The Dark Truth About Airbnb’s Profit Model

There is a huge problem right now in the hospitality industry where Airbnb are dictating to hosts and business owners how to run their business. Listings are getting suspended, accounts are getting closed down and in this video I'm going to walk you through how you can fix it. My name is Mark SIMPSON and this YouTube channel is where you will get all of the best tactics and tips on how you can grow your short stay accommodation business without being over reliant on the online travel agents. In particular Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. I've worked with over a thousand hosts. We've generated millions in direct bookings. In today's video, I'm going to walk you through the problem with Airbnb right now and how you can fix it. So let's look at Airbnb. Personally, I'm a big fan of what they have built. I'm a huge follower of the story from back in San Francisco with some blow up beds to where they are now. They have not only caught up with with the big goliaths of our industry which is booking.com and the Expedia group, but in my opinion they have overtaken them. And this video isn't about slating Airbnb. It's not trying to diminish anything that they have created. My problem isn't with them, it's with you, the host who is over reliant on them. Because any business owner from any industry, any niche, if you were to show somebody your your books and your revenue and your income and if you were to show them that 100% of revenue is coming from one platform or one channel, any good friend or business owner would say to you that is not a sustainable model. Recent example, I know somebody who is based out of Arizona, he is a super host, he's probably in the top 1% of the whole of Airbnb. And his account was suspended for six, six weeks because a guest made a false claim on their stay. The problem with Airbnb right now is I don't think that there are humans that are making decisions behind the scenes. I think that they're relying on AI. I feel like they're relying on automation. And the complaint came in and without any cooperation or an opportunity for the host to explain their point of view, the listing was suspended, all reservations were cancelled and the host was out of pocket for six weeks while this resolution was fixed. And over time, of course, because it was the right thing to do, the host was right, the guest was doing it trying to get some money back. And Airbnb reinstated the account. What doesn't get told in their story is the hours of anguish, the sleepless nights, and the worry that if Airbnb were to side with the guest, if the listing was to stay suspended, then that means that this person who has built up a great reputation on Airbnb, has got a lot of money coming in from Airbnb, was currently without revenue for six weeks. Now, again, if you look at any other industry, if you look at any other vertical, and if your main source of revenue was cut for six weeks, for some people, they may not be able to survive. Now, you may be watching this or listening to this, and you may be in a similar position where over 80% of your revenue is coming from Airbnb. And you may have had this situation happen to you. The problem, again, that I see at the present moment in time, as we come into 2025, is that more and more of this is happening. And it's not happening to Viva Scumbags. It's not happening to the people that are just trying to get a quick book on Airbnb. These are seasonaled hosts. These are proper hosts. Now, the solution and the fix to this is clear. The solution and the fix to this is. Is obvious. And this is what I have given the feedback to my friend over in Arizona is that he needs to make sure that moving forward, he not only has a presence on Airbnb, because I'm not saying that he has to cancel his Airbnb listing, but he has to be clever. He has to have multiple revenue streams coming into his business. He has to have a presence on all of the OTAs, because this host in Arizona, he was only on Airbnb. He had a. What's called a pms, a property management software, but he was only using it for guest communications. What we did is we looked at his account, we looked at his pms, we went into the back end of it, and we saw that he could get connected to multiple channels. So one of the first things that we did and one of the first things that I would recommend to him moving forward would be create that account on booking.com, create that account on VRBO v R B O, but go further than that. Go and look at what other channels are available out there. Because not only are there the big online travel agencies, there are niche travel agencies as well. For example, if your property is geared up for pets, there are listing sites and online travel agents that are specific to guests and to pets, guests with pets. But also as well, there are Niche listing sites now that are available for your different types of pets. So for example, people like to travel with cats. We've had people that have been traveling with birds, you name it. There are those niche listing sites, but there are also niche listing sites for every vertical that you can imagine out there. But to find them you just have to go and look on Google. So do a bit of research. If you want to watch a 40 minute video that I put together of training on this on the Booster YouTube channel, I'll make sure that we link it up in the description below. But you can go and check and it shows you how to find those niche listing sites. But also as well, the next step, the most, what I would argue with is the most important step for this host to make next and that starts with a website, a direct booking website. Now we at Boostly. So one of the companies that I founded, Boostly, one of the core things that we focus on is creating strong WordPress websites that you can send a future potential guest to. But you are proud and you are confident that once they land on it, they'll go from being a looker into a booker. If you want to find out more information about that, just head to boostly.co.uk but with a website, when you've got a strong website that you are confident that you can send somebody to and they can turn a looker into a booker, then you are not so reliant on third parties to bring in your bookings. Now it's not just about having a website. You've got to be able to market, you've got to be able to build a presence up so where you can send people to there. So one of the other things that I recommended that he would do is he has to start posting on social media. He has to start telling people about his business. This host in Arizona, you know, he admitted to the fact that he was very reactive. He would just put his listing or listings on Airbnb, he would sit back and just wait for the bookings to come in. You have to be proactive in your marketing. So one of the things that I've recommended to the host is that he starts to speak about his business on Facebook, start speaking about his accommodation on Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok and wherever he can be visible. And I know that his comeback to me and his feedback to me was, you know, a. I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know how to create content and I haven't got the time. So What I recommended to him, and I'll recommend this to you, if you're in a similar boat, is to take advantage of the AI tools that are available out there. You can go on to chat, GPT.com, you can go on to Cloud, you can go on to Meta. There's so many different AI bots to choose from now that will help you create our content. One of the videos that I've got coming up on this channel, we're going to delve into the different tools that are available, the different marketing questions that you can ask it that will give you advice on content to create. So make sure you subscribe so you can check out that as well. But also as well, a main way to fix this problem, so that you will never be reliant on Airbnb, is to build a list, build a database. And out of all the marketing that I've done over the last 25 years since being in business, of all the things that we have done at Boostly and all of my companies and what we train all of our members on, the best that has, is and will be is email marketing. It's building a database, it's SMS marketing, it's WhatsApp marketing. Because as soon as you have people that sign up to your newsletter to sign up, to get more information from you, to join your broadcast lists, there is no more effective way for you to set, hit, send, to push a message out, to then get people to be booking with you. But it all starts with building that database. So however you collect data, whether it's through your PMS, whether it's through QR codes, whether you're using StayFi in your property to sort of capture those email addresses when they sign onto your WI fi, start to build it today. There's so many unique and useful ways of doing so. If you go and check out the book Direct Playbook on Amazon, I've got 101 ways on how you can start to collect data and how you can use it. It's a book that sold over 150,000 copies. Now go and check that out and you'll be able to dig into those. But these three ways here, with your website, with your socials and with your database, you will make sure that you are starting to build a business on your land. If you want to find out more about all of this, then make sure you stick around on this channel. We're going to be posting a lot more content around this. Make sure you subscribe to this. Make sure you go and check out the resources that I've mentioned with Boostly Co uk the book Direct Playbook on Amazon, and thank you very much for watching.