Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 117. This is a recap of my Facebook live where I talked about how Airbnb demonstrates lack of common sense thinking in response to COVID-19.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
00:00 Start
01:00 VRM Intel dissected what happened
03:00 What do you think of AirBnB?
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Visual – YouTube
Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
One thing that has come out from the last 12 months is how certain otas have behaved and acted in response to COVID-19. And one of the main stories and one of the main features of last year is Airbnb. Now you will all remember, back in March 2020, just as the pandemic was really starting to take over the world, they decided to send out a message without warning any of the hosts, maybe you were affected, and they were saying that they were going to cancel any booking anybody could cancel a booking free of charge. And this upset a lot of people because number one host new cancellations are happening is happening around them. But they didn't even give them any word. And they just woke up to a notification one day or even worse, they just woke up to cancellation after cancellation, because they sent a message to guests and hosts all at the same time. Mistakes were made. The response was shocking. And what is happening now is that blogs, podcasts, articles, things like this, what I'm doing right now is starting to dissect what went wrong.
VRM Intel dissected what happened
And there's a really good blog, which is over on vrmintel.com. This blog is by the fantastic Amber Carpenter featured amber before but it really does lay out a timeline and I would invite everybody to go and check it out. So again, starts on March the 11th escalates to March the 13th. March the 14th. March the 30th. March the 30th. April, April, April. So it goes on. And again and it highlights and it announces when they make the notifications and to the guests and what happened next. So it's a long blog it's a really good blog.
And this is one of the main reasons why I firmly believe that on the back of this even though now Airbnb are trying to do the whole PR sweetheart move of hiring more customer service that, you know, Boostly, as you know, was invited by Airbnb, Ireland and UK in Europe to sort of do a joint webinar where they're explaining about what they're going to be doing next. You know, we're wanting to get more hosts onto the platform. They're trying to bend over backwards to hotels and bed and breakfasts to try and get everybody back on. But they have annoyed a lot of people people that were staunch Airbnb supporters as an owner used to list their property on Airbnb.
I have seen so many we've had 100 clients or join Boostly websites in the last year because of this because they realize now that you can put your eggs all in one basket, you can't rely on one platform. And now you know, you see prominent Airbnb YouTube channels like Shawn rock eg. And the likes, we're now talking about VRBO we're talking about direct bookings, which is music to my ears. So this is definitely had ramifications.
What do you think of AirBnB?
It's had a boost in the book direct movement, which is unbelievable. And so what the question I want to ask you is, what is your opinion on Airbnb? How are you using them in your portfolio? how you're using them in your marketing? Are you reliant on them? Or are you just one of the many that you now use to, to get guests through your doors? So I open up the question to you.
Before March 2020, what was your ratio of bookings from Airbnb? And I guarantee you will be somebody who is listening or watching it was about 80% Plus, and where are you at now?
I'm very fortunate to be invited on podcast mostly in America and Canada. And we talk about this we talk about book direct, because it's something that we've never really spoken about before. So I'm really excited to be in very grateful to be a guest on these podcasts. And, you know, I go in and I try and share some really simple book direct tactics and tips and explain about the power of book direct why you shouldn't bet your house on somebody else to do it for you and the reasons and the pitfalls for it.
So again, those of you now need to decide where are you at with direct bookings? Where are you at with maybe using VRBO or booking.com. And, and what has been the fallout from it. So let me know once you've read this article, it's fantastic Please do go and check it out, read the full one. And then come back and leave a little message in the comments when you have done.
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