How to capture short term leases without airbnb

[AJ Vanderhorst]

Hey all, 

I've been active in the STR market with multiple listings for three years in Kansas City. My traffic has been driven by airbnb and VRBO, although occasionally I've written up short term leases for guests who wanted to make return visits or longer stays.

I know a number of STR hosts find ways to build traffic away from the third party platforms. It makes sense--cut those fees and raise your margins, hypothetically by 10% or more.

For those of you doing this, I'd love some nitty gritty...do you funnel return guests to your own website? Or do you even have a website? How do you process payments? Etc.

If you use Craigslist or other fee-free sites, how have you gained traction? (I know @Paul Sandhu knocks it out of the park with CL, but I haven't seen much response with it yet in my market.) 

Thanks in advance!

[Paul Sandhu]

@AJ Vanderhorst Kansas City Craigslist is much larger than the Craigslist for my part of the state.  You have alot more listings from other people for your listing to get lost in.  Every day there are half a dozen in vacation rentals and another half dozen in temporary rentals.  If you would just put one new ad up in those categories each week, it would still get lost in all the ads that come up the six days after you posted yours.

I put up 3 ads on 3 consecutive days.  On the 4th day I bump up the ad from day 1.  On the 5th day I bump up the ad from day 2.  On the 6th day I bump up the ad from day 3.  Day 7 I bump up the ad from day 1.

You should try doing the same.  Put 2 ads up each day, 1 in each category, and do it for 3 days in a row.  Then bump them up.  That way your listings will be one of the first 6 people will see.

How do I process payments?  I meet them in person and collect cash, or I use my Square reader and swipe their credit card for the rent.  Occasionally, if they are repeat renters, I trade for gator, boudin or other fresh gulf coast food.  I might trade them snow geese or canada geese too, we call them "sky carp" around here.