All Forum Posts by: Lisa Graesser

I have received 9 bookings in the last 48 hrs, so maybe this info was relevant over the last few months, but not right now, at least for my market which is central Florida, with 4 rentals. 6/9 were direct bookings, 2 airbnb, 1 vrbo. Bookings were for 1 day in advance-November. And I have done no marketing. I did find it strange that I all of a sudden had all these bookings coming in.

I third... Houfy! I use it like others use a personal website. Great alternative. They take care of all the web stuff and I direct inquires and previous guest to my link.

@Michael Baum this is awsome, I am now even happier that I chose these LG machines. I will say, we purchased these in November. When we were there in May they dryer was all of sudden not heating, we called LG and they talked us through how to find the error code, gave them the code and it gave them an idea of what was wrong. They sent a repair man the next morning, repaired the flame sensor... no charge and they would not even accept a tip. We were so relieved as we had guests arriving the next day.

Although I do not have a house that would benefit from one of these compact units, we have replaced 3 out of 4 of our homes with the LG 5 cu. ft High efficiency top load no agitator washers & the 7.3 cu ft top load dryer and my cleaners absolutely love them for the large load capacity and the custom drying time ability.  They have recommended to their other clients get them and as soon as our front loaders need replacing at the 4th house, I will be replacing with these also. I wonder what Yale has to say about these.

If you value these cleaners then ask them what they consider the major holidays that they want to be paid exta. You can either pay them what they request or avoid turns on those days.  I have paid my cleaners (without them have asking) time and 1/2 for Christmas eve, New Years Day, Easter and Mother's Day. I would avoid a turn on Christmas or Thanksgiving.  But if it looked like my calendar could do a turn on one of those days, I would ask my cleaner if they would be willing to do it for the extra pay or block that day. I am a Nurse so I am accustomed to being paid time and 1/2 to work a holiday. If you want them to work on a holiday, you are probably getting premium rents on those days and you should pay them extra.

I use Houfy.com as others use their own website, no fee for owner/guests direct booking site.

They also offer a website builder to create your own website and you can also pay to upgrade and use other tools. 

They are now offering a damage protection plan  and  cancellation insurance with an additional optional fee cost to the guest.

I think that looks good. My cleaners do not clean grills, I a have in my house info that if the grill is used, the guest needs to clean it, otherwise there will be an additional  fee for grill cleaning. A grill wil never look brand new, I alway clean our grills when I am at the houses.

Spices, sugar, oils, cooking sprays, teas, all left by previous guests. I supply paper products, coffee, hand soap and cleaning products. And guest are informed that they can leave any non perishables that were never opened.

I now have more bookings through Houfy than any other site. I do have many repeat renters and the leads I get that I steer to Houfy, seem to be able to use it seamlessly. 

 @Michael Baum You won't be disappointed, I am so happy with that site, makes my direct bookings so easy.