All Forum Posts by: Joel Oh

Well.. if we make an online rental service simple as selling a car on the yard... it is like you are trying to sell a car on the FB marketplace because no one visits your yard. I am talking about building a dealership on my yard so customers come to my yard to buy the cars instead of I chase around the customers. Once I dominate the market and competition among buyers grow, I can increase my price and can choose my customers more selectively. More cars I have and better reputation my yard gets, I will attract more customers and my profit increases. The city may boost my business since I pay a lot of taxes..... I hope this comparison makes more sense for you

 Yes, but you aren't selling a car. Aren't you?

I have a better understanding of how these ranking systems work because I used to work at Amazon. (Even workers get ranked there every day lol..) Believe or not, STR platforms are actually incredibly seller friendly and it is not that difficult to understand what impact your ranking the most. Have you asked the Airbnb support team? You will be surprised.

Of course you can be on multiple platforms and remain in the top. I never said you can't. You just get penalized and lose your potential guests by doing that which is the whole point of being on multiple platforms. The impact of being on multi platforms varies on the listing. You may get more bookings because you usually never get over 80% occupancy on your main platform anyway. Finding out what works best for you is the homework for business owner. I am seeing hosts on Bigger pockets are continuously telling new hosts to be on multi platforms without explaining the downside of it and that is why I am writing this post. 

You don't need to have the best property or even fifth or tenth best property to be on the first page. Just open the app and see who gets the first page. (Unlike the popular belief many hosts have, it is not even 5 star rated properties or crazy place with $10,000 oak front door) That is why I like the STR game.

Quote from @Dan H.:

Quote from @Joel Oh:

Quote from @Dan H.:

The reason that i would never suggest a single OTA is the all eggs in one basket risk.  What happens if the OTA start $crewing the hosts?   What happens if the OTA goes bankrupt?  If all your bookings come from a single OTA, do you have a business?  It certainly has a large dependency; you are at the mercy of that one OTA.

In addition, unless you are at ideal occupancy, alternate platforms can fill some holes.  In 2019 i was at ideal occupancy but none of my STRs are at ideal occupancy today.

Do what you want with regard to the number of OTAs, but i plan to never be associated with a single OTA.  My advice is to not focus on one OTA, but to be sure to be listed on multiple OTAs.

best wishes

 It is a Wallstreet myth that you should not put all eggs in one basket to sell their portfolio. Almost every single successful business owner found a strong competitive advantage and used it to focus on one thing to be the best at it. Business should start to extend only because there is nothing left to eat in the market not because you are losing in the competition.

 If you are worried about Airbnb or Vrbo screwing over the hosts, I think you are in the wrong business. OTA business doesn't exist without the hosts and screwing hosts will be the last thing they would do. (Weeding out bad hosts is a different story)

You should expand to a different OTA only because you are too big to be on single platform, not because you can't find enough customers with current system. If you are seeing a lower occupancy, that is happening because you are out of the current ranking system. There are more customers than ever right now on any platforms. This should give you an idea that your business model is outdated, and you lost your competitive advantage. Your role should be finding the reason for customers to buy your product instead of worrying about Airbnb goes bankrupted. 

I question how long you have had STRs.  The reason i ask is airbnb consistently has gotten less host friendly continuously since inception (i have had my STRs on airbnb since their year 1).  There are various degrees of screwing the host, but every change that is less host friendly is screwing the host to some degree.  Death by 1000 cuts.

virtually everyone recognizes that placing all eggs in one basket elevates risk.  If you do not recognize this i cannot help you, but i suspect most readers can recognize the risks of having all eggs in a single basket.  I also suspect that most can recognize having occupancy gaps filled by an alternate OTA is a positive outcome. 

you can stay on a single OTA if you desire or you can follow the advice of the experienced posts that suggest otherwise.  I leave it to the reader to determine what path is correct for them. 

i will continue to advocate for direct bookings and being on multiple OTA platforms.  my goal is have all bookings be direct and not be reliant on any OTA. 

