Vrbo & Bookster: Maximising your holiday rental revenue

Vrbo & Bookster:
Maximise your holiday rental revenue

Watch the replay to learn more

Title: Maximise your holiday rental revenue
Guest speaker: Shivali Yadav

Highlights 

• Invaluable data and advice on targeting diverse nationalities by leveraging flight paths to your destination and understanding their booking preferences.
• Expedia research on incorporating local attractions into listings descriptions and photos, especially the rising interest in TV and film locations, which extends to other nearby attractions as well.
• Reduce the number of additional fees on your properties, by incorporating your costs into your nightly rates to boost conversions.

Agenda

Shivali Yadav from Vrbo talks us through: 

• About Vrbo
• The Vrbo guest
• Travel and Market Trends 2024
• Connecting to Vrbo with Bookster.

Links

• VRBO UK website – www.vrbo.co.uk
• Self-service Onboarding (SSO) link - https://vrbo.com/p/onboard
• Expedia Travel Trends 2024
• AirDNA resources on trends and European Market Review
• Replay: Jenn Boyles focuses on direct bookings
• Bookster Drop-in session (Wednesdays, 12.30-1.30pm)

Past events with Vrbo

• Vrbo & Bookster: Grow your business
• Vrbo & Bookster: Set up for success

Script

Kelly: 

So first of all, good morning, a warm welcome to you all, and thank you very much for joining us today. My name's Kelly Odor, and I'm the marketing director for Bookster.

If you haven't come across Bookster before, let me give you a one-minute super fast introduction. So Bookster is a property management software company. We also create websites. We have a channel management arm, and we're based here in Scotland. 

Our head office is in Edinburgh, and we have clients across the globe, we provide tools, techniques, and partnerships such as our partnership here with Vrbo that are designed really specifically to help holiday rental owners and holiday rental managers to overcome and manage those time-consuming tasks of running a holiday rental business. So let's talk about today's session. 

What we're seeing, or what I'm seeing in particular in the forums right now are large volumes or larger volumes than normal of property owners who are saying they're not seeing the same level of occupancy or the same number of bookings compared to previous years. 

So to try and help with this last month, I invited Jenn Boyles to come along and talk about her solutions to this problem, and she really focuses on the direct booking strategies. 

And this month I've invited Shivali from VRBO who's going to cover techniques and real insider information that you can use to, to really use Vrbo to attract these longer higher value bookings. So if you weren't here with Jenn last month, there is a replay actually, which I can send out. 

But let me first explain that I have looked at the data, I looked in the AirDNA and other sources. I know Shivali's looked at the data and there is still a very good demand for holiday homes and bookings are up, but it's not consistent in every location.

And then there's further complications with things like legislation, rise in prices and the rise in the, just the volumes of holiday homes that are advertising on channels, which is creating a higher competition. 

So if you are experiencing a drop in your bookings, it's not just like one specific cause for that, but those are actions that you can take and that's what Shivali is here to share with us today. So let's start, Shivali. First of all, could you just take a few minutes just to introduce yourself and, and the work you do in Vrbo? 

Shivali:

Yeah, sure. First of all, thank you so much everyone for joining us today and taking out the time to attend this webinar. My name is Shivalo and I work as a market development manager with Vrbo. So what I do here, what is my work and how can I be of any help to you guys? 

So when you decide to list your properties with Vrbo and when you decide to onboard your properties, Vrbo, with Vrbo, I am gonna be the first point of contact. It's my responsibility to make sure that you go through the onboarding process, seeing Leslie, and I'm there to help you with setting up your listings, setting up, setting up your account, and making sure that they are, that your listings are live and ready to win bookings. 

Today, we're gonna talk about a lot of things that will be of interest for you. We'll be talking about Vrbo, how you can integrate with us, how can you, how you, how you can integrate with Bookster, and we'll also be talking about a lot of optimization techniques for your listings and what are the market trends. Yeah, so let me know, Kelly, when we can start and I will just start sharing my screen. 

So we'll be talking about a lot of things today, as I mentioned, and the basic idea is to help you guys to maximise your holiday rental revenue with VRBO and Bookster. So let's get started. First of all, this is an agenda for today's webinar. We'll be talking about vrbo, the VRBO guests, what kind of travellers and what kind of guests you can expect from us, what are the travel and market trends, how you can connect to Vrbo with Bookster.

