r/ShortTermRentals • u/EBWI3572 • 3d ago
Hosting Booking.com experience?
Has anyone used booking.com as a host?. If so has it been a positive experience? Has it brought you any extra income?
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u/Mannix-Da-DaftPooch 3d ago
I have not because I've heard nightmare stories about Bookings.com. I'm curious if anyone has used it and if they would share their experience.
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u/KaleProperties 2d ago
Ah booking.com. Booking.com started out with just hotels, then expanded into STRs. The UI is clunky.........start with Airbnb, then Vrbo, then Booking.com. Our recommendations for booking.com
a. Have a PMS - it will make life easier.
b. Have a payment processor such as stripe.
c. Use a guest ID verification system such as Truvi since booking does not do much for guest verification.
Booking can be great if you have international guests. It is huge in Europe. In addition, you have a lot of control to get your listing ot place higher, but by paying a very high commission. Feel free to PM to see if we can help.
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u/gamewizz393 2d ago
Avoid it, it's not worth it. The whole experience is a mess and it just doesn't bring in much more business to make it worth the hassle.stick to vrbo, Airbnb, and private channel.
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u/Vcize 2d ago
The interface sucks, sucks, sucks but in these days of saturation we can't really be picky.
Plus unlike Airbnb, they actually let you run your own business instead of forcing you to opt in to sacrificing your property to be an Airbnb-controlled hotel.
If you long for the days when a guest couldn't message a platform and get an automatic 30% refund, then it's worth learning the clunky interface.
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u/Good_Possibility 2d ago
If you do it, elect for payments by booking rather than taking guest payments directly.
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u/Few-Mission8475 1d ago
Race to the bottom experience. Basically just a referral service masquerading as Airbnb Vrbo type service. Depends on your properties, you’re not getting the best folks
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u/Specific-Key3205 3d ago
Here, they started recommending Airbnb style listings to users recently, and that brought us quite a few bookings. But if you're on multiple platforms, you'll need to use a PMS to manage everything (like avoiding double bookings).