Your Wins Are Our Wins
Meet the hosts and property managers just like you who not only have increased their direct bookings but have grown their short-term rental revenue year after year.
Meet SERGIO
4X
Listing in Revenue
Over 2,000
5 Star Reviews
+ 200%
Direct Bookings
“I was the hectic host...”
Sergio is the owner of The Jungle House, a 6 figure short-term rental business in Columbus, Ohio that attracts the plant lover guest to enjoy a one of a kind vacation rental experience.
Although plants were never a part of his original plan, they quickly became the reason guests were booking with him more and more.
- “That was sort of a happy accident. I had so many of them that I just couldn’t keep them in my own house. So I thought I might as well decorate some of my rentals with them for guests to enjoy.”
But back when Sergio first started, he was just your average 26 year old rental hobbyist doing ALL the things…
- The cleaning
- The fixing
- The guest communication
- …anything he needed to do to keep his rentals running smoothly.
Except for one small problem…they weren’t.
In fact, it wasn’t long before Sergio realized he was actually working more than before he quit his 9 to 5 to start his vacation rental business.
“I didn’t have time for anything else in my life...”
On a typical day he would wake up in the morning spending 1-2 hours responding to guest booking inquiries.
From there it was off to clean the properties from 10am-3pm. By 4:00pm Sergio’s day was just beginning with guests checking in.
Most days ended with him staying up until 2:00am with his phone set to the highest volume so he wouldn’t accidentally fall asleep…
- “I was in the center of a party town and Ohio State. I'd get notifications whenever the doors would open. And if I saw a door open 3 times in 5 minutes, I knew something was up. So I’d have to go outside and check the cameras to investigate…and it was honestly all so draining. I just couldn’t keep up with being “on” for that many hours a day.”
At that time, his business had all the basic parts; rental properties, a unique theme, Airbnb listings, and happy guests.
But Sergio’s business still wasn’t going anywhere.
Through podcasts and courses he learned about the importance of increasing his direct bookings. He had a single page website through his PMS provider, so why were his bookings still only coming from Airbnb?
Then one day, a text message chain with a returning guest changed the trajectory of his business forever…
- “I just messaged them saying “hey, to save some money just use this link to book the stay instead.” But they reached back out to me and said, “We tried but it was really confusing, so we just re-booked on Airbnb.” I was so embarrassed and knew I needed to fix this issue.”
But because he was so busy doing everything else, getting a professional website was never on the top of the priority list.
That’s when he stumbled upon Boostly…
But was it really worth the price?”
From the moment Sergio found Boostly, he loved every aspect of it.
- Being able to own your website.
- Having a team of experts do it all for you.
- Being tailor-made for direct bookings.
- Customizable to match your unique brand.
But like many hosts who are just starting out, Sergio had limited revenue coming in. He was scared about whether he could commit to the investment…
“I wanted to show everyone!”
From the moment he joined Boostly, Sergio immediately felt a difference.
Instead of being given a template and sent on his way, he was greeted by an incredibly kind, caring team of experts who built everything from scratch.
All while keeping him involved in the decision-making with his wants and visions for his website a priority.
Then the moment came when he received that first draft of the wireframe…
- “I was astonished by the results. Like I had my expectations. And I would say I have higher expectations than most. But they exceeded them 10X. knew I needed to fix this issue.”
The design was flawless and completely captured everything Sergio had envisioned for his plant loving brand to be.
- “I just couldn't stop looking at it. I mean, I was just so proud to finally see my business turn into what I knew it could always be. And I wanted to show it off to everyone.”
“Even when I ran into issues, I had a whole team that stepped in to help…”
The launch of Sergio’s new website was off to a great start.
He had a professionally designed website, direct bookings started to increase, and guests were loving how easy and efficient the booking process was.
But like many businesses, Sergio ran into some hiccups along his Boostly journey. So he would go back to the team to run his concerns past them and get ideas on how to overcome them.
But Sergio’s biggest win since the launch of his new Boostly website was something he never expected…
- “Anytime I would contact them with a concern they were just on it. They never denied anything or tried to place blame on me, they just showed up saying “yep, we’re on it”.
But Sergio’s biggest win since the launch of his new Boostly website was something he never expected…
“Even when I ran into issues, I had a whole team that stepped in to help…”
A little more than a year later, Jungle House quadrupled their listing in revenue and are just shy of being a 7-figure vacation rental business.
But even with all the success in metrics, Sergio finally reached what he’d been searching for since he first started.
…time back and the freedom to live the life he wanted.
Instead of spending 8 hours a day answering guest inquiries, communication goes straight to his Jungle House team. His new website was even able to implement a live chat, which also connects to their team's slack channel.