And at the end, I will be taking some questions and guiding you with some optimization techniques to make your listings more attractive to the Vrbo travellers. 

As you all know that Vrbo is a part of Expedia group, and Expedia Group is in the business since and it's one of the top industrial players in the travel market. 

Vrbo has been with Expedia for over 26 years now, and it's one of the top choices when it comes to vacation rental platforms. This is how our global network of brands look. So Vrbo is known as different brands, in different regions. 

We have different regional brands across the globe. For example, we are known as Fevo Direct. In Germany, we are known as Abertel in France. In the UK we were earlier known as HomeAway. Now we are known as Vrbo. We rebranded, we’re known as Stayz, Bookabach. 

So we have different regional brands in different countries, but once you onboard your properties on any of our brands, the properties are all automatically advertised across all the brands. 

So the idea here is to have the regional brands just for the setup, like the currency setup and the language setup. But otherwise, once you onboard your properties on one of our brands, they're advertised globally. Moving forward.

Like I mentioned, Vrbo is in the business for  years and has been the leading vacation rental choice for families. 

So the important point to note here is families, because most of our travellers are either families or, or they like to travel in groups and the stats that we have seen over the years. So 70% of the travel from the Vrbo guest is through is with their families or with a group of people. 

And here are some interesting facts that you can see on the right hand side of the screen. We have 15.9. million unique monthly visitors. 

We have 57 million monthly page visits. We have more than 2 million properties available on Vrbo and we had 17 million downloads in 2022. It was one of the most downloaded travel app of 2022. So that sounds great. 

Moving forward, let's talk about what kind of audience we provide you. 

So the Vrbo audience has unique traits. They are different from other travellers that you get from other OTAs. 

So as for the stats and the data that we have collected over the years, we have found out that the Vrbo travellers stay three times longer than other travellers.

They like to spend more on their vacation because they're travelling with their family, they're travelling with a group of people, so they spend more automatically. So the average Vrbo traveller spends more than five times more than other travellers on a booking. 

And as I mentioned that they travel with families and groups, they bring more people to a trip and it's more than double than on other trips moving forward. So what kind of things can you expect when you're getting a booking from Vrbo? 

So what Vrbo travellers are actually looking for, they like to book in advance, they like to stay for longer days, they like to plan their stay in advance, they like to feel at home and they like to have an active communication. 

So these are the points that you can keep in mind when you are communicating with a VRBO traveller moving forward. Let's talk about why you should list with vrbo. What are we offering you? 

First of all, as I mentioned, we provide you with more high quality travellers, families and private groups, and they tend to book further in advance for longer periods of time, which is very, very good for your business. Then we have dedicated partner support. 

We support you at every time throughout your journey with Vrbo, like I mentioned, I will be your first point of contact when you decide to onboard your properties with Vrbo. 

So you will always have a dedicated Vrbo partner success team member who's looking after you when you're onboarding. 

And once your listings are live, you will have a dedicated account manager or a support team member who is there to help you out throughout the journey. And then we have different tools and support to improve the visibility and performance of your listings. 

Then we provide you more exposure. When I say more exposure, you're not just getting the word exposure to the Vrbo audience. At the same time you're getting exposure to the Expedia expanded distribution. 

We have 50 websites in 23 languages globally and we have seven million travellers who visit monthly. So when a traveller is going to, let's say the Expedia side, they will see properties there, then they're looking for a vacation rental, they will also see, okay, what kind of vacation rentals are there in this region? 

So you get a lot of exposure from our sister brands, from Expedia group of brands. Then it's very simple and efficient listing management, it is very super easy to onboard. I don't wanna lose my job, but I would say if I'm not here, you will be able to onboard on your own. 

But we always try to be there for you. Hop on a zoom call with you, answer your questions, guide you through the onboarding process just to avoid any errors. But it is a very simple process and very easy to onboard. 

And that's why we also call it self-service onboarding, which I will talk about a little later in the presentation. 

You can make your changes in only one place, so whatever, for example, if you're connected with Bookster, so whatever changes you're making in Bookster, it'll automatically be synced with your on, on the listings as well. 

