on Airbnb, finds the name of your property, searches it on Google, finds you there, and then makes a direct booking. That and repeat bookings are probably going to be your first 10, 20, or even 30 direct bookings.

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Get listed on Google Vacation Rentals

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Google Vacation Rentals functionality allows travellers to find and book vacation rental properties directly through Google Search, Google Maps, and the dedicated tab under the Google Travel category.

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Google doesn’t let everyone list on Google Vacation Rentals. You’ll need to be utilising a property management software with this integration in order to take advantage of it.

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Social media

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Social media gives you plenty of opportunities to share your personality, knowledge, and expertise – and establish personal connections with people.

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User-generated content is important – build a connection with guests through effective communication and make sure to ask them for photos, videos, and reviews of their stay for social media.

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Drive direct (re)bookings through incentives

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The direct booking model can make it more challenging to advertise to new prospects and convert them to bookings, so targeting previous guests often proves more effective. 

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Using a tool like StayFi’s gated Wi-Fi, you can collect the email addresses of all of your guests (not just the booker), and connect with them via email marketing.

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It’s also a lot easier to have guests come and rebook if you offer additional incentives off the back of the savings you’re making by not paying online travel agency fees (think promo codes in your emails and the ability to pay in instalments).