AirbnBUST: Creating Our OWN Direct Booking Website For a Short-Term Rental

Here is how we created a direct booking website for our short-term rental. We've been meaning to do it for a while now but felt we didn't have the time to invest in creating an entirely new website. Once the so-called "Airbnb Bust" began after Airbnb's new website rollout in the summer of 2022, we knew it was time to stop relying solely on another company to build ours. We took back the reigns and officially have an independent platform of our own to book guests! That being said, we're NOT giving up on Airbnb.

In this week's episode, we show you how we chose to create a direct booking website, how to link your calendars from VRBO, Airbnb, Expedia, Peerspace, etc., and connect your Pricelabs account and/or other pricing forums to your direct booking site. We also show you how easy it is to customize your website!

We have found the perfect all-in-one "hub" for our direct booking & website builder.

That is customizable and with little effort, won't look like an inexpensive stock website. Let's make sure you know though: THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT AN AD. Michael LOVES to research to make sure we're getting the most out of whatever we are doing whether it is for our business, a DIY project, or a restaurant we're going to! So everything you see here was from extensive research on his end.

Sign Up & Direct Book Through Lodgify:

Stay tuned for more DIY projects on our short-term rental as well as hosting tips!

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Hi! We're Kristen and Michael, a couple DIY renovating their dream desert home into a short-term rental business. In December 2020, we decided to leave Los Angeles (our home of 7 years) to pursue our dream of owning land in California and creating a sanctuary to share with family, friends, and others worldwide! We purchased our house in the high desert during the summer of 2021 and have since DIY-renovated the entire thing and created our business from the ground up.

Follow along as we continue vlogging our journey of hosting our short-term rental & upgrading our DIYs on the home little by little.

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#directbooking #airbnb #shorttermrentals

0:00 - 0:23 Intro to Creating Our Lodgify Direct Booking Website
0:23 - 0:50 Why We're Creating a Direct Booking Website
0:51 - 1:33 Becoming Independent from Airbnb
1:33 - 2:07 How We Found the Best Direct Booking Platform
2:07 - 2:50 Lodgify and What It Entails: Direct Booking, Merch, and More
2:51 - 3:13 Sign Up for Lodgify for Free and Set Up a Call
3:13 - 3:48 Connecting Pricelabs Through Lodgify
3:48 - 4:20 Lodgify Is Your HUB
4:20 - 4:42 We Signed Up For Lodgify, Now What?
4:42 - 5:14 Beginning to Build the Website and Connecting Airbnb
5:14 - 5:59 Customizing Our Website Within Lodgify: Colors, Widgets, Fonts, etc.
5:59 - 7:37 Editing and Customizing Widgets in Lodgify
7:40 - 8:46 Lodgify Backend: Adding House's Info, Booking Settings, etc.
8:46 - 8:59 Calendar and Other Listings Sync Settings
8:59 - 9:28 First On-Boarding Call With Lodgify
9:28 - 10:01 Take Time to "Tinker" While Lodgify Connects API on the Backend
10:01 - 10:23 Second Call With Lodgify
10:23 - 10:32 Why We Like Lodgify for Direct Booking
10:32 - 10:42 Automating Check-In and Check-Out on Lodgify IS Possible
10:42 - 10:51 Property Management Options on Lodgify
10:51 - 11:13 Experience With Website Building Can Be Minimal and the Website Will Still Look Fab
11:13 - 11:22 How We Customized Our Website With a Template
11:22 - 12:07 Our LIVE Website Is LIVE

[jameswaggoner]

I came back to watch this after 1 year in. Thanks for making the video. Also thanks for it being 12 minutes.

[mascaretllcmanager]

As a host with only one unit, I especially appreciate the professional approach you take with your business. Thanks for sharing!

[bigonia]

I’ve been watching your story for the last few months and appreciate your honest, real-world information. In fact, it has helped me search for and purchase my first short term rental property just over a month ago. Now, with this video… what perfect timing; I’m starting to dive into creating my own booking website. I hadn’t found Lodgify and love how much design control it seems to provide. Thx… I’ve got some research to do… can’t wait. Thx again for this video. All the best to you two!

