1st of the Month Wrangle: Is Airbnb’s “Direct Booking” Really Direct? with Orlie Benjamin and Eric Goldreyer

In this fourth episode of First of the Month Wrangle, Orlie Benjamin, Founder and CEO of Lasoh, joins Eric Goldreyer, Founder and CEO of Savvy, to unpack one of the latest conversations surrounding Airbnb and direct booking.

Airbnb has been testing a program that allows some hosts and co-hosts to drive their own demand to an Airbnb listing in exchange for a reduced platform fee. The company may be calling it direct booking, but Orlie and Eric argue that the definition gets more complicated when the reservation still happens on Airbnb and the operator does not fully control the guest relationship.

That question opens the door to a much bigger conversation about what direct booking actually means, who owns the guest relationship, and what operators gain or give up depending on where that relationship lives.

Transcript

Welcome to First of the Month Wrangle

Alex Husner 0:00

It’s the first of the month, which means it’s time for our First of the Month Wrangle, brought to you by Lasoh. Every month, we take one big idea shaping the vacation rental industry. And instead of just talking about it, we actually pull it apart: what’s working, what’s not, and what people aren’t saying out loud. And we’ve got Orlie Benjamin, CEO of Lasoh, here to help us do just exactly that. Okay, Orlie, let’s wrangle it.

Welcome to Alex and Annie, the Real Women of Vacation Rentals. I’m Alex, and I am joined today by Jinnie as my co-host. Jinnie, good to see you. And this is our First of the Month Wrangle presented by Lasoh. We’ve got Orlie Benjamin, who’s actually joined us for a few of these episodes so far in 2026. And we’ve got a special guest. We have Eric, who is the CEO and founder of Savvy, also a familiar face on the show. How are you guys doing today?

Excited to be here. Thanks for having us.

What Airbnb Is Testing With “Direct Booking”

Alex Husner 0:57

Awesome. Well, this is a kind of a special one because this is a topic that has been pretty extensively chatted about on the internet since the announcement came up. And it is related to Airbnb and how they’ve decided that they want to instruct hosts or property managers that the way that they can do direct bookings is to just send the link to their Airbnb listing instead of creating an actual direct booking program. But that’s kind of very high level. Orlie, I’m going to throw it to you. What are the main facts that people need to know about this?

Orlie Benjamin 1:32

I think Airbnb has recognized that their own customers that are, you know, hosts and co-hosts are now actually a potential for marketing. And they’ve created what I would refer to as an affiliate program, but they’re calling it direct booking.

And so the typical platform fee that goes to hosts since October of last year is 15.5%. But what Airbnb is offering to its hosts, that if they want to actually start creating marketing on behalf of their own business and use a direct booking link — and I say direct booking link because it’s not defined the same way that I think the professional part of the industry would refer to it — as that URL that goes directly to Airbnb, not to an operator’s own platform, would then result in a reduced platform fee.

So it would save the 9.5% because it’s only a 6% fee instead of a 15.5% fee.

Eric Goldreyer 2:28

Six to 10, by the way. Six to 10. So thank you. Thank you, Eric. For those people that think it’s going to stay at the low end of the spectrum, they haven’t been paying attention to what Airbnb’s been doing with their fees.

Orlie Benjamin 2:38

My attempt was to be very fact-based before I bring my opinions in. But as Eric got started, we’re going to start.

Eric Goldreyer 2:44

No, but factually, factually, to be fair, they’re testing six and ten percent. Correct. So I just don’t want people to think that it’s necessarily nine percent less.

Alex Husner 2:56

Well, I remember years ago, Airbnb was only three percent. So for regular property managers, so yeah, a testing bid for sure.

Eric Goldreyer 3:05

I didn’t mean to interrupt you.

Alex Husner 3:06

Yes.

Orlie Benjamin 3:06

No, Eric, I’m glad you did. And to say it differently now that I’m bringing in opinions, it’s only two to three times more than what it used to cost a year ago if you start doing your own marketing.

