Lay My Hat

When I last had a holiday rental property it was back in the days of subscriptions so you knew where you stood. You paid an annual fee to advertise, the price on the web was the price the guest paid and you received the proceeds in full. Fast forward and realistically the subscription model is truly dead and buried, so here I am back in the marketplace and utterly, utterly confused. Maybe this is not the right path to tread, but I would like to end up with the same net revenue for moi regardless of where the booking originated from. I am really struggling to get my head around some of the charging structures. I am currently listed on Booking.com, Airbnb and VRBO as well as my own web site. Does the 'base price' I set equate to what I expect to receive after the site has creamed off its various charges? Is there any 'go to' comparison site which will allow me to look at how the listings sites carve out their dosh and which ones offer best value to the advertiser and the renter?

Yes, here is some information: https://www.laymyhat.com/portfolio/ota- ... or-owners/

I don't find it easy to get the exact same amount from different sites, you have to put in your dates like a guest to see what numbers come out. Unless someone knows a better way of doing that?

It is tricky - I aim to get the same as a direct booking but it’s hit & miss. We sometimes use ABB to fill odd gaps & I’ve worked out what percentage I need to increase my prices by so that I end up with the same after they’ve taken their commission.

Most commercial booking systems (SuperControl, Beds24, etc) allow you to increase the prices you send to the OTA by a chosen percentage. This means for example if VRBO charge 15% to hosts, then you can increase the price you send to VRBO by approx 17% to get the same income.(if you charge £100, then the price the guest pays is £117 and VRVO takes 15% of 117 = £17.55). I should say I have no idea what VRBO charges hosts and this is just an example.

I find if I increase my price by 12% on the VRBO site, I end up roughly what I would be getting by taking the booking direct. But as their take varies from booking to booking, it is impossible to get it exactly right.

We created a spreadsheet and find that an increase of 3% on Airbnb (assuming you're not using a channel manager) and 12% on VRBO/Trip Advisor comes out about right. VRBO is the worse channel as you never know what you're getting until after payment two has been taken, if you set it up to take a deposit and then a balance payment. It doesn't build in the card fees, so the amount is always different to what it initially quotes.

I no longer worry too much about being accurate against my direct prices; guests nearly always pay more by booking through a listing site and that's up to them to find me at the cheapest rate by doing some research if they can be bothered!