How She Hit 73% Direct Bookings Without Airbnb

guest speaker with me to my right and my left, however you're looking at this, and we're going to get a cool session. So the sessions today have sort of ranged from everything from social media. We've had Simon Lehman coming in and talk about state of the industry. We've talked about amenities, etc., etc. But what I wanted to do is I wanted to get Rose in and we just wanted to have a conversation. So we're just going to talk and chat from a host perspective, somebody who's been doing this for a while, who's had property but grown to properties. Somebody that I've known for a long time and somebody that can talk about direct bookings, I think, more than any, because the proof is in the pudding with my guest speakers. So Rose Tipka, thank you very much, of Your Family's Place. Thank you for joining us.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. Everybody who's in the chat, can you just please say hi? And if you're still with us, we've been doing this now for a few hours. Can you just hit that like button, comment button, share button, all those good things? Because this is an important day, Book Direct Day. Obviously this is where hosts get together all over the world and talk about direct bookings. And today is obviously a day that I want to get somebody that I think has adopted this more better than most. So, Rose, super quick, uh, background for everybody who is tuning in. Just let me know where you are, uh, how long you've been doing this, uh, how many properties you've got, and, um, just sort of give her like a quick sort of background on the sort of the last couple of years that you've been doing this thing called hospitality.

Absolutely. So my name is Rose Tipka and my company is called Your Family's Place. We specialize in large homes for multi-generational family vacations. And we do that because we have a huge family ourselves. We have 6 kids. I homeschool them. So I'm actually sitting in our homeschool room right now. And right now we have, we started in 2017. So we are in coming in on year 9 right now. And we have grown to 11 properties. So this year we will expand out, we will hit 11. And it looks like we're getting close to having 2 more under contract because we're working on expanding our business out up into Northern Michigan. So we are located right outside of Amish Country in Ohio, and that is where a lot of our vacation rentals are located. I like to use the word vacation rental because that is what we are. We are not an Airbnb business. We really doubled down hard with our brand, Your Family's Place, starting in 2021. That was when COVID was going on and the good times were rolling. And the time for companies to make investments is not when times are hard, but when times are good. And so this is the company that supports our family. This is what feeds my kids. This is what keeps the lights on. And we have a staff of— we have 9, 9, 10 people depending on the projects that we're working on. They are all depending on me to make reservations. And so I take that job really seriously because they're depending on me for their income.

And you, uh, have built a business that is obviously very big on direct bookings, which is awesome. We'd love to see it. We're going to go through some numbers in a little bit, but also as well, just want to very quickly touch upon something that your repeat guest numbers is very high as well. I think last time that I spoke to you was at about 60 60%, just around 60%.

Yes.

So the question I have is if you could just break down, because we've got a lot of people tuning in that will have either a lot of repeat guests or a lot of like first-time visitors, just depending on the markets and whatnot. So how have you been able to, A, achieve those numbers, but B, as well, sort of talk about guest journey from the point of checking out to we'll see you next year? How does that sort of look within your family's place and how you've sort of develop that.

Yeah, so I need to give the folks that are staying with us who are already choosing to stay with us a lot of different opportunities to be loyal to our brand. And so part of that is them knowing me, knowing what I look like, knowing my voice, because people will book with you if they know, like, trust you. And so they have to have those three things from me. And so from the very beginning, as soon as somebody books in our system, whether they're booking direct off of our website or if they do come through VRBO— we don't use Airbnb at all, and that is something that blows people's minds. Um, when they are coming through, as soon as that new reservation comes through to my system, I am grabbing my phone and I'm recording a video. I'm not getting dressed up, not doing hair and makeup. I'm not overthinking it because I want it to be real, I want it to be authentic, I want it to be me. And I am sending them a video that I record where I thank them for choosing us. I like to use the word choose because it gives them the power and control. I give them a very important message that they can relax because vacation it's supposed to be relaxing, and that I am going to take excellent care of them. I am taking personal responsibility for that, so I'm giving them that message. They also then have my number, and so if they need anything, they can feel free to reach out, and so they feel like they have that direct connection to ask me questions or get any information that they need. So as soon as that reservation comes in, they are getting those messages from me. And so that is starting to establish the relationship. I like to view our guests not as transactions, but as relationships, and that's a fundamentally different thing. I'm not looking at that person staying with us once for whatever the value of that reservation is. I'm looking for that person to come back year after year after year, and people only do that when they have that personal feeling of a relationship with their host. People go to Airbnb over and over again because they're loyal to Airbnb. My guests are loyal to our brand. They're loyal to me as the host. And that starts from that very beginning with that video where I'm giving them those really important messages.