Jinnie Randolph 3:15

I also thought it was interesting when we were all kind of chatting about this off-screen, that we’ve all heard about this because, to Alex’s point, it’s been a hot topic of conversation on LinkedIn and on different hosts and property manager groups.

But we also discussed the fact that Airbnb themselves have not really officially publicly published this, that the 6% versus the 10% is coming from hosts who have received this email about this beta program, which I think also introduces for the next conversation an interesting dynamic of the fact that Eric, I think you and Orlie both had some interesting hot takes on kind of how, not just the fact that Airbnb was testing this, but how they have communicated, to whom they’ve communicated, what rates they’ve communicated to whom, which I think just kind of fuels the fire for why it’s been such a hot topic of conversation across the internet so far.

So I’m excited that we can kind of dive in and hear more of both of your perspectives on the topic.

Eric Goldreyer 4:23

Sure. And I think it makes sense, right? They’re not gonna, if you’re Airbnb, you don’t want your customers to try to find and use this link because you’re just giving up margin.

Airbnb wants the property manager’s customers to become their customers, and they want the property managers to give this link out to their guests. So you’re not gonna see Airbnb publishing this out to the demand side of the marketplace. It’s just gonna be to the supply.

Alex Husner 4:48

Yeah, and I think the conversation really comes down to okay, who is this a good fit for?

And when we all chatted on this topic last week, we talked about, you know, if these hobbyist hosts are people that they just have one or two properties and they’re new into this and maybe they’re not, they’re likely not in all these LinkedIn chats, like we all are about this. You know, they’re just trying to navigate the waters of figuring out, you know, using the platform, the basics of hosting, keeping the property, you know, up to speed and taking care of guests.

But are they really looking at direct bookings? Do they know the direct bookings are something they need to be doing? And maybe if they’ve heard of it, does this just seem like it’s the easy way to do it? Because they don’t want to go and spend a bunch of money on getting a website and all those other things.

But I mean, how do you see it from your perspective, Orlie? And I think you’re an interesting one to ask about this because, you know, besides the business that you’ve built for property managers that isn’t just for small hosts, it’s for companies of all size, you are an individual host. That’s how you started, that you had a couple properties. So, what would you have thought if you had seen this come out a few years ago?

Is Airbnb’s Direct Booking Link Really Direct?

Orlie Benjamin 5:53

So I’m an owner operator of my own vacation rental business. I’m a prior Fortune 500 direct-to-consumer marketer. So I’m a little bit biased. And I’m also the founder of a marketing technology solution.

If I was an owner operator that did not have chops or comfort with marketing, I would probably find this interesting because it can feel intimidating to have a business that’s entirely reliant on a distribution channel and then try to build the muscle around direct-to-consumer marketing because there’s some things that go into that.

So I think there’s a bit of a positive spin that can be taken for that operator that doesn’t have the background in knowing how to start direct-to-consumer marketing.

But this is an opportunity to treat this — I’m gonna call it an affiliate link. I wouldn’t, I don’t think I should refer to this as direct booking, just so we don’t get confused during the podcast.

This affiliate link to me is an opportunity to create a proof of concept of if driving your own demand has value without having to set up a PMS, without having to set up a direct booking site, without any of the work that comes into building the muscle to being a direct-to-consumer business.

So I almost in a way see this as a great gateway opportunity for anyone that’s not doing any direct marketing to test into it.

Any professional operator that has their own direct booking site that has commercial and direct-to-consumer capabilities probably would look at this. And I’ve already seen the chatter on the internet, and the real response is this is not direct booking because it’s not.

It’s not direct. You don’t own the customer relationship, you don’t have any of the data that comes in through Google Tag Manager and GA4. And so the definition of direct booking is control and data. And none of those things happen with why I’m referring to it as an affiliate link.

So, me, I’m biased, right? I would not be excited about this, but I also have the experience and the infrastructure around marketing capabilities that I wouldn’t need this.

