Why would I do that? Which listing site should I share for my social & e-mail campaigns?

1) My Own website: Of course! I must be out of my mind to not share my own website!

  • I own the domain, I spent days if not weeks on my wordpress website!
  • It's my site and my place, I should market it, make cups/hats and t-shirts for my place.
  • I still need to figure out this SEO thing and make these guides/pages for my site
  • I really do not understand why my score on GTMetrix is so low.. Does this influence my rating on search engines? Are my pictures too large? - Maybe I should look at what Jann Chambers has to say: 21 ways to speed up wordpress..
  • Should I boost my posts on facebook? Where can I find out about this? oh, dear.. What did I get into?

Situation 2: I do not have my own website.. (Did you know Houfy makes sites?)

So, which site should I share?

2) My Houfy listing: Hmm.. this new site.. hmm..

  • They might charge service fees later on..
  • They might sell out to Airbnb/Homeaway/Tripadvisor/Booking.. They all do..

I'm not going to help them at Houfy, but it's free, payments are direct with Stripe and Square and I see many members getting direct bookings.. Some members are raving about these guides and stories.. I don't get it.. (Maybe I need to dig a bit deeper into it) let's see what happens .. It's free, so I have nothing to lose.. Nah.. not going to spend time on learning more.. too busy checking my WhatsApp and need to watch Netflix tonight.

3) My VRBO Listing: It's secure, known and guests can opt in for damage insurance & I think the property owner is insured for up to 1 Million $. Hmm..

4) My Airbnb listing: Definitely the easiest site for my guests. Simple App and great service. But known as the "cheaper" crowd books with them .. Do I want these guests? Hmm..

5) My flipkey (Tripadvsior) listing: I do not know; they are so quiet.. Maybe they are focussing too much on small Hotels and their reviews. Hmm..

I am so confused? What should I do? I definitely do not support the fact that my guests pay 'service fees' of 12-20%. They should be able to find me on Google! Do they? Is my site good enough for this? I am competing against all the property managers.. and I just show up on page 6 of Google.. Do my guests realize they are throwing away money by booking with the 'secure' OTA's? Should I inform them? How? For sure it is costing my guests a nice dinner or car hire for the week.. Do they understand this? How should I promote this #bookdirect movement?

Should I tell my guests to book directly through my site, oh.. I do not have a payment option nor quote tool.. should I refer them to Houfy or the other service free websites? But then others might get bookings.. and I do not want others to get bookings.. hmm.. I am confused..

Let me see what happens the next few years and see who wins/loses the battle for being the new commission free website or should I participate with the others in the movement of becoming independent of the Online Travel Agencies (OTS's) and support them.

I don't know.

For now, I'll list on as many websites as I can and see where and with who I get the bookings. I am too busy responding to my WhatsApp/Messenger/Twitter and Instagram messages for the moment to focus on this stuff.. It's "just" our investment for our retirement which is still quite far away. I'll concentrate "more" on it closer to date..

I think Houfy has a good list of options of fee free sites available & their listing import tool is really cool. Let's hope it will all work out.. For now I am still.. A very busy & confused homeowner.. smile..

Sharing this post/story or whatever they call it at Houfy.. why would I? It's too complicated with the sharing buttons below.. Let me check my WhatsApp.

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