About Hosting on Houfy
Our guest requested to cancel and we are concerned Houfy might penalize us.. What to do?
No, Houfy does not penalize hosts.
Houfy lets you run your own business! It’s your business, not Houfy’s. That’s the beauty of Houfy.
Houfy does not charge commissions nor service fees - this means Houfy does not need to protect this form of revenue - resulting in a clearer and easier system without adding all sorts of rules for hosts.
We currently have a rental on VRBO, a website of our own, and a Facebook page. We have recently heard of Houfy. Please explain what I need to do to list on houfy and how it works.
1) To list your property on Houfy go to here and copy/paste the data from VRBO onto Houfy (It's quick if you use 2 tabs or 2 browsers)
2) Sync your calendars
3) Verify yourself at edit listing > verifications
4) Consider accept credit card payments by using Stripe or Square (Houfy recommends Stripe). Create an account with one of these payment processors. Once created connect them to Houfy. This process is very simple - click here.
5) Consider adding Houfy Widgets to your website.
Other Frequently Asked Questions:
Why should I use Houfy?
In a word, cost. Houfy allows you to accept reservations at a much lower cost than the likes of AirBnB, VRBO and Booking .com.
Do I need a website?
That’s certainly an option. You could add Houfy's widgets to it to manage the pricing, reservation and calendar elements.
However you have additional costs to consider, site build and management, hosting fees etc. And if you want it to rank (get found in Google searches) you will have to pay for that.
The beauty of Houfy is that it allows you to have a many of the elements of a website without the additional cost.
Do I just need Houfy?
Probably not. The main platforms are well known and people go to them first. But they are expensive to use by comparison. Direct bookings will earn you more money. Houfy doesn’t take commission so if your guests book through Houfy you get more of the money.
How will people find Houfy?
By you promoting it. If you market yourself on social media or local advertising. Send them to your Houfy listing to make a reservation.
As more hosts do this Houfy will become more well known.
Houfy does not replace the need for you to promote and market your business.
Please follow the steps below to snooze or re-activate your Houfy listing:
To snooze the listing go to Listings
Click on the snooze in the listing block.
What snooze will do?
- Snooze will not allow anyone to select dates on your listing, it will hide your calendar from the listing page.
To activate a snoozed listing, please follow below steps:
Click on the activate in the listing block.
Create a "Houfy collection": Collections provide a helpful way to group related posts and or stories together (in this case videos), and to quickly inform readers what the posts & stories are about. Collections make it easier for people to find content in a grouped form.
- Log in > + > Create a Collection
Name the Collection, add a description, picture, location etc. You can always edit/remove the collection
- Write a Story and add as many urls as you wish. (A story is much more than a simple post; you can embed multiple url's as well as add highlights and change formats)
- Post the story to the Houfeed
- After posting, Bookmark the post or story to the "video" collection you made earlier
- Last step: add the collection to your listing(s): Menu > Collections > Select the collection > edit > add your listing
Preview your listing and your guide should show with the post(s) or story(s) in there
You can make collections about anything: Activities - Events - Restaurants - Weather - Video's etc. Think what you would like to know when you visit a place. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a perfect set of collections (recommendations) from the owner ready for you to explore.
At Houfy you can easily edit the collections, posts and stories whenever you want. Try something new at Houfy and have look at some popular collections to give you ideas.
If you have more questions, please join our facebook member group
Larger properties booked for family or group gatherings usually require stricter policies.
Owners or managers often require:
- A larger reservation deposit due (50% or more due at reservation date)
- An earlier balance payment due date before the arrival date (90-60 days before arrival)
- And stricter cancellation policies
Rebooking larger properties often requires more effort for owners/managers compared to smaller properties.
At Houfy as an owner/manager you can set your own policies:
My Listings > Edit > Settings > Payment information
Hosts can create a personalized web address to direct people to their listing with a custom link.
A custom link gives you a better chance your guests remembering and finding your listing in the future. As a result, you can capture more repeat bookings and grab the attention of new guests.
Log in > Menu > My Listings > Custom Link
Another way would be to go to your profile:
Menu > Profile > View Profile
- Please select menu > Manage Listings.
- Scroll down to Hidden listings and select the listing that you want to activate.
- Click on Activate, and the listing will be reactivated.
Are you wondering why your listings on Houfy aren't getting any traction? Don't worry, you're not alone--many members struggle with the same issue.