So you've been doing this for, like I say, going on 9 years. A lot of repeat guests. And like you're saying, you're giving them your direct details, right? How do you scale that? How— I mean, obviously you've added properties as well, so how are you being able to do that where you don't feel like it's getting out of control? Because that must be a lot of people over a year, times that by 9, times it by the number of properties. How do you sort of manage that without getting overwhelmed?

Yes, and, and I get this question a lot from folks, and I think first of all doing something like the video message. The message itself is 20 seconds long. It is not that heavy of a lift, to be honest with you. And so when that message, when that reservation comes in, I can pause because I have 20 seconds in my day to film that video. But also it's a question of priorities. I want to grow this business into something that, you know, sustains our family and creates that legacy. Yeah, I'm gonna have to take 20 seconds out of my day to do it. The other thing that I do is I write handwritten thank you notes. So much is digital, so much is AI. And so when our guests get a piece of actually interesting mail that's handwritten for them, that means something and they remember that. And so usually what I'll do is I have on the weekends, I'll sit down and I'll batch write my thank you notes, whether I send those twice at the point of reservation. And I also mail one on the day that they check in. So it's waiting for them at home. So I have that combination of that high personal touch. How do I get that done? I have a system, I knock it out, I hold myself accountable. That's how I do it. The other thing is I do have automations that run in the background that are personalized. So we— all of our properties are pet friendly, and people who have dogs are pretty obsessed with their dogs. And so I have a series of emails that I schedule for folks that stay with dogs, and what those emails are is actually an email from your dog to you that I'm forwarding to you, if that makes sense. Because people love their dogs. And so, I have those kinds of emails that are set up in the background that run automatically. So, there's the combination of the high touch, the video, and the notes. How do I get that done? I'm very disciplined and this is important to me. I also have automations in the background that feel personal, that continue to nurture people over time. So there has to be a combination of those. But by prioritizing those personal touches and those connections with people, that's what makes them loyal to our brand and loyal to me.

We're going to go talk about numbers in a minute. And you, you've managed to build a family-focused portfolio whilst homeschooling 6 kids. You can hear them in the background. It's literally like this is your day to day. So what are like the 2 to 3 key decisions early on that let you scale your business without burning out or lowering your standards? Because you do have very high standards, you're very disciplined, as you can tell from the answers. Like, is there anything in particular that you've learned along the way, those 2 to 3 key decisions in your journey that has helped you to do this, like you say, without burning out or, you know, lowering your, your standards?

Well, I think for us, we have an amazing team, and a lot of our, our team members, they're mothers themselves, and they are people that have high standards. And so they We feel really invested in our guests having an excellent experience. And so, a lot of times I see the reviews, I get the feedback from the guests, but then I am immediately turning around and sharing that with the team because they need to experience the wins too. And so, building a team that shares your values is incredibly important because they do a lot of the heavy lifting. You know, everybody has their zones that they are in charge of and everybody takes responsibility for those. But when the people doing those things share your values, then that makes everything a lot easier. So that's a really important thing. You also have to learn how to say no to opportunities that don't fit you. So a lot of times people will go out and try to go vacuum up a bunch of properties because they need to grow revenue. Um, for us, we own our property, so we don't need to scale to a massive number, and it allows us to keep our experience really tight and focused for our guests. So we have said no so many times to projects, to properties, to partnerships because they simply don't work for our brand. And it can be hard to say no to things that feel like amazing opportunities. But if they are not in the direction that your brand is going, you have to say no to that. That can be, that can be really, really tricky. Also, I will say this, I am very tenacious. I'm very tenacious because I take what I'm doing seriously. I mean, it's a lot of fun. Don't get me wrong. My family's depending on me. Our team is depending on me. And there's no way I'm going to let them down. So, there is that something factor. You have to have tenacity. And a lot of people, as soon as they hit that friction, like, "Oh, it's too much. I can't do it. This is too hard. I don't know how to scale it." There has to be a scrappiness. To what you're doing.

Um, I want to have this conversation for the people that are watching in live or on the replay later where they can go, I want to take some away from this. And, um, for you, I feel like as a, as a mom, as a parent, as a business owner, if there's another parent business owner who's watching this who is juggling, I don't know, life, kids, you know, guest messages, writing hand notes, doing all of the thing, and feels like you know, this person's drowning, right? What are the first 3 systems or boundaries that you would tell them to put in place this month to sort of buy back their time without hurting revenue?

