Welcome to another Ask Me Anything (Ask Us Anything?) episode! Each week we’ll answer your questions on STR, real estate, OTAs, and everything in between.

Amy asks:

Some guests tend to trust Airbnb because of perceived added security. How do I explain the benefits of direct booking to guests?

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Thanks for Visiting is produced by Crate Media.

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[00:00:05] You're listening to the Thanks for Visiting Podcast. We believe hosting with heart is at the core of every short-term rental. With Annette's background in business operation--

[00:00:14] And Sarah's extensive hospitality management and interior design experience, we have welcomed thousands of guests from over 30 countries, earning us over $1,000,000 and garnering us thousands of five-star reviews.

[00:00:28] We love sharing creative ways for your listing to stand out, serve your guests and be profitable. Each episode, we will have knowledgeable guests who bring value to the short-term rental industry--

[00:00:39] Or we will share our stories of our own experiences so you can implement actual improvements to your rentals. Whether you're experienced, new or nervous to start your own short-term rental, we promise you'll feel right at home.

[00:01:03] Hello. Welcome back for another great week. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:01:06] I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:01:08] Thanks for Visiting.

[00:01:09] This is an AMA episode where you, our listeners, can call in and record your voice, ask us a question, and we're going to answer them here as many as we can on the podcast. So if you DM us asking a question for advice, you're going to notice that we have you go here. That way we can share our feedback, what we know. If we don't know the answer, we will bring industry experts on to record their voice to reply to you all. But this is how we're going to help more hosts globally is by doing these AMA episodes. If you go to thanksforvisiting.me in the upper right-hand corner is a big red button. It says Ask TFV, and you can record your voice there. But let's take a question from Amy.

[00:01:50] Hi, Sarah and Annette. My name is Amy. I have a short-term rental called Headlands Beach Cottage near Headlands Beach State Park on Lake Erie here in northeast Ohio. So we're not very far from you. My question is regarding direct booking. How do you explain to a guest or potential guest the benefits for them of direct booking? Many people feel like that they have some kind of added insurance or security by booking through an online travel agency. And I would just like to address those concerns and explain the benefits to them of booking direct with us. Thank you very much.

[00:02:33] Such a good question, Amy. It's so funny, too, because before OTAs, before the Internets, the interwebs, as Annette likes to call them, this was not uncommon for people to open the yellow book pages or look at their magnet from their cousin's vacation.

[00:02:49] They can send you that deposit check for your [Inaudible].

[00:02:50] Yeah, yeah, you show up your vacation, you pick up the keys, you find-- things have changed since the internet. And of course, Airbnb became not too far after the dot com situation in 2008 and really changed the way people book their vacations. And so, Annette, correct me if I'm wrong or give me your ideas, but I think the biggest way to attract people to book direct with us is price.

[00:03:17] For sure pricing. Secondarily, I just want to encourage everyone that there are anomalies where people have 100% direct booking right off after maybe they go viral or they just really have a unique space. But this can happen really slow over time. So, yes, price is the first thing. The second thing to do is I think it's the repeat guests are easier to make them know that they can direct book. And once they've already stayed and they've got a feel for the property, they've seen it, they've actually enjoyed it, a lot of people do trust in the OTAs that if something is off, they're going to reimburse them and refund them. A couple of things too that I just know, I personally know is a lot of times your credit card company will also be in your back pocket if something were to go awry. But really explaining, like Sarah said, pricing, if you can create a price difference there, which we encourage you to because you're not paying the OTA, but also can you extend some additional value to them? I don't know. Maybe you give them a gift card if they book direct or an extra, maybe it's something off their cleaning fee or entice them somehow early check-in late check-out. Add some sort of value to their stay that might entice them. But really, I think creating a trusted list of your guests, connecting with them, not just once also, it's about really nurturing that relationship is how that's going to probably happen. And when they do go to book direct, having your website where you're sending them look legit, professional.

[00:04:49] Sure. And like Annette said that no like and trust factor. But let's take it back to why we want guests to book direct. Why as property owners and operators do we want them to book direct? And there's a couple of reasons. One, you don't want to build a business on someone else's land, aka Airbnbs land, because then you are subject to their rules. And there's been some pain over the past couple of years in terms of-- the biggest one in 2020 when they just decided to give everyone's money back despite our cancellation policies and think that was extreme. But there are other ways where we really have to play by the rules because the lead came from their website. So this is a really great way for you to diversify your business. If you are looking to sell your business in 15, 20 years, whatever you want to do, I can tell you this much. Your business is going to be valued very little if all of your leads are from OTAs. The value comes in the email addresses, the relationships that you get from these people. And if you don't think your kiddos are going to want to run your rentals after you're ready to retire, selling your business is something you might want to consider. And so to do that, you really need to beef up your direct bookings. So there's many other reasons, but those are the top two that I can think of.

[00:06:08] And I think also once someone does book direct, Amy, having them leave you some sort of review, hopefully, an online review, but even if you have a book in your home, something where you have proof, you have testimonials of other people that have booked direct, I think that's super helpful too. So if you can have that type of testimonial for someone like use their website, something where they can see that other people have used the direct booking.

[00:06:35] Well, speaking to that, you can obviously have it on your website. But to be fair to the guest, a lot of property management softwares or however you're doing a direct booking, you can manufacture reviews or you can delete. But a good way to really build trust is to give them the link to leave a Google review. So set up your Google business with your rental and have guests leave reviews that way. And that's a really nice way to show them that you are a trustworthy spot to book direct. Additionally, let's address Amy's concern of the guests feeling they have an additional insurance booking with Airbnb. Airbnb right now when you go to book a property, they give the guest the option of booking travel insurance. Listeners, you can do that too. You can offer travel insurance. Annette, we need to do a show on that.

[00:07:18] We do.

[00:07:19] But you can partner with travel insurance agencies, offer them to be able to book that, and eradicate that concern that they're not protected. But they are protected by their credit card. Like Annette said, usually you can offer them travel insurance and of course, that know like and trust be, have some blog posts. Be on Instagram. Be on Google. Do all those things. We're not saying you're 100% direct book. That would be nice, but that's rare. You want to diversify your direct books, and I think that's the best way to build trust with guests.

[00:07:49] And lastly, network. Network, network, network. If you can meet somebody in person and give them your site that way and they already know who you are, they know the host behind that home, get out into your community. Get out with your friends and family. So I think networking also as a way to just go ahead-- if they can see the host, I think that adds a lot of value.

[00:08:08] Amy, such a good question. That was such an important question.

[00:08:11] We'll have to come stay with you on Lake Erie.

[00:08:12] We'll book direct.

[00:08:13] Yeah, let us know.

[00:08:15] All right. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:08:17] I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:08:19] Thanks for Visiting.