So it's automatic data sync and it is updated every hour and your properties, your decisions. When I say that, I mean that you are in, you are the person who's controlling everything. 

You manage your properties the way you want it to. So Vrbo does not interfere much and okay, you should do this, you should do that. So it's totally up to you how you want to manage your property, what kind of policies you wanna have, and you are the person who's gonna control the payments. 

So everything is under your control. Now, moving forward, uh, I will talk about some travel and market trends. First of all, vacation rental inventory growth is at all time highs. 

This increased inventory supply has led to a more competitive market over the years. We have seen the vacation rental market is growing and growing. I'm not saying that the hotels or any other industry is going anywhere, but we have seen an upward trend in the vacation rentals and we have seen increased inventory supply over the years. 

Like the best season is yet to come, but if you look at the trends, if you look at the data, it's looking amazing. Then flexible cancellation policies are still a top request when I say that. It is very important to know that lenient cancellation policies have higher con conversion rates and get booked more. 

So when you are starting out in the market and when you are looking for the strong start, it's always good to have flexible cancellation policies and avoid having very strict cancellation policies in the beginning. I will talk about it later, uh, like talk about this in a little more detail at the later, uh, stage in the presentation. 

And now the third point is high or excessive fees will lead to less bookings. So instead of having fees, um, in your, in your listings, it's always recommended to add fees in a rent fee or into a nightly rate. 

So when a traveller is selected, looking at the property and when trying to make the payment and at the end when they say three or four different types of fees, the rate of conversion may be lower down a little bit. 

So it's always recommended to have those fees included into your nightly leave so that you can cover up your costs and at the same time, the travel is not seeing a lot of fees when they are making a booking. Moving forward. 

Let's talk about some market insights specifically for the United Kingdom market 2022-2023. We don't really have the data for 2024 yet, but I will share something, uh, when we have. 

So let's talk about the traveller's origin. If you look at the traveller origin, the most other travellers from VRBO to the UK market are coming from the UK itself. But a major chunk is coming from the US as well, followed by Germany, Canada, Australia, and other European countries. 

And if we look at the average length of stay, the travellers coming from Germany tend to stay for the longest duration followed by Australia, Canada, US, United Kingdom, and then the other countries. 

And the interesting fact here, the average daily rate, even if the travellers who are coming from the German market or the German countries, uh, Germany, they uh, they try to, they want to stay for longer time, but they're actually looking for lower average daily rates. However, the travellers who are coming from the US, they, they are okay, they are okay with paying more and they are okay with having like a little higher average daily dates. 

So you can have this data in your mind when you're trying to, uh, trying to update the rates and maybe tweak them around if you are, uh, targeting, um, a particular type of, uh, traveller from a different, uh, region, moving on. 

Let's talk about how you can connect to Vrbo with Bookster. So it's, first of all, it's free to subscribe. It is free to create an account, activate the interface and promote the existing and adding new properties. 

Second, there's a paper booking model. So you will only be paying commission per booking. There's no subscription fee. There are no listing fee. We just charge your commission one month after the checkout and our commission is 15% on the net rates. Third, there's no commitment. 

You can add only the listing you want to promote for as long as you want to. 

And we have flexible booking terms, so we are not tying you to any contractual regulations. 

If you have one property, you can onboard that property. If you have a thousand properties, you can onboard a thousand properties and you can take them out whenever, whenever you want. 

So there's no commitment here. And then you are the person who's going to control the payments. 

You are the merchant of records and directly in charge of bookings and payments, which will be processed in your Bookster account. 

So when I say this, I mean that Vrbo is not the merchant of record. We do not hold any payment from the guest. 

So when a guest is making a booking, you will be able to charge the guest directly through your payment processor set up in the Bookster account. And then last but not the least, you get the visibility across the workboard network. 

I have mentioned it earlier as well, but you will be visible across all the Vrbo brands, like all the regional brands that I mentioned earlier and you also get access to seven  million unique monthly visitors who are visiting the Expedia group, uh, group size and the system brands. 

