Hostfully: Becoming The Guide Of Your Local Community
Guidebooks, Property Management Platform, and overall well rounded company with a mission! That mission is to provide the best experience for guests and hosts! David Jacoby, President of Hostfully, sits down with me to discuss his personal journey leading up to the creation of Hostfully and where they are at today!
When you listen to this episode, you will hear David and myself talk about guest experience (of course, kind of important in the hospitality industry) and how Hostfully Guidebooks really help hosts, managers, and Destinationaires around the world become advocates of the short term rental industry in their own neighborhoods and communities by promoting local businesses to their guests.
There are so many perks from this. Especially for the rising standards in the industry post COVID, as we are truly seeing the growth of the staycation model in a lot of markets in the US and other countries. What better way to showcase your favorite places in a creative and clean platform? I am just a huge fan of all things Hostfully!
"You're most likely the only person or one of the few people that your guests know in that area and they want to hear from you about the best places in the area instead of reading reviews on Yelp or Google." - David Jacoby, President of Hostfully
Now that I touched on the Guidebook side of Hostfully, I want to talk about Direct Bookings and why this is key for 2020 and onward as we continue to grow in this industry.
As we've seen in the early stages of COVID-19, a majority of hosts lost a ton, if not all, of their properties revenue on channels like Airbnb. Now, no one predicted this virus to happen when it did but this was an awakening moment for our side of hospitality. Some STR businesses will never recover. A big reason why they might not recover is because they relied to much on OTAs for their bookings, giving them (OTAs) full control of the reservations and anything else involving bookings like cancellation policies, etc.
Getting your business on a PMP (Property Management Platform) is vital for you as the manager to take back the control so you can continue operate without taking too many big hits at once! There are so many options out there and it can be overwhelming at times. The way we (StayLux) found and chose Hostfully was through Rented, Inc PMP Software Guide! It’s highly recommend that you do the same if you're looking to upgrade your business!
What could you do with more Direct Bookings? What could you do with more control on how you operate your business? The answers to these questions are endless. You can also find answers to your Book Direct questions by attending the Book Direct Show in September! Click here to sign up and even see my presentation. Use Slick20 for 20% off your ticket! I want to hear from you all about what you've done during these times in order to enhance your business, guest experience, operation standards, etc. Comment on this post, share with a friend, you know the drill!
I am proud to also share that Hostfully is a sponsor and partner of the show and the Destinationaire Award! So go to Hostfully and use my code SlickTalk20 for 20% off their guidebooks AND two months free! You won’t regret this decision. Not only are we partners on the podcast but we also use Hostfully with my company, StayLux!