good luck

I may not be seasoned as some of you guys who ran Airbnb for 10 years but I have enough experience to claim what I know. I also manage hundreds of residential and commercial properties outside of STRs so I actually understand how seller friendly these platforms are compared to the legal and government system outside of STR world need to deal with. What you are saying is the same as how the government "screw over" investors by changing their policies. In the end, you have 2 choices when there is a change, blame the system or find a way to win the game. You can't compare the system to the time that the entire Airbnb's focus was inviting more hosts to the platform vs Airbnb is focusing on the customer experience era. Hence, this is maybe why your occupancy rate is dropping nowadays.

 I am trying to help people to understand the current ranking system OTAs have. You get penalized by being on multiple platforms. Just imagine that you are Airbnb or Vrbo, OTA makes money when guests book on its platform, that is why OTA punishes people who uses direct booking outside of its platform. OTA rewards hosts who maintain high occupancy rate on its platform over other hosts who spreads out to many other OTAs. It is really that simple.

Also, compare to any other industries, Airbnb and Vrbo are incredibly friendly toward sellers. If you ever had to fight the government or insurance company you would understand how fair these STR platforms are. Amazon shut down your listing because of simple typo. Maybe try to remove a review on Google. You will not even hear back from them.

Yes, in the end it is viewer's choice to decide what they do. I maintain 100% occupancy during the hot season and 70% occupancy during the off season on all my listings with being on single platform. If your occupancy rate drops, you may able to patch the damage by trying other platforms but this will further decrease your ranking on the system in the future. 

Hope this makes sense. Good luck!

 It is a Wallstreet myth that you should not put all eggs in one basket to sell their portfolio. Almost every single successful business owner found a strong competitive advantage and used it to focus on one thing to be the best at it. Business should start to extend only because there is nothing left to eat in the market not because you are losing in the competition.

 If you are worried about Airbnb or Vrbo screwing over the hosts, I think you are in the wrong business. OTA business doesn't exist without the hosts and screwing hosts will be the last thing they would do. (Weeding out bad hosts is a different story)

You should expand to a different OTA only because you are too big to be on single platform, not because you can't find enough customers with current system. If you are seeing a lower occupancy, that is happening because you are out of the current ranking system. There are more customers than ever right now on any platforms. This should give you an idea that your business model is outdated, and you lost your competitive advantage. Your role should be finding the reason for customers to buy your product instead of worrying about Airbnb goes bankrupted. 

 Yes and a few bookings on Airbnb cost your ranking on Vrbo. You could have those dates booked on Vrbo instead if the dates were open and your ranking on your main platform would be higher which led to more exposure. 99% times, getting a higher ranking on one platform worth way more than picking up a few bookings unless a few bookings are what you are looking for. (Luxury mansion or hosting your home while on a vacation)

Have you noticed that your bookings are coming in a chunk? instead of spreading out evenly throughout days? It is because your bookings all come in when your rank is highest, and your listing is exposed on the first page. Hence, your goal should be staying on the first page as long as possible instead of picking up a few bookings from different places. 

 Unless you own a super high-end property that only need 10 bookings per year. If that is the case, I recommend going on multiple platforms since your goal is finding that one customer. 99% of hosts don't have those houses. 

 You are proving the point! You got only 4 bookings from Airbnb because your ranking is really low on Airbnb. Vrbo is your suit. 4 bookings out of a whole year are nothing compared to the advantage you get by dominating the market on a platform. 

True business man! People who say it depends on the market and property can’t be real human 😂 of course you need to adopt it. Man you are doing a great job! 

Pretty simple question.. More expensive it is better obviously. Such luxury as indoor/outdoor pool, park for skateboard, tennis court, tiki bar with dance floor… of course if you need to think about the ROI and how much maintenance it takes

Best ROI items are - big screen TV, hot tub, playground, PS5, BBQ…

The issue is cheaper items require more maintenance. Hot tub is notorious for collecting bad reviews. 

I like big TVs because they almost require 0 maintenance and are pretty affordable