Moving forward, let's talk about the API connection and what are the requirements to connect because I get this question a lot, like what are the requirements, how we can connect to, so first of all, it is very important that you have a payment method set up. You should have a payment method set up prior to starting the onboarding. 

When I say this, I mean that you should either have a payment processor set up in Bookster or you should, or if you wanna go ahead with invoice payment, it's totally up to you, but you must be having a payment processor set up because you are gonna manage the payments, uh, payments and the bookings through your Bookster account. 

Second channel set up. When I say this, I mean that you should be fully onboarded in your software. 

All the information for the listings should be complete and all listings be activated for BU channel. 

So basically what you need to do is you need to activate Bookster as a channel partner in your Bookster account and then start pushing the listings as active so that we can start with the onboarding process. Third and very most important point here, you should have a VAT number or either a company registration number to start with the API connection. 

The account must be in good standing with no violations and it is very important in the EU that the PMs must provide us with a valid WA number or a company registration number if they want to go ahead with the API connection. 

And next point is currency and language currency and language settings must match the requirements. 

For example, if you want to onboard your properties in English language and want to have, let's say you as a currency, you will go for Vrbo uk. 

Sometimes it happens like as we have regional brands, sometimes it creates confusion in the mind of PMs, okay, which brand we should onboard the properties on. 

So with the different brands, we have different currency set up and different language set up. For example, Abritel.fr, it's a regional brand in France. 

So if you are onboarding your properties on that brand, that means your listings will be in French and the currency will be in Euro. So it is very important that you set up the account on the right brand. 

So that's why we are here. So if you want to onboard your properties, call me. I'm gonna share my details at the end of the presentation. You will have my email there. Let me know. 

Okay, we want to connect and we want to create an account and I will create the account and set it up for you so that there are no errors and we do it in the right manner.

 Last but not the least, you should have a credit card or a debit card for the onboarding activation because we charge our commission one month after the checkout through the debit card or the credit card that you will set out for the billing during the onboarding process. Nothing will be debited during the activation process. 

That card will only be used for the payment of future commissions moving forward. 

API connections requirement to connect and how your list listing should look like. So we have a minimum content requirement for listings. So these are the five points you should keep in mind when you're setting up your listings. First of all, your headlines should have at least 20 characters. 

Your descriptions should have at least 400 characters. Each listing must have at least six photos. I say at least six photos, but it's always good to have more pictures. I will talk about the key stats about photos in the later part of the presentation, like how many pictures, uh, you should have, IDD. 

But just to start out and just to make sure that you meet the minimum requirements, it is important that each listing must have at least six photos. 

Each listing should have an accurate address of the property, including the city, state and the zip code. And you should have the rates updated for each of the listings moving forward. 

I talk about the onboarding cycle. So what does it look like? So when you decide to onboard your properties with us in the first three months, the first point of contact would be me for the UK market and I have other team members looking after different markets. If you're based somewhere else, let me know and I'll put you in touch with that person. 

The first thing would be a discovery call. Discovery call is like a call where we'll talk about your requirements, what do you are exactly looking for, if you have any questions about commissions, payments, and then we set up the account, we ask for some pre, pre preliminary questions like your company details and then I will set up the account for you. 

Once the account is set up, it is important for you to set everything up in the Bookster account, making the listings ready and onboarding everything in the channel first. And once you have done that, I will ask you to share the advertiser ID with me. 

So advertiser ID is basically a code that we need to make sure that you're ready on the software side. 

And once we run the check and we see that okay, that all the listings are set up properly in a Bookster account, we get on an onboarding call, which is a zoom call where we complete a short onboarding form, which is also called, uh, self-service onboarding. We always try to do it on a Zoom call just to avoid the errors and make sure you get a seamless experience working with Vrbo. 

So once we complete the SSO, once we complete the onboarding call, we assign your project to one of the onboarding specialists on our team and they will run some reports and they will check for errors and will make sure that the listings are good to go and they are live. 

And once your listings are live, you're gonna have a strong start call or which is also called account optimization, where you get some tips from our team to make sure their listings are looking attractive to the world travellers and what exactly our travellers are looking for. It aligns well with your listing. So we give you some account optimization tips there. 

So this is how your first three months with Vrbo look like, and after the three months you will have a dedicated account management team who are looking after your account or a customer support team member. 