So the first thing that you should be doing is locking down your revenue management. Um, when you are properly pricing, I think that takes a lot of, uh, guessing out of it. And you can hook up to a revenue management software in 5 minutes. It's that simple. So in the beginning, you, you should be— that should be one of your very first tech adoptions is revenue management. The second thing is you need to have a PMS, and I get that that can feel very overwhelming trying to set that up, but that's the difference between being a hobby host and being a professional host. So you need to get your tech lined up so it's working for you because that will give you more time and more control. I also recommend that you batch tasks together. So for example, yesterday I sat down and I wrote all of my thank you notes. Um, I did it in half hour. It wasn't that long. And so I batch things all together. Okay. Um, I do have apps on my phone and when I'm sitting at fencing practice or soccer practice, I do work during those times. And there are going to be times where You are going to have to work during events when you might not want to, and yes, that feels overwhelming. But again, it goes back, it goes back to that Scrappy thing. You have to, you have to be willing to do what other hosts are just not willing to do. You need to adapt appropriate tech at the right times. Some people want to come in and disconnect everything, and I'm like, dude, you have one property, you don't need you know, 10 pieces of tech. Yeah. Adopt things at appropriate times in the right orders. I have a friend who has one property and she's like, I need an AI chat system. I'm like, no, you don't. You got one.

Yeah. Knowing when to do things at the right time is very, very key. And I feel like there's a lot of people watching and I can think of a few people right now at the back of my mind who are like that, who have got maybe started their journey, one or maybe two properties and they're trying to do everything. They get this shiny object syndrome because, you know, again, and I'm at fault because I do amazing live streams like this and we bring in all these amazing people. We have all these services that are just thrown at people and they think, I need it all, when at the end of the day you got to treat it more like a video game, you know. Start off at your level 1, super scrappy. You haven't got all of the tools, you haven't got all of the time, you haven't got all of the money. So just do the, the simple thing. I like that. Okay, so final question before we go into numbers, um, And now it's tapping back to something you said earlier, and you said, you know, success isn't better marketing, it's better relationships, right? And you are very good at this with relationships and your guests. So do you have an example come to mind where, let's just say, one of your bookings, they came to you via Airbnb or whatever, OTA, and then they went on to be a multi-year direct repeat guest? If you've got like a cool example or a cool story of it, that you can share on this?

Yes. So, I'm going to talk about Joy, who is one of our guests who actually lives in New Jersey, but comes every year over the holidays because she has family locally. And she is— she always stays at the same property every year. They call it their Christmas house. And she books over the holidays. It's like $1,000 a night. And so, she's a high-value guest for us, and she comes back year after year. When she first stayed with us. She was driving in from New Jersey and there was a snowstorm. It's Christmas, it's in Ohio, and I called her and I said, Joy, um, I would feel more comfortable if you came a day early and if you could check in like a day early. And I'm not going to charge you anything extra for this because the property will be ready for you. Because if you wait till your check-in day I don't think you're going to make it in because of the storm. And she's like, wait, you're offering me a free night to stay? And I said, yes, I am, because I want to make sure that you get in. And so a lot of people would say, why in the world are you giving away a free night? Because I'm looking at the lifetime value of Joy coming back every year for a $10,000 reservation. And now I looked this up, Joy has stayed with us for 7 years in a row. At $10,000 a night. And so that one free night, I didn't lose money by her staying an extra night. That was an investment in her coming back year after year after year. I prioritized her safety and making sure that she got in. And in return, I have her loyalty every single year for Christmas.

I love that because I haven't prompted you with any of the questions. So normally on these podcasts, what are these interviews that we're doing now on the live streams, you'll you'll see where the host has given the guest like all of the questions that you're going to ask. And it's just a case of just matching them up. I've done none of that for Rose and that joy was just sat there on the other side of that piece of paper, which is epic. So you're looking at a piece of paper on that piece of paper is some numbers. So I want to, I want these hosts and these viewers to go away from watching this live stream or the replay and go, I want to be able to get to X amount of direct bookings. I want to grow this business on my own land. I don't want to have to be right on Airbnb. Share some numbers as inspiration so they can go and watch this and go, right, I'm off to do this.

So, so, 2021— yeah, 2021 is when we launched our Book Direct website. So we had already been doing this since 2017, so we had cut our teeth. We had, you know, figured out where we wanted to go brand-wise. That's important because a lot of times when you're starting out, you don't really know where you're going. 2021, when we first started, we were at 14% direct booking. Okay, not terrible. Don't get me wrong, not terrible. But that was just starting out. Um, 2022, we grew slowly. It's very much like a snowball. Um, so 2022, we got up to 20%. So that, that's pretty good. We're getting our systems in place. We're getting people into our communication funnels. We are building our email list. We start email nurturing right there. Now, in 2022, we started working with Build Up Bookings, and they do our email list. We send out 2 emails a month. They run ads for us. They also write our blog posts, all of that kind of stuff. So when we implemented that whole nurturing campaign on the backside, we went from 20% in 2022 to 65% in 2023. And now in 2024, we dipped down a little bit and we were down to 60%. But still, 60% is really good.

