All Forum Posts by: Myka Artis

@John Underwood yes there is. I believe you can buy generic and swap out the ends for the different car types.

Short-term rentals aren't really saturated from the perspective that people are traveling and looking for places to stay outside of hotels. The OTA's are saturated with short-term rentals. As long as you continue to build a strong brand around hospitality where guests are wanting to repeatedly book with you then you have nothing to worry about. If you're depending upon the OTA's for reservations then you might be in for a long gloomy ride.

@John Underwood I installed EV chargers at all of my rentals with a garage during the pandemic. They have seen a huge amount of use but I definitely did market research. I went into Airbnb and researched how many rentals had EV chargers in my surrounding area. There were only 2 so I added them to my units to immediately stand out. I purposely only did Tesla chargers because my target demographic is families and business travelers. The average tesla owner at the time was a 54-year-old male so I was able to start securing more families with a good target clientele that would take great care of my units.

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Hey @Myka Artis, do you have evidence that guest are leaving the platform? I haven't been able to find any AirBNB provided data.

I'm not sure Airbnb would provide that data. You have to watch Airbnb's money moves. Three years ago when they refunded all guests during the pandemic they didn't provide data that said hey we're refunding the guests for business longevity. They knew they had to do it. Airbnb is a billion-dollar corporation with people way smarter than me on their team. If there are blog posts in the millions on the internet of guests not being happy about hidden fees and Airbnb's stock price is plummeting (which is public data) and their next release is to show the total price that's a pretty good indicator that they are pushing to get the guests back. Then after the winter release, all of the blogs turn to Airbnb hosts having major vacancies. It was clear as day that guests are leaving. I've never seen more hosts dip prices during holiday travel last month while demand was high. Sophisticated hosts started leaving Airbnb during the pandemic. The winter release had to satisfy both parties that's why they chose to show the guest the total price and allow hosts to remove unfavorable reviews in a much easier fashion. BP has had some of the biggest disruptors for direct bookings on their podcast. I've used their tactics and I've never seen this much of a direct booking spike in my years of hosting. There is no way people were willing to pay 20% more on VRBO last month in record fashion when those same properties were readily available and cheaper on Airbnb. 

I can give you the steps to an A/B test as well. Put your logo in your photos for one of your listings and see how many direct booking inquiries you get. 

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

Quote from @Myka Artis:

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

Quote from @Myka Artis:

Yes, Airbnb's stock price has plummeted and guests are leaving the platform for hotels due to the "hidden fees" by Airbnb so with the winter release they had to do something to cater to both the host and the guest. The guest gets to see the total price while the host can now easily remove unfavorable reviews. Airbnb's algorithm took a major change and a lot of vacancies started to happen across the board. I personally took advantage of it and started running Google ads toward Airbnb's SEO to get direct bookings. Airbnb taking the brunt hit is actually a good thing for STR operators.

We have to start keeping short-term rentals separate from Airbnb. Airbnb is just a listing platform. If true STR operators wanted to protect short-term rentals they would be building a brand where customers can book direct. Just use Airbnb as a lead generation tool.

 Not true. Demand was up 21.1% YOY in 2022.

 I didn't say demand was down.

True, but you said “guests are leaving the platform” which in the aggregate is not true and paints a misleading picture.

Oh, they definitely are. Airbnb's winter release painted that picture as clear as day. The showing of the total price was a guest win-back attempt. Their stock price plummeted in Q4 which was the same time they released their winter release. My direct bookings are up 60% since the release. Airbnb's total price trick actually resulted in Airbnb showing its hand. Airbnb's service fee is what guests truly didn't want to pay and they were able to see that after seeing their total price in comparison to booking with hosts directly. Airbnb's stock price can't be plummeting while Airbnb demand is going up.

Airbnb demand and short-term rental demand are two different categories.

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

Quote from @Myka Artis:

Yes, Airbnb's stock price has plummeted and guests are leaving the platform for hotels due to the "hidden fees" by Airbnb so with the winter release they had to do something to cater to both the host and the guest. The guest gets to see the total price while the host can now easily remove unfavorable reviews. Airbnb's algorithm took a major change and a lot of vacancies started to happen across the board. I personally took advantage of it and started running Google ads toward Airbnb's SEO to get direct bookings. Airbnb taking the brunt hit is actually a good thing for STR operators.

We have to start keeping short-term rentals separate from Airbnb. Airbnb is just a listing platform. If true STR operators wanted to protect short-term rentals they would be building a brand where customers can book direct. Just use Airbnb as a lead generation tool.

 Not true. Demand was up 21.1% YOY in 2022.

 I didn't say demand was down.

@Demetri Chase jr First check the regulations because I know Atlanta just implemented some pretty strict short/mid-term rental regulations. You can get travel nurses from Furnished Finder and from Airbnb. You just have to set your Airbnb listing up correctly to get them. Also, travel nurses are really dependent upon how you set up your property. They may not be able to cover your mortgage because most of them are looking for cheaper housing due to them having a mortgage back home. Depending on the size of your unit they may or may not be a good fit. If you have a 3/2 you may have to resort to renting room by room to create a profitable business. It's all property-type scenario-dependent. There is a good interview with the Furnished Finder CEO and he breaks down how to specifically cater to travel nurses to make it worth your while. Good luck with your decision.

Yes, Airbnb's stock price has plummeted and guests are leaving the platform for hotels due to the "hidden fees" by Airbnb so with the winter release they had to do something to cater to both the host and the guest. The guest gets to see the total price while the host can now easily remove unfavorable reviews. Airbnb's algorithm took a major change and a lot of vacancies started to happen across the board. I personally took advantage of it and started running Google ads toward Airbnb's SEO to get direct bookings. Airbnb taking the brunt hit is actually a good thing for STR operators.

We have to start keeping short-term rentals separate from Airbnb. Airbnb is just a listing platform. If true STR operators wanted to protect short-term rentals they would be building a brand where customers can book direct. Just use Airbnb as a lead generation tool.

My suggestion if Airbnb is now showing the total price to the guest would be to keep your prices the same and brand all of your photos with your logo. The total price exposes Airbnb's 15% fee. I can almost guarantee most cleaning fees aren't as high as the service fee for the guest so in this case I've branded all my photos with my logo. Guests have been googling it and booking direct and saving on the service fee. They easily see the cleaning fee isn't the issue. I've even gone so far as to where now I purposely use my PMP to price my units on Airbnb 10% higher so they see an even bigger price. Also, a great way to build your brand so you're not being dependent upon Airbnb and letting them control your revenue.

I provide access to all streaming services. I don't log into them because I like to put my TV's in guest mode and let the guest choose which streaming services they are using and log into their own account.