But in the initial one to three months, the acquisition point of contact, someone like me would be there to help you out with everything. Now moving forward, like I mentioned, what does self service onboarding look like? So this, this here is the link for the self service onboarding, which you can complete on your own. But yeah, I would always, always advise you to get on a zoom call with me and we can complete the process together just to avoid any kind of errors. 

So what are the onboarding steps that we take? We create a wherever user account for you. 

We log in with your username, we provide your company billing and batch details. 

We provide your Bookster account details just to make sure that you are ready on the software side. And then we provide the credit card details or the debit card details for the billing purpose. 

And like I mentioned, once the onboarding is completed, the team will activate the interface, the onboarding specialist will take over the account and will make sure everything is done perfectly fine. And then you go live in the next two to three business days after we complete the onboarding form. 

So this is how the process looks, it's pretty set forward, it's pretty simple. If you have any question you can ask me at the end moving forward, these are some listing optimization tips. 

So these are the big four that I always ask the PMs to keep in mind. First of all, it is very important that you create quality content. It is important that you have compelling headlines, you have engaged in descriptions, photos, amenities, and house rules. 

For example, I was speaking with some PMs based in UAE, just giving an example of UAE because I just at the top of my head, because I was speaking with them earlier this morning, so their apartment was very close to the beach, but they never ticked that amenity or where, where they never that on the listing. 

And sometimes when the travellers are making a booking, they make some filters and they're looking, let's say we want to be close to the beach. 

And even if your property is closer to the beach, you are not even showing in the results. So it is important that you make sure that you have, take all the amenities you have and you have very engaging pictures, very engaging headlines. 

So it is important that you create quality content. Second, it is important to set competitive rates. I would not say that keep them very low or keep them super high, but yeah, just set them competitive as per the market and make sure that you cover your costs as well. 

Then booking management, it is important to have flexible cancellation policies and less fees. I have touched on this point earlier as well, but it is very important that you don't give the traveller a lot of fees. 

Instead just try to combine them and put them in the nightly rate and cover your cost and just make sure that they are, they're not like getting overwhelmed looking at a lot of fees. 

Okay, they're charging this, they're showing that. So it's always good to have that less feast and flexible cancellation policy. 

I cannot say much like I cannot like iterate much on this point, but it's very important that you have flexible cancellation policy because when travellers are making bookings, like in today's age, people are making bookings and they, nobody's really, really sure of their plans and they, they want to make sure that they have flexible cancellation policies. 

So they filter out the properties where we have a very super strict cancellation policy or no cancellation policy at all. 

So it is important that you keep that in mind. I'm not saying that goes super lenient, but yeah, it is very important that you have some flexibility there. And then last but not least reviews, it is very important that you have some good reviews out there on their listings. 

So you need to prep your guest, ask more than once, make it easy for them to leave the review for you. 

For example, if they're at their property, when they're leaving, when they're coming, ask them to rate their stay, ask them to give, leave you, leave you a review and make it easy for them. Send them an email later on asking for that and just don't ask a lot of questions. Just put it there. 

And it is very important that you have some good reviews out there because when as a person I'm looking at property and I'm trying to book it and super new on the platform, there are few good reviews, it might give me more confidence to book and go ahead with moving forward. 

Kelly:

Can I ask you a question there in the review section? So I know some of the other channels, they will directly contact the guest to ask for reviews. Are you saying then that Vrbo doesn't directly ask the guest for it? Is it for the property manager to do? 

Shivali: 

No, it is like we ask them for the review, but it's always good to tell them, like for example if you, when they're checking on, just send, tell them, give them a reminder, okay, can you please rate uh, your stay or could you please leave us a review? 

They automatically get an email but sometimes it just gets lost in the shuffle and someone is telling if someone is telling them to leave a review, it might stay in their head and they might leave a review. So that's what I'm saying that you need to prepare your guests and maybe ask more than once. Fantastic. 

Yeah, Moving forward, let's talk about some key stats here which are in like from, I found them really interesting. Like I said earlier, I mentioned that it is important that you should have at least six photos, but having over 20 photos increases trust by 88%. 