And so I’m trying to be an optimist and recognize that for a certain type of operator that hasn’t gone to direct booking in the true way yet, this is a gateway.

And it’ll be really interesting to see if any of those operators actually segue into truly doing direct booking because they saw an ROI in putting a little muscle behind, putting some marketing behind their own product.

That said, I think for anyone who’s a, I would refer to as a sort of a, as Eric has referred to as a savvy operator, I think any savvy operator out there recognizes this is not direct booking, it’s an affiliate program. Eric, what would you add to that?

If You Are Doing the Marketing, Who Owns the Guest?

Eric Goldreyer 8:30

You know, the one, and I wouldn’t even say it’s a disagreement, but the nuance I would say in your comment, Orlie, was that, you know, you said for someone that doesn’t isn’t good at marketing and direct marketing out to their customers, I mean, that’s who this is built for.

If you’re not marketing, then you don’t have anyone to give a book direct link on Airbnb, which isn’t a book direct link to.

So to me, if you’re a property manager of any size, two properties or 2,000 properties, if you’re out marketing, you’re already doing the hardest part of the exercise, and that is finding the guest.

And I think this is all about: is it gonna be your guest as a host or is it gonna be everybody’s guest?

So, you know, if you’re out social, email campaigns, freaking flyers at the Chamber of Commerce, which is so, you know, 1990s. But if you’re doing anything to market and then you’re giving your customer over to a middleman, I think it’s certainly a disservice to your business in the long term.

I could see where maybe people want to try it short term as a quick stepping stone, but don’t think of it as I’m paying six or 10% instead of 15. Think of it as that rebooking that you would have gotten from that guest that loved your place because of the level of hospitality that you provided.

You’re not gonna get the direct reservation next time because they’re now an Airbnb customer. So you’re paying that fee every time.

Orlie Benjamin 9:59

Eric, I wholeheartedly agree with you. And the only value I see is for someone who never put in the infrastructure to build the direct booking site and set up the infrastructure, that this becomes an opportunity to test into it before going and doing that.

And if someone continues to do this and gives away 6, 10% instead of 15, the math should math real quickly on why that doesn’t make sense, solely from a financial perspective, not even including the distribution control and customer data and this, you know, missed business control that comes from that.

So I agree with you entirely. I was only saying that I think the silver lining is if you haven’t at all done anything, use this as your first step. And if you have done something, then you already know the system.

Eric Goldreyer 10:48

I would even add to that when you say as a first step, truly is a stepping stone. Like, man, I need this up today because I’m new to the industry and I haven’t been to VRMA or I haven’t watched 30 episodes of Alex and Annie, there are dozens of providers in our industry that can get you set up with credit card processing. I mean, a website. This is not rocket science. This is easy stuff.

So, yes, if it’s gonna be a hobby for you, okay. Maybe you don’t want to have to deal with the credit card processing, etc. But if this is gonna be something that you’re doing, you’re gonna pay two to three X on the initial reservation and you’re gonna keep paying on every subsequent reservation.

So it’s definitely not smart for most hosts. Alex, when you asked who’s it the best for? It’s the best for Airbnb, obviously. They’re able to grow their flywheel.

I mean, this basically gets the supply or hosts, property managers, to help build the flywheel at Airbnb that hosts want to get out of. So it’s a little bit of a conundrum.

Guest Data, Remarketing, and the Customer Relationship

Orlie Benjamin 13:02

But that’s why the PMS captures things like phone number, potentially email address. I mean, that’s why Lasoh is literally built. We integrate into the whole ecosystem so that every bit of guest contact information is automatically dropped into a system.

And then you can automatically do follow-ups outside of Airbnb if you actually want to do direct booking correctly.

So I think the only use case that I see, I see two use cases. One, in your case, Alex, where they just send you the link through the Airbnb chat for the Airbnb rebooking rate, or they send it to you via text or via email if they’ve gotten your email address off platform.