- “If a guest contacts us through the chat, my team responds in just a few minutes. We essentially have communication coverage 24/7 and that alone has saved me HOURS of my work day.”
“Looking forward, the sky’s the limit…”
After the launch, Sergio had a lot to look forward to.
One of the most exciting is partnering with local businesses so they can enhance and improve their guests' experience. And there’s those hidden surprises he never expected…
- “Our rentals even got the attention of some local photographers who wanted to use the space for their photo shoots. We got so many requests it ended up becoming another revenue stream which we created a whole separate web page for.”
“There’s no wrong way to do this...”
If you’re still on the fence, Sergio says to ask yourself what are your long term plans?
Some hosts prefer their rentals to live within the OTAs. And if you do, that’s great!
Some hosts prefer a PMS provided direct booking web page to supplement their OTA revenue, and that’s fine too!
“Different decisions will simply lead you to different outcomes. So it’s all about what you’re looking for in the long term.”
But if you’re like Sergio and ready to level up from that scattered hobbyist life to CEO of a professional brand, don’t wait. Start now…
- “If you want to own a real brand, Boostly is the product that can make it official.”
Want a Boostly website done 100% for you?
Stop waiting around for the perfect moment to own your own vacation rental business. If you want your life to change like Sergio’s…you have to start now.
And remembers, ALL packages come with the Boostly Guarantee:
Make back your investment in 12 months or your money back!
Ready to get started?
Wanna chat with real Boostly customers and hosts?
Join The Boostly Hospitality Group and connect with over 7,000 short-term rental property managers around the world.
Meet Rose
The homeschooling mom of 6 who turned her family’s tragedy into a success story by starting her own vacation rental business.
80%
Direct Bookings
Co-author
Top-Rated Hospitality Book
40%
Repeat Guests
“I got the phone call people have nightmares about...”
He was on the business track; working long & stressful hours in the oil & gas industry.
While she was on the mom track making little humans and homeschooling.
Life was hectic. But it was the life they loved, the life they wanted, and the life they’d always planned for.
Until one day that perfect plan came crashing down…
- “He was on his way to an oil & gas conference when he got hit head-on by another vehicle driving down a two-lane country road.”
“I didn’t want to be a widow”
A cracked sternum pushing back into his heart
Multiple broken ribs
And concussion so severe, he’d forgotten who he was…
- “I had to go to the hospital that was an hour away. But I was sitting there with 4 children, pregnant with baby #5 on the way, and on the phone with the hospital that wouldn't even tell me whether Brian was dead or alive. All I kept thinking was…I don’t want to be a widow.”
It took Rose’s husband several months to recover from his injuries. Not wanting to go back to his old job, they discussed several different options.
But all of them meant more time away from home and less time with his family.
- “I knew we needed to pivot. And do it fast…”
“He showed me this little cabin on a lake…”
Until one day when Brian showed her a photo of a property for sale on 19-acres with 2 lakes and a little cabin. And he wanted to buy it…
- “I was upset. Because when you’re that pregnant with baby #5, there is NOTHING you want to think about other than getting that baby out of your body. So him randomly coming to me with some new massive project…it was just a no for me.”
“What do you mean we have a property?”
Not long after giving birth to their 5th child, Rose & her husband were at a Christmas party when they’re real estate agent walked up to her…
- “She said hey we’re closing on your property next week! And I said…excuse me, what? We didn’t’ buy a property. What are you talking about?”
It was at that moment Rose found out Brian had purchased the 19-acre property without her knowing.
“I had a choice to make…”
Rose was shocked. Brian had never done something like this before…
- “I found out it’s actually really common for people who suffer from severe brain injuries to experience changes in their mood and act irrationally.”
But the reality was they now were the owners of this property. And Rose had a decision to make…
She knew nothing about vacation rentals or running a business. But Rose did know one thing…
She doesn’t do anything halfway.
So she rolled up her sleeves and dove head first into learning everything she possibly could about short term rentals.
“It needed a total gut job…”
Rose dove head first into learning everything she possibly could about short-term rentals.
- “I bought every book that I could find on vacation rentals and listened to every podcast. I literally sat at soccer practices with a highlighter taking notes. Like I just knew, I was just gonna do this.”
She put together a business plan and pitched it to several banks, of which all 3 offered loans.
From there, they hired a contractor to completely renovate the cabin. And before she knew it, the Tipka’s had opened their very first vacation rental.
She had doubts, but Rose knew they had more than just a property…
“I wanted to own a real brand…”
Rose & Brian fell in love with hospitality. And they decided to build a 2nd vacation rental property. A much larger 4 bedroom property that could sleep 12.
They called it “Mt. Pleasant Lodge”.
And it made A LOT more money than their 1st property.
- “That’s when it hit us…large family homes for large family getaways. And that’s how our niche was born.”
