The ideal set-up
To explain how I set things up I will start at the beginning of the system.
Dynamic pricing – (Pricelabs) The quick explanation for why I use this is money and time. Once set up, it sets my prices (under my control). It knows what the demand is for bookings in my local area and will then adjust accordingly based on that demand. It can do this months and years in advance so I will never get caught out by my calender not being priced properly. That in itself has paid for this bit of software. It can also look at similar listings in the area and ‘recommend’ a price for your property. It then passes on the prices every night to the channel manager.
Channel Manager – (OwnerRez) This is the hub of the system. You input everything to do with your listing, check in days, check out days, rental agreements, communication templates, house rules, deposits, location, photos and so on….. It then takes this information and populates the listing on your chosen listing sites. For me that is Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and my own website.
I make mine take the prices set from Pricelabs and then increases them by a set percentage for each channel. Meaning that whichever channel the booking comes from I make the same profit. (In fact you can adjust it so that you make more profit direct).
The other thing it does is control your calendar. It does this via an API connection which means the calendars are updated immediately to avoid double bookings.
Listing sites – (Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO and my own website) These then receive all of the information from the channel manager and show your property to everyone searching on those sites. In fact 80% of all bookings in the UK come through those 3 sites. What you then do is advertise in your property for people to rebook directly with you. This means you capture the people you want and send them through your website so you don’t pay any fees.
What I can do for you
If you have read my guide so far and feel like you want to do it all for yourself then go for it! I truly believe it will be a better way to run your holiday let than leaving it to a big agency or by listing it on only one of the big OTAs.
- Pilchard for your domain (£6-£18 per year for a domain)
- Hostinger for your webhosting (£6 per month for hosting)
- OwnerRez for your channel manager (£32 per month paid in dollars so varies with the exchange rate)
- PriceLabs for your dynamic pricing (£16 per month paid in dollars so varies with the exchange rate)
If you are comfortable building your own website and running the software it will cost you about £54 a month (£650 a year) to have all of these things set up. The savings in agency fees and improved pricing should pay for this on its own. Your occupancy rates should also go up and you will have control over your own deposits.
However, if you have read it and are thinking ‘I want to do this, but I just don’t have the time’ or ‘I want to do this, but I just don’t get on with computers’ then I can help.
How it could look
This is my property on all of its listing sites. I can do the same for yours.
I will run the virtual side (including all the above IT costs) of your listing for you for a set cost of 5% of total bookings per month.
For this you will get;
- A working website with your own domain (eg www.yourchoiceofname.co.uk). Similar to windmillrentals
- 2 working e-mail addresses link to your domain eg (owner@yourchoiceofname.co.uk).
- Automatic e-mails to your cleaners so they can get instant notification of new stays.
- Integration and set up with Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO calendars at API standard.
- Deposits held before the guests stay and returned afterwards.
- A booking form collecting all the legally required information before a guests stay.
- Automatic messaging to the guests.
- Access to your own login at OwnerRez for your property.
- A monthly report detailing how your property is performing.
For an added fee I can take complete virtual control and add in
- A cost analysis to identify the ideal base and minimum price and also highlight areas of cost saving.
- Facebook account management.
- Social media adverts and campaigns to promote to target groups.
- Set up and run a Virtual guide book (Touchstay account) for you.