What commission rate for Whimsday is mentioned?

Mark SimpsonHelping short-term rental hosts get the tools, tactics and training to grow direct bookings with confidence

Maximize STR Bookings: Smart OTA Strategies Revealed 💯

19 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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0:47

A YouTube video by Mark Simpson offering practical advice for short-term rental (STR) hosts on using OTAs as traveler-acquisition channels. Emphasizes treating OTA commission (example: Whimsday's 5%) as a customer-acquisition cost, applying personalized/localized touches to convert OTA guests into direct bookers, and maintaining a specific last-minute booking strategy to avoid losing occupancy from shrinking booking windows.

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I think the best thing to do from a host perspective is think of the OTA as a traveler acquisition, and think of Whimsday's 5% commission as a 5% traveler acquisition tool. And then allow yourself the ability to really kind of do what you do best. Something that's like a personal, localized touch that hotels can't do. So doing those types of things, I think are, are a nice way to pull a direct in. And using the OTA to get that traveler in the first place is an essential way to do it. And you would add us as a complimentary channel, because if you look at how things are going currently with, with booking windows or shrinking, if you do not have a specific last minute strategy, if you don't, you're just missing out on a massive chunk of occupation and of occupancy. And so that's kind of the idea.