And this, these stats are cal like these stats are gathered and calculated based on the data that we have received over time based on the travellers and the bookings and based on the surveys that we have conducted over time, the photos are the number one reason a guest selects or does not select a property in the search result. 

So having over 20 photos per listing increases the trust by 88%. So yeah, put your good pictures out there, make sure the best ones are at the top. So it's, it's really good to, it's really important to have good pictures and it makes your listings more compelling, more appealing to the travellers moving forward. 

Filters, like I mentioned, that it is very important that you have all the amenities marked there. So as per the data we have collected, nearly 25% of all travellers filter their vacation rental search for one of these items. Kitchen, television, wireless, internet, parking or pet allowed. 

So sometimes people just assume okay that everywhere, everywhere we go we get the wireless internet. But yes, mark it there, put it under the amenity, make sure you don't miss out on anything. If you have a kitchen, mark it there, tell them parking or pets allowed. So just make sure that whatever amenities you are offering them, it is visible to them on your listings moving forward. Price and fee, like I mentioned, is a very important factor. Price is the most important, uh, important factor when deciding to book. 

And this is, this has been said by 85% of guests that have been travelling and we have conducted the survey. So 85% of guests say that price is the most important factor. So keep that in mind. And properties with only one fee, see 30% higher conversion than property with three or four fees like I mentioned earlier. 

Just combine them and put it into a rate. Instead of giving them a lot of different types of fees, just give them one or two. And if you talk about the reviews, 92% of guests want to see reviews before booking on an average property with 10 or more reviews that have a higher conversion rate of more than 50%. 

But there's nothing to worry if you're new to Vrbo and let's say if you're new and you just created your account and you just started, you onboarding your properties and you don't really have any reviews, they will see that, that this is a new property and just make your listing more attractive with pictures, headlines and other stuff. 

But yeah, over time when you start strong and when you start getting the bookings, you will have some reviews there and it'll definitely be really, really good for your listings and for the conversion rates.

And yes, again, the cancellation policy. I cannot just stop talking about this point again and again, but 77% of travellers are more likely to book a rental with flexible cancellation policies and they're filtering out less flexible policies like they are using the free cancellation filter most of the time. 

But yeah, we have a different type of cancellation policies you can choose, but I would still say go for the flexible cancellation policies rather than going with a very super strict cancellation policy. I think that's pretty much all from my side and I'm gonna open the floor to questions now. 

Kelly:

I saw a report the other day from Expedia and it was specifically talking about types of travel and types of guests who were travelling.

And there's a really interesting bit in it about, um, targeting people based on the, uh, travel routes, also the kind of um, the airline routes to your location. 

Do you have any advice on how to target different nationalities or different groups by using Vrbo? 

Shivali:

Yeah, like I would say after the presentation, when you have the data you can share it with the PMs so that gives them more awareness where the travellers are coming from. 

For example, if a traveller is coming from the US like I mentioned, they are okay with paying a more average daily rate. So once you look at that data, you'll get to know, okay, where exactly are the travellers coming from, from Edinburgh. And right now, with the UK especially Edinburgh and Scotland, there are a lot of travellers coming and there is a lot of interest because of the market trends. 

For example, it has been featured in a lot of TV series, a lot of movies and other stuff and I, we have been gathering data and we have looked at the surveys and we see that people are really interested, interested in visiting those locations. 

So if your property is very near to some locations like that, please write that in your descriptions okay here, like this close by areas where you can visit this visit that would really help. 

And just for targeting the right kind of customers, like I mentioned, if someone is coming from Germany, they are looking for longer stays. So it is important that you open your calendar, you keep your calendars open and don't, don't block them if it is not necessary. 

So just keeping your calendars open and making sure you have the competitive rates set up, that would really help. And I don't have the exact data for a particular region right now, but I can try getting some data for you guys and if I'm able to find some I will share it with you. 

Kelly:

That's amazing. So just going back to what you're saying there about people who are specifically travelling because people who are specifically travelling to go to a location that's been on the TV or been in a film, would you, you're saying put it in the descriptions, would you include it in the photographs as well that there are these areas that are nearby to your property? 