It was their biggest vacation rental home yet, totaling 6 bedrooms that could house up to 20 guests.
They called it “The Cottage at Maple Pond”.
“I was exhausted trying to do everything…”
The Tipka’s had 3 vacation rental properties, happy guests, and booked calendars. And still, Rose found herself overwhelmed, working more than she ever had before…
- “I was trying to market all of the properties separately. Each one had it’s own Facebook page, it’s own Instagram page, so I was doing double duty and it was just so much work.”
That’s when she stumbled across Mark Simpson who changed the way she thought about hosting…
- “Successful companies have a brand identity. They’re selling an experience, not just the individual pieces of merchandise.”
“Rose knew she needed a direct booking website…”
There was no question Boostly websites had the professional look and feel Rose was after….but was it worth the cost?
Still not convinced, she decided to try building one herself first. But quickly learned she didn’t have the technical skills…
“The reality is everything costs money. The question you gotta ask yourself is how much is your time worth? I did the DIY method and in the end, it was just a huge waste of time. My guests didn’t trust it, so they just went back to book through Airbnb.”
“I wasn’t embarrassed anymore…”
So she hired Boostly to create her direct booking website for her. And when she saw it for the first time, a feeling of relief washed over her…
- “I had this image in my head of how I wanted it to look. And when I saw it for the first time I just felt this wave of relief. Not just because it looked the way I wanted it to, but because Boostly delivered on their brand promise.”
Rose’s Website: yourfamilysplace.com
“The results spoke for themselves…”
Less than a year after Rose’s new Boostly website went live…
- 80% of their bookings were direct.
- 40% of those reservations were repeat guests.
- They’re adding to their brand with a 4th vacation rental property.
- “Just 1 of those repeat bookings covered the entire start up cost of our Boostly website.”
She even landed a book deal…
“I still get to be home raising my children…
Although it was the worst moment of her life, Rose & Brian often joke about how they wouldn’t be where they are today if he hadn’t been in that accident…
- “Life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Everything is great, then nothing is great. And the reality is life is both of those things.”
Thanks to her hard work, and a Boostly website, Rose can do things today she would’ve never been able to before…
Like a big family vacation to London…
- “I get to take my whole family to London/Paris for the Hospitable Host book launch event. Because we have our own company and we can do things on our own terms, we have the freedom of flexibility to go on this big vacation that we never could have afforded back then. It feels like this vacation is a treat. A dessert for all the hard work we’ve been doing.”
But the thing she cherishes the most is the freedom to be with her family…
“There’s a difference between successful and unsuccessful STR businesses...”
If there’s one piece of advice Rose could give anyone who was in a similar spot she was…it’s don’t get stuck in research mode. Otherwise you’ll just be living in analysis paralysis.
You have to take action…
- “You don’t just wake up one day and have a direct booking game. It takes education, planning, putting the right systems in place, and then taking real steps forward.”
Ready to level up your book direct game?
Join Rose & over 2,000 other hosts who trust Boostly to create their websites for them.
Meet Seth
From ‘mom-and-pop’ host to CEO of a multi-million dollar short-term rental brand.
20%
Direct Bookings
Freedom
To be with family
$2M
In Revenue
“I was trying to find a second income source ...”
As a husband, father, and manager of his family’s lawn care business in Lexington, Kentucky, the last thing on Seth’s mind 6 years ago was adding a second business…
- “The rate that we were going, adding more responsibility, like owning and operating Airbnb’s, was not on my radar.”
But Seth had heard of friends who rented out their homes to tourists during a local horse race event called “The Breeders Cup”. And he wanted to give it a try…
“Babe, we could make an extra $25,000 over this...”
In just 1 weekend they made a couple thousand dollars. But was it luck?
The following Spring, another horse race came to town. And Seth wanted to put it to the test. Only this time it would be for several weekends in a row…and they’d have to temporarily move out again.
“I just kept thinking if we made a few thousand in just that 1 weekend, how much we could make in 5? So I went to my wife and said babe, if we move out earlier, we can make an extra $25,000 over this 5-6 week period.”
With a brand new baby, Seth’s wife was reluctant. But she agreed that it was a sacrifice worth making to see if there was something to this whole vacation rental business.
“I actually fell in love with hospitality...”
Seth’s hunch was right. He made well over $25K in those few weekends alone.
But what surprised Seth the most wasn’t how much money he had made. But how much he fell in love with hospitality.
- “It was exciting you know? To be able to show people our city, provide hospitality, and have people be so excited and passionate about the type of vacation rental service we offered. After that, we knew this was no longer an experiment and we were going to do this for real.”
“Things started to unravel fast...”
Airbnb working ok for the first few properties. He had happy guests and bookings. But by properties 8 & 9…things started to go south quickly.
