Mark Simpson (presenter) argues that short-term rental hosts commonly lose around 25% of profits to Airbnb and other OTAs when accounting for commissions, platform-driven discounts, and lost rebookings. He presents Boostly — a direct-booking system — and outlines a five-step implementation used with a client (Sarah) running four cottages: (1) a PMS-synced branded website, (2) capturing guest data, (3) a marketing engine (email/social content/lead magnets), (4) automated guest messaging, and (5) ongoing support/coaching. Reported outcomes: Sarah's direct bookings rose to 68% within six months. Video includes CTAs to a free Boostly workshop and a booking call; stated mission: help 1 million hosts reach 65% diary bookings.
Questions this video answers
Approximately 25%.
$25,000 (based on the 25% claim).
Four cottages.
Nine out of ten bookings (90%).
68%.
Chapters
The average host gives away 25% of their profit to Airbnb and other online travel agents, often thanks to hidden fees and random algorithm changes. Today, I'm going to break down where you're losing out and I'm going to walk you a step by step through the same system that has helped us reclaim our income and take back control. Now, before we start, if you're serious about building a short term rental business that brings in direct bookings, keeps more profit and isn't completely reliant on Airbnb's latest updates, then check out the free Boostly workshop, which is linked in the description below. All right, let's talk about that 25%. Most hosts will tell you they're paying something like 15% commission to Airbnb or booking.com, but when you add in the other bits, like the discounting that you do just to stay visible, the extra charges that get passed on to you, the price drops, they automatically suggest so you stay competitive. And. And the fact that you're losing out on rebookings because you never actually get the guest details, it's not 15%, it's closer to 25, sometimes even more. So if your property brings in $100,000 a year, that's at least $25,000 you are giving away. And in a lot of cases, you don't even realize it's happening. Now, I'm not saying that Airbnb is evil or that you should pull all of your listings off that platform tomorrow. They serve a purpose. But if your only source of bookings is coming from one place, you are vulnerable. You are building a brand on someone else's land. So how do we fix it? Let me tell you what we did with Sarah. One of our boosted clients is in the uk. She runs four lovely cottages, but nine out of ten of her bookings were coming through Airbnb. She was doing all the hard work, but still giving away thousands a year and had very little control over the kind of guests she was attracting. She came to us thinking that she needed a better looking website. But the truth is, a website on its own isn't enough. What she actually needed was a proper direct booking system. And that's exactly what we helped her build. Let me walk you through the five steps we did to take back control of her business, to scale her income without losing control of her business. The first step was building her her website. But it wasn't just a pretty page with some pictures and a contact form. We're talking about a fully interacted Website which synced directly into her property management software in real time. That means availability, pricing, calendar, updates, all automatic. The guests can browse, book and pay and get confirmation without Sarah having to lift a finger. Crucially, website is built around her brand and not Airbnb's. So when somebody lands on her site, they see her story, her personality, her properties, and they start to build relationship with her and her business, not some faceless listing platform. The second step was making sure she could collect and use guest data properly. Now this is something the OTAs deliberately block because they know that if you could reach out to your past guests directly, you won't need them anymore. But with Boostly, every direct booking comes with a full set of data. Name, email, phone number, booking data. And this is gold. This means that Sarah can now send follow ups and offer discounts, send out offers for seasonal stays, and they keep her brand front of mind. The best bit is that she's no longer paying that 15 to 25% commission that we spoke about earlier. Next, we helped her plug in a proper marketing engine. We gave her ready to use email templates that are proven to convert. We created content that she can use on her social media. We gave her content prompts and tools to schedule all of these posts in advance. We showed her how to take one property photo or a guest guest review and turn it into five bits of social content. And then we set her up with lead magnets, something valuable that her ideal guests can download in exchange for an email list. Next came automation. Now, Sarah is no techswiz, so we helped her automate her guest messaging. Everything from pre check in reminders to thank you notes and review requests is now set up in advance. She doesn't have to touch a thing. It's consistent, it's personal, and it saves her hours every week. Finally, and this is what most platforms miss, we gave her ongoing support because it's one thing to build the system, but it's another to keep it moving. With Boost Lee, she now gets access to weekly group coaching, a private community and expert advice when she needs it. If something changes in the industry or she wants to test a new idea, she's not Googling in the dark or relying on a forum full of conflicting opinions. She's part of a network that's built to help her grow. The results are outstanding. In six months, her direct bookings jumped to 68%. She doesn't have to work harder. She's just shifted where the control was and the impact on her business. And her peace of mind has been huge. And that is truly the heart of all of this. Boostly isn't just a website builder. It's a complete system designed to help short term rental hosts like you build a business that's profitable, selling, sustainable and actually yours. Because we believe, and this is the why behind everything that we do, that you should own your bookings, you should control your guest experience, and you should build a brand that lasts beyond the next algorithm change. So if any of this has resonated with you and you're ready to take the next step, then here's what I want you to do right now. In the description below there is a link that you can click on and you can book a call to speak with our team. It is a no pressure, no sales call. It's just to speak to you, to see where you are in your business, to see where you want to be and if we can help you get there, fantastic. We'll recommend you the next steps above all else. If you have found this video in helpful any other way, then I recommend that you click on this next video because it will really dive in to the diary booking secrets that you need to be listening to. If any of this seems like you would like to share it, please do Share it with hosts. Share it with Airbnb hosts around the world in Facebook groups and whatnot. We want to help as many people as possible. Our mission is to help 1 million hosts get to 65% diary bookings. Thank you very much for watching and we'll see you on the next video.