And then the second use case I think is interesting is the creator economy, right? If you happen to start working with — but if you’re doing that, you’re just doing marketing. Like, why wouldn’t you just drive it to your own environment?

Like to me, if you’re investing in influencers, unless influencers are literally like pay me and I’ll, you know, I don’t know, that even the creator economy doesn’t make sense.

Eric Goldreyer 13:59

Spending the money, not getting the direct, the actual direct booking.

Orlie Benjamin 14:02

And I mean, let’s not — I could see it being used, but it doesn’t make sense.

Eric Goldreyer 14:06

Let’s not overlook. Haven’t seen how the T’s and C’s that Airbnb change for this link. But Airbnb strictly prevents and prohibits hosts from using this information to remarket.

That’s one of the big things, right? That’s the difference between a true direct booking and a middleman or an OTA is who owns the customer and the right to remarket to that customer.

And traditionally, Airbnb has been, you know, no, that’s our customer.

So there’s one thing, which is getting the contact information, which yes, PMSs can do. You can QR code at your property, whatever it is, but they don’t want you doing it.

And so giving them your customer, and then they’re like, yeah, okay, hey, thanks. And by the way, don’t reach out to that person again is crazy.

Whether it’s Savvy or others, there are other direct booking marketplaces where a property manager doesn’t have to have a website to get a direct booking.

So if you’re gonna send someone to a link, don’t send them to a link where there’s a middleman that owns the customer and holds on to the cash until after the stay and blah, blah, blah. Send them somewhere where it’s your customer and you get the cash immediately and it’s your terms and conditions.

What Professional Vacation Rental Operators Really Do

Orlie Benjamin 19:10

Okay. All right. So, first of all, I think there’s value in — I’m gonna refer to the group of people we’re talking to as hosts, right?

So I think there’s value in both hosts and co-hosts trying it and realizing how hard it is, right? It’s one thing to just list on a channel, it’s another thing to drive demand.

It’s the same reason if you look at other industries why direct-to-consumer versus CPG makes sense. The Procter & Gambles of the world recognize that they only want to be in the product business, they don’t want to be in the retail business. They give all their product to all the retailers of the world and all they are is product.

And so I think that’s a very similar parallel, which I think it would help hosts appreciate that the distribution side of the business, not just the managing and the building of the product, but the distribution side is just as hard, if not harder.

And I think the second silver lining is that when professional operators are looking to take on inventory from hosts and those hosts have tried it, they now actually can appreciate what a professional operator is doing beyond the day-to-day operations.

Because if we want to break down really what a professional operator does, it fits in three buckets.

The first is when I would say operating, I mean everything from inventory management for supplies to cleaning the property to maintenance events. Okay, we’ll call that asset management.

The second is a financial stewardship component. That’s everything from trust accounting to running the math to making sure that the seasonality of cash flow does not result in a scenario where the business is upside down. It’s not only profitable, but it’s seasonally playing out.

And then the third is driving demand. And I would put revenue management and marketing in that bucket.

Revenue management and marketing are really peanut butter and jelly complementary capabilities because revenue management is what price should the product be? And marketing is how do you create awareness for the product?

And if you do it right, you drive demand to the right price and everything works really nicely together.

This is actually the topic I’m facilitating a session on at VRMA in a couple of weeks, because a lot of professional operators definitely have revenue management capabilities and some of them have marketing capabilities.

And so for a host to do all three of those things well, very unlikely. They’re probably only doing bucket number one well, which is making sure it’s cleaned, making sure it’s maintained, maybe making sure they’re like not in the red financially, but probably not maximizing the opportunity.

I think the demand and the commercial side is really where the host probably does not do as well as the professional operator because it’s so many hats to wear.

And so I think that going and tasting how hard it is to drive demand would actually create a good argument for professional operators to say, see, there’s something you’re paying me for, and it’s hard.

The True Cost of Distribution

Orlie Benjamin 22:21

I don’t think it does. Eric, disagree with me. I mean, I think you’re always paying for distribution in some way.