Guests wanted to book with Seth directly. But by taking things “offline” it made it impossible to recreate that high quality guest experience.
- “Guest communication is constant. You are messaging them before, during and after their stay. In order to have that level of communication processes in place, you need software. But anytime I booked someone direct, I lost those auto-triggers.”
Relying on sticky notes and his memory started to cause a lot of stress. Seth constantly worried if he had missed or forgotten to book a guests stay. Until one day, he actually did…
“They suspended my account…”
But a day Seth will never forget, the day that changed the trajectory of his business forever, was when he noticed a slow down in his Airbnb bookings…
“I called them to find out why and they said ya it looks like your account is suspended. And I was like wait what? How? Did a party happen that I was unaware of? Like you have to tell me why.”
And the reason made Seth realize he really had no control over his business at all…
“I needed to build something of my own…”
He considered hiring someone on Fiverr to build it for him, but he wasn’t comfortable with their pricing structure…
- “They were all open ended contracts. They all knew code, but were gonna charge me like $80/hour. So I didn’t know if it would take them 10 hours OR 100 hours. So it just felt really unstable.”
Seth even tried using a free 1 page direct booking website provided by his PMS. But it just fell flat…
- “I felt like I was just checking a box. Do I have a direct booking website? Check…but I wasn’t proud of it. And my guests wouldn’t use it.”
“The Boostly websites looked immaculate…”
Then one day while attending a STR conference, Seth heard Mark Simpson speak about direct bookings and his Boostly websites.
- “I literally went back to my hotel room and checked out their website. And the websites were so professional looking, no different than a Four Seasons or a Marriott website. I just knew they were the solution I was looking for.”
“I was worried about the cost at first…”
The higher price tag made Seth uneasy at first. But then he got to interact with real Boostly websites and he was hooked…
- “Any company can create a demo. But being able to go to real people’s websites and play around with them. That’s what got me past the sticker shock.”
“How involved do I have to be?”
Seth loved the way Boostly websites looked and worked. But he still had concerns about the process…
- “For me it was how involved am I going to have to be? How would they know what colors I wanted them to use? Are we gonna have to meet five, six, seven weeks to get all of it done? I’m not sure I had time for any of it.”
But Boostly walked him through every step, to include a detailed questionnaire in order to gather all the information they needed for his website.
“I can’t believe this is my website…”
After going through the questionnaire it wasn’t long before Boostly delivered the very first prototype of Seth’s new direct booking website.
- “Like I knew we had photogenic properties. I knew we had a high quality guest experience. But I never knew the potential until the first time I laid eyes on what Boostly created. The way they designed it, the copy they wrote, how easy it was to use…it was so professional and on brand. It just blew me away.”
“There was doubt, especially from others…”
Seth didn’t see a ton of direct bookings right away. He knew direct bookings was all about patience and consistency before he started seeing results. Still, that self doubt was always inside making him wonder if he’d made the right decision.
But what was harder for him to deal with, was the doubt from others. Especially from those who were closest to him…
- “There were a lot of arguments. With family, friends, even my wife. And rightly so, the risk was as much mine as it was hers.”
If you asked Seth what the secret is to overcoming doubt? He’d tell you there is no secret. Just having tough conversations and laying out a plan.
“Our first true direct booking brought in $6,000...”
By implementing email marketing and staying consistent, Seth saw his very first direct booking about 3 months after his site went live.
And it covered the entire cost of the Boostly website…
- “Our first true direct booking, that we didn’t like solicit, was around $5K-$6K. And that was a huge moment because it covered the initial cost of the website itself. But it also made me realize I was regaining control of my business.”
“It allowed my wife to do what she truly wanted...”
Before Boostly, Seth hoped his 2 properties would bring in an additional $100,000. Today, Six Gen Rentals has scaled to 15 properties earning 10X that amount.
But having a direct booking game has given Seth and his family so much more than additional income. Like his wife being able to stay at home to raise their children…
Seth believes success is a destination, not a mark. And he’s excited for what’s to come…
- “I’m excited to continue to provide great hospitality. I’m excited to become less and less dependent on the OTAs. In the few short months we’ve had our site live and working on our marketing, we’re already seen huge returns. So for me that’s exciting to watch that process work and feel like I’m in complete control.”
But what he believes Boostly helped him achieve most, is a strong foundation that will support generations to come…
“Fear is always going to be there, sometimes you just gotta take the leap...”
Seth’s biggest fear in life is regret. Had he let fear win that day, when he debated purchasing a Boostly website, he’s certain he wouldn’t be sitting where he is today.
If there’s one piece of advice Seth could give anyone who was like him, worrying about whether a Boostly website is the right decision, is to not let fear hold you back.
The best time to start was yesterday…