Shivali: 

Yeah, it's definitely like, it's always good to have more and more pictures and if you want to add it in the pictures, you should definitely go ahead with it. I would say it'll, it, it should basically appeal more. Okay. And they will be able to see something extra and if there is in the description they're like, okay, it's very close by to that place and it's on our mind. We saw that place in that series, that movie. So it kind of gives them, okay, let's go for it. So it's important that you keep those things in mind and if you have pictures, just put it out there more than merrier. I would say. 

Kelly: 

There was a question early on when you were looking at the average daily rates. Yeah. And the question was, um, what's the, what is that average kind of daily rate based on? Is it certain types of property or was it looking more holistically across all the different property types that are in Vrbo?

Shivali: 

I would say the data that I've shared is holistically across all the kinds of properties. It's not for a specific kind of property. Yeah, right. So like all kinds of application answers in that area. 

Kelly: 

Okay, that is perfect. I hope that answers the question there. I have also been asked, is there going to be a recording? Yes, there is going to be a recording I will send out with the links and with the telephone numbers. 

I've also got another question here from that's just come in, come. So what type of average cancellation rates do you see? Which is, that's one of the issues with offering more flexible booking policies is trying to fill it last minute is difficult of course. 

Shivali: 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can completely understand that concern that when you are putting out the flexible cancellation policies, there is always a risk that it is cancelled at the last minute and you're not able to book it. But like, to be honest, what type of average cancellation rates do you see? 

Again, it's not super high and I will, uh, like to be honest, the account managers that are here on the team, they have different kinds of cancellation rates for different types of region. If your properties are situated in a particular region, send me an email after the webinar so that I can get you some more data for your region because right now I don't have the data handy and I don't wanna give you any wrong information, so send me an email. My email was there. So note it down, send me an email that you want this data for this particular region and I believe it'll be to share more insightful data with you. 

And someone in the questions has also asked about whether their average daily rate is based on a two bedroom flag. So if you want to get data on just a single particular type of property, pop me an email so that I can get some more data for you. 

Right now what I have talked about is like holistic data depend and it is based on all kind of vacation rentals in the uk but if you want the data for a particular kind of property, let's say apartment flats, condos, just let me know so that I can help you with more insightful data there. 

Kelly: 

That's really interesting. Thank you. Okay, we've got a last question come through before we say goodbye, from Ruiridh.

Similar to how certain websites like A DNA have good information about the most profitable areas. Does verbal have information on that as well? 

Shivali: 

Yes, we do have information on that.

We have the top five markets in the UK. I don't have the names at the top of my head right now, but yes, I will share that with Kelly so that she can add that in the, in the, in the, in the doc that she's gonna share with you all. So you can have a look there. 

So we have some data for the good, good uh, destination in the UK where, where we are getting a lot of bookings. 

So yeah, I'm going to share that data with Kelly. 

Kelly: 

That's great and it, I mean you're right, we, the information that's on AirDNA is amazing. Like even if you have a free account with them you can really dig down into a lot of information about the type of bookings that are coming in, where those bookings are, what the hot locations are. 

So it's for anybody else if you've not been looking at the AirDNA data for your area. It is definitely worth spending some time with a cup of tea and going through that. Okay, well in that case I'm gonna call this a wrap. 

Thank you so much for coming. Is there anything else that you would like to add before we say goodbye? 

Shivali:

I would just like to say thank you and I would like to say maybe I was able to give you some insightful data and I was, I would, I would be happy to know your feedback and if you are looking to onboard your properties, keep, keep in touch, send me an email, you can call me on that number. 

The number is also available on WhatsApp, so if you're someone who's handy with WhatsApp and would like to communicate with it there, communicate with me there, send me a WhatsApp and I will be there to help you out. Brilliant. 

Kelly:

And from Bookster's perspective, you have our details that are on the website and for anybody who is wanting to come along, we run a drop-in session every Wednesday at half past 12. Robin's going to be there today so if you have any questions, you are more than welcome to join us. And the link to that is inside Bookster or I'll also share it after the event. 

Okay? Alright, thank you very much everybody and I'll see you again soon. 

Shivali:

Perfect, thank you so much. Have a good day guys. Bye-Bye.

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Watch the replay as Shivali Yadav of Vrbo talks with Kelly of Bookster about growing your business with Vrbo.