You’re paying 15.5% when you rely on a distribution channel. You’re probably paying somewhere between four and eight percent if there is a real marketing capability and a tech stack and some fractional commercial skills.

It’s always cheaper, almost always if you have some scale of properties — like I don’t mean one — but if you have some scale, it’s always cheaper to in-house this than it is to go on distribution.

And so I actually think it’s an interesting thing to say, which is why don’t you try how hard it is and see here, let’s see how much traction you get through this affiliate link. And you save 9%. Like, was that worth your time?

Why Direct Booking Has a Trust Problem

Eric Goldreyer 23:30

The one thing, in my opinion, that this brings to hosts is trust, right? Because who the heck is this property manager?

They got three properties, they’ve got a crappy website with two lines of description, as you just mentioned, and they want me to give them my money. Oh, I’m booking Airbnb? Okay, okay. That’s the one thing where it’s smart.

Because the reason we exist is because property managers have been trying to drive direct bookings, and yeah, we all know what direct bookings are. We all go shop on Google for air and car and hotel. And once we find the rate we like, we then go directly to United or Southwest Airlines or we go to Hyatt or whatever.

We know what direct booking is, it just doesn’t work in vacation rentals because there’s tens of thousands of brands. There’s not a dozen. And we don’t know who they are because we’ve never been to Napa, California before. So Napa vacation rentals means nothing to me.

I don’t know how long they’ve been in business, do they have good ratings, how many properties do they have? Do they do a good job?

So, you know, the thing is, as an industry, if we want to move share off those guys — those guys being Airbnb and Vrbo — we’ve got to give travelers a trusted place to do discovery and book that’s direct.

Why Your Guest List Is Part of the Value of Your Business

Orlie Benjamin 26:23

Well, and also part of the intellectual property of being a property manager is a Rolodex.

And so if you only think about 15% as a platform fee or, you know, whatever the cost is for the infrastructure to be able to create direct bookings or other platforms that have lower fees, that is one part of the consideration.

But the other part of the consideration is the intellectual property around building your book of business.

If you go buy any business, I mean, there are publicly traded companies that get broken apart and the list is what’s the data.

So, you know, it’s not just about the transaction cost, it’s also about the overall ability to drive recurring revenue from an existing list of customers that has a recurring revenue stream.

And that’s arguably as valuable. I want the math to math on this. So there’s some really big case studies that need to be built here, which Lasoh is planning on doing, but it takes time to build that data.

I would argue that’s as important as the transaction difference because recurring revenue is the best type of business model.

Owning Versus Renting the Customer

Eric Goldreyer 29:05

We talked about the lifetime value before, right? It’s like, okay, are you building a lifetime value of a customer or not? Are you renting them every single time?

And most property managers, hosts, are used to renting customers from Airbnb. They realize they pay, you know, 18.5% all in, 15 to 20 to get that customer.

But then they’re renting them again and again and again.

And what’s happening when they have their own customers because it’s repeat, it’s word of mouth, or it’s marketing that I as a host did, you can build a lifetime value of that customer because you can remarket to them and you can show them a great time and give them true hospitality.

And then, you know, they don’t stay once, they stay two times on average and they recommend to other people. And, you know, you get this value creation.

And you’re only paying your credit card processing on that transaction. You’re not giving up this ongoing fee to rent that customer.

The Opportunity in Referrals and Repeat Guests

Orlie Benjamin 30:02

Eric, your point around referrals is one that I think is not talked about very much.

If you’re gonna have a referral program, have it be through your customers and give them something for it. Don’t have Airbnb own your customer and still charge you, you know, more than it would cost you if you just did it on your own.

So I think that I actually, this is one of the things that Lasoh is seeking to solve, is the referral component.

I bet Savvy’s gonna do something with this too, which is too smart not to. But the referral piece is fairly untapped right now because I think a lot of the operators forget the referral, they’re not even getting the rebooking.

They’re not building the relationship with that guest to allow either a rebooking or a referral to happen.