Very good.

2025, we have our systems in place. We're snowballing. I really doubled down hard on social media and working with content creators and improving the quality of our content. In 2025, we were at 73%. Direct bookings.

Wow.

We don't use Airbnb at all. We have not used Airbnb since— when was the last time? Uh, in 2020, that was the last time that we used it. And so last year we were at 73% direct bookings. It takes time. A lot of people think you throw up a website, you make an Instagram page or a TikTok page, and then the people just flock to you. That is literally not how it works. It's a billboard, and you have to direct people's eyes to it. You then have to earn their trust and get them to book with you. They might not book at that first moment that they see you, but if you focus on the relationship and they get to know you, they get to trust you, they will choose you when the time comes to book their vacation.

Yes, absolutely. Small little steps over the years. Well done. So break down the mix and you say there's no Airbnb, obviously 70% is direct, which is great. Where's the other, let's just say 30% for easy math, so coming from?

It's coming from VRBO. We do have VRBO listings, and so we'll get some through there. Um, I don't think that we will ever get to a point where we don't have OTA listings because I think that that's another, another version of danger where, you know, let's say your website goes down or something happens. You do need to have a diverse, a diverse, uh, set of listings. So sometimes the question is, where should I list? The answer is everywhere. So now we don't list on Airbnb, but what that always is in the future for us is a lever we can pull. It's not like we cannot go on. Yes, we can always turn it back on if we need to, but it's that decision that keeps me driving forward because I don't want to, but I can if I have to, because I am not too proud to do it if we need to.

Yeah, absolutely. You've got to have multiple revenue streams coming into your business. It's just like any forms of business or any forms of investing. You're not just going to put 100% of your money all into one pot because that one thing, that one stock, that one share, that Bitcoin, is just never— you know, it's never, never sensible. You gotta multiple forms of revenue streams for your investments. So 110%. And I love that you've said, listen, we've turned it off, but there's nothing stopping us from turning it back on if needs be. But you've built a very strong foundation to hopefully to the point where you won't have to turn it back on. And for multiple reasons, I think that the people that are tuning in will be able to realize, like, the systems and the structures that you've put in place, the relationship building that you've put in place. And it's, you know, it's, it's a lot of work over 9 years, but you know, you've, you've felt the, the benefits from it. Now you're able to travel around the world, you know, with, um, with, with your husband and the kids and go speak at events, which is fantastic, and go and see other sites, other peoples. And obviously, like, all of the book projects that you're part of, and it's fantastic to see. So, so well, well done. Um, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna put a pause to this very soon, but before we do, is there any sort of final words you want to give inspiration to the people that are tuning in? And also, if people want to find out more about you, give them some social handles that they can go and check you out and chat to you after this.

Absolutely. So our social media pages at Your Family's Place on both TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. We're growing our YouTube side right now. And our website is also yourfamiliesplace.com. One of the things that I really hope that everyone takes away from this is that you can bet on yourself. And that sounds really, really scary. I am a mom in my 40s in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. My My backyard is literally a cornfield, okay? Literally a cornfield. There are Amish buggies that will drive by on the road today. And I bet on myself, and I was not— that was not a— where I lived, who I was, was not a limiting factor, okay? So you have to have that confidence and bet on yourself even when it's really scary, because you can do it. It takes time, it takes sustained effort. Because this is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And so for parents out there, people growing their business and think that you're overwhelmed, yes, I'm not gonna lie, it is hard work. But when you bet on yourself and you start to see those returns come in, there is no better feeling than knowing that you did it.

Nice, nice work. So yeah, go check out the socials. Uh, I said there's a lot of work being done on the YouTube, uh, and, uh, me and my family are very looking forward to coming over in the summer and seeing those cornfields and introducing them to what an Amish is.

That's right. And Mark Simpson, you know what this means? You're gonna get to have my cookies. Nice.

Looking forward to all of that. Yeah, we're really looking forward to coming over in the, in the summer and witnessing your family's place and your hospitality directly, which is very cool. So, um, everybody, please, can you show Rose some love in the chat? Uh, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. Right, everybody, go and grab a break. We've got 1 minute, 2 minutes max. Uh, I'm gonna go. My next speaker has just joined screen room, we'll come back and we'll do this all over again. Rose, thank you very much.

Thank you.