The reality is that there are a few key steps to successful promotion of your property on Houfy, the most important of which include having up-to-date pricing, pictures, and text as well as keeping your calendar current. Additionally, if you want to maximize your bookings it's a good idea to connect a payment method such as Stripe or Square and use the Houfy booking and messaging systems.
Houfy is work in progress and is still very much being designed. Houfy has been free for anyone to use with a basic listing and does not charge guests service fees or commissions. Houfy does not have the 100s of Millions needed to market listings worldwide as the plan is to disrupt the current systems in place.
Houfy is a grass roots movement which requires hosts to promote their Houfy listings themselves to get direct bookings without "service" fees/commissions.
Why do some members get bookings and others not? Here some examples:
- Updated price/pictures/text ----------> Outdated pictures/pricing/text
- Updated Calendar -------------> Outdated calendar
- Connected to Stripe/Square --------------> Did not connect a payment method
- Use the Houfy booking/messaging system -----------> Forward inquiries to their own website
- Market their Houfy listing ---------------> Do not market/share their Houfy listing(s)
- Spend 15-30 minutes a week on Houfy --------------> Do nothing and hope something will happen
What can you do to get bookings?
Spend a little time on Houfy and share your listing socially/with friends/previous clients. Find out what others are doing to get bookings and Houfy dances in our Facebook Group. Ask questions and GO For IT! 🙂
You can view your listing number in the details of your listing at manage listings or by going to your listing and scrolling down to the bottom
- Log in
- Menu (top right)
- Manage Listings
Or
- Pull up your listing (you do not need to be logged in).
- Scroll to the bottom.
To hide your listing on the Houfy marketplace:
Log in > Menu > Manage listings > Hide
To remove your listing from Houfy:
Log in > Menu > Manage listings > Remove
HOUFY is a free advertising platform for hosts using the free features. Houfy does require a host verification fee from all hosts. Hosts who use lite or premium features are required to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee.
Frequently Asked Questions:
"I'm debating whether to keep the free listings or delist my properties on Houfy. I have 3 listings. I would like to confirm that the 1 time host verification fee is for all 3 of my listings or will I have to pay this fee for each listing?"
NO: The host verification fee is a 1 time fee per host ,not per listing. You can list as many listings as you want. The fee will be for 1 time currently set at $5.99.
What do Basic Features Include?
- Booking fee of 0%
- Host verification badge
- Direct payments to your account, no middleman involved
- Pricelabs Integration (Requires a subscription at Pricelabs)
- Hosttools Integration (Requires a subscription at Hosttools)
- Hospitable Integration (coming soon)
- Unlimited photos
- Calendar (Ical) synchronisation with OTAs
- Multi-calendar
- Custom quotes
- Customizable rental agreement
- Text message on receiving a message on Houfy
- Scheduled & Automated messages
- Share links in the Houfy messaging
- Custom links
- Add co-hosts (requires host verification)
- Write blog posts & create collections with options to add to your listing
What do Lite features include?
- Includes Free, plus:
- Higher position in search results
- Import Airbnb pricing & Sync Calendar (New product)
- Option to hide price comparison
- Ownerrez connection (We'll add many more in 2024)
- Show external links on your Houfy listing
- Show email/phone number on the listing page
- Hide nearby listings on the listing page
What is included in Premium?
- Includes Free + Lite
- Super powerful Houfy Website builder tools (To view examples: click here)
- Use of all our widgets & embed tools
- Free SSL Certificate for each domain
- Connect multiple external domains
Houfy also offers its members to create featured listings and offer last minute specials.
Featured listings or last minute specials significantly increase your chances to be seen. You can expect to pay around $1.50 a day depending on your location.
- Your listing will be highlighted in another color that stands out.
- Your listing will be shown at the top of the search results as well as being amongst all the other properties, meaning double exposure!
- Featured listings and last minute specials improve attention and click-throughs by 50%.
- Chances to be seen on our homepage and/or destination pages if available.
To add your listing from Airbnb use this link:
- Please select menu > Manage Listings.
- You can see all your listings, and each listing block shows listing views information.
Another way is to preview/view your listing and scroll down to the bottom to see the number of views.
You can see the number of views you have had of your Houfy listing near the bottom of your listing page.
You can also set up Google Analytics to track and get more detailed Houfy activity and insights.