[alicialarsen]

Thank you for this video! Exactly what I've been looking for and better than any of the lodgify videos I've come across. I've done my research and was 99% sure I wanted to go this route with our vacation rental and this video closed the deal. Wishing you all the best with your vacation rental.

[bichobrazil]

Wow, solid video, edit and info. Thank you. We are basically wanting to branch off as well from only using Airbnb and you guys inspired us. Saludos, pura vida from Costa Rica!

[DrJoJoBoxer]

This was a great video for me. Short and direct to the point. And I especially like how you have answered most of the questions in this thread over the past year! You gained another sub.

[clydefoster]

Just need to be careful that you do not lose the insurance coverage. We have many friends that have needed to the aitbnb insurance to cover some serious damage.

[TheHobbyShop]

Looks like you found a great solution that turned out looking fantastic. Good luck with it and thanks for the tips. 👊🏼

[MaxeedTV]

This information is quite helpful! Thank you so much for sharing.

[dakotabone]

Super helpful!! I’m looking to do the same thing. Thanks for doing all the leg work for me 😊

[HYHfarm]

I have been watching your channel and it's so full of information...We plan to start our STR by spring of 2023.. We bought a small cabin unfinished and will clear three Rv hookups as well. We have 29 acres and thought this would be a great place to work at home and earn money...thanks for all your advice you guys are great
Dena

[brianmcorr]

Hi, can you give the pros and cons or difference between lodging and square space which is better.

[Psalm]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much!!

[onebitemarketing]

We have three short term rentals and manage a fourth. It's been going well with hospitable and pricelabs but we want a direct booking website. I love the guest response features in hospitable, which have the same responses for all platforms- does lodgify do that as well?

[li-nickels]

Thanks so much for sharing this information, great video! Can you comment sometime on whether you take extra steps to cover your liability with the direct booking option? Did you get additional insurance? Thanks again!

[cheryl]

Have enjoyed your YouTube videos for quite a long time, not as a fellow airbnb host but as an (ex) avid Airbnb user. It would be interesting if you did a video getting Airbnb (& other platform users) feedback regarding the changes that are occuring in short term rentals and how that affects our travel booking choices (which in turn affects bookings for hosts). I've personally stepped away from using Airbnb exclusively within the past year (as have many of my friends). Hosts that put their heart into their listings like you do hopefully won't lose business due to the way Airbnb is making it more and more difficult to justify the cost of exclusively using them. The customers are the base of the business, I always wonder how in tuned some short term rental hosts are as to why us travelers are choosing to look at other options when choosing where to stay in our travels. Love your videos & what you are doing and hope you continue to enjoy what you are doing!

[mauricedelarosa]

Another question for you guys - my one rental unit is a condo in the Sierras and access can be a problem in the winter when a storm can shut down the road in both directions, sometimes for days. And so guests sometimes can’t make it up for a booking. Naturally they don’t want to pay, but virtually everyone who runs a STR at my resort employs a strict cancellation policy where weather and road closures is no reason to issue refunds or cancellations. But people understandably get angry about the reality of a strict policy in those situations. Do you know of any travel insurance options available for hosts to offer on their direct booking website? That seems to be another topic that nobody seems to cover in their videos. I can’t be the only host with this problem yet the lack of conversation on this topic certainly makes me feel like I am. Thanks again for your videos. I really dig your vibe!

[helenwilliams]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing! I hope it's a great success for you guys!! 🥶

[MEGHANRAO-pk]

Thank for the help! I have a weebly website (now squarspace), and I want to add a house to my original website, as a seperate option in the landing page. Do you know if that is possible? Clearly, I'm not very techy.

[Boostly]

I’ve been watching you guys from the beginning and it makes me so happy to see this video on the channel

Lodgify is a solid solution