And I want to also touch on what Eric said, which is trust.

Ultimately, when we break down what Airbnb is, it’s a trust economy. People are more comfortable shopping on Airbnb because they feel that if something goes wrong, they have an exit strategy for something that’s really important, which is a vacation, right?

Not only do you spend a lot of money on vacation, you only get so many of them. You can’t just replace it. It’s kind of one and done.

And so the only way for operators to really not only enable direct bookings, which requires some level of systems and capabilities, is actually to be trustworthy.

And there has to be social proof of being trustworthy, whether it is your Google Business Reviews or your listing on Savvy or your Instagram page and the commentary or local media articles, whatever it is.

Creating the infrastructure around trustworthiness and social proof is super important.

How Savvy and Lasoh Fit Into the Marketing Funnel

Orlie Benjamin 34:53

Well, that’s why Savvy is, you know, I’m speaking on your behalf, Eric, but I think that’s why Savvy makes a lot of sense because they have, you know, a really well-built e-commerce infrastructure that costs hosts nothing except for a reasonable fee and results in them having their own customer and guest contact information coming through.

And that’s part of why I think Lasoh makes sense, because we’ve built the infrastructure that allows for the management of the guest data and the reactivation of the guest data.

And the next thing we’re building is the loyalty program. It’s the last thing on our roadmap before we feel like our CRM infrastructure in terms of the current vision is done.

And so if you really think about the overall marketing funnel, Savvy is really helping at the top of that funnel and Lasoh is really helping at the bottom of that funnel.

And we’re not the only businesses out there that are doing it. There’s a whole world of software out there that’s trying to do this and consultants and professional operators are already doing it.

It’s just that the longer tail of the Airbnb ecosystem might not even know it’s an option.

And so I’m a little bit of an optimist. I’m actually hoping this concept of direct booking, which by the way, I think it’s very intentional that they haven’t created a whole campaign because all these guests will start looking for direct booking as a concept that they’ve never thought of.

But I think it’s very possible the direct booking thing may backfire.

And now these hosts that never even had the idea that they could do a thing might learn that they could go do a thing and then they might go do the thing on their own.

And this whole affiliate program actually becomes a gateway drug to true business sophistication and direct-to-consumerization.

What Actually Counts as a Repeat Guest?

Orlie Benjamin 37:38

Well, I think the first thing you do is you define guest.

My opinion of the definition of a guest is not just the person who booked the stay. It’s any single person that stayed at the property.

And so the best way to measure a repeat guest is to actually have enough data around who has stayed at the property to then attribute any of those guests, regardless if they’re the one that filled out the form online, to a future booking.

The second stage is to then have that data in a way that is organized and then be able to automatically flag a moment where one of them is back and do it in a way that is automated, ideally.

You can do it manually. I would never recommend that. It’s too much work, but automatically have it be identified and then ideally have your system tell you that and do something about it.

And I think this is where loyalty also comes in, too, right? Like, how can you reward people that have been loyal to you in some way, whether it’s a small note or offering them an early check-in because it’s available and it costs you nothing, or dropping a bottle of wine and making something special.

That $10, $20 investment on a, you know, possibly several thousand dollar ticket is sort of a no-brainer.

So I think it starts with data and then it starts with leveraging systems that are able to do something with that data and then not just knowing, but making the guests feel like they’re valued.

Because ultimately, if you know they’re a repeat guest and you do nothing to manage the relationship with the guest, how valuable is that really?

Solving the Discovery Problem for Direct Booking

Eric Goldreyer 39:31

I think it’s compatibility, right? I mean, all property managers, in our opinion, need to have a way for their repeat and word-of-mouth guests to rebook directly.

Because that’s where most of it happens, right? We’re all very lucky that we get to work in an awesome industry, which is hospitality. And guess what? Travel’s sexy. People talk about their trips.

What do you do when you get together with your friends that you haven’t seen in a month at happy hour? Oh my gosh, I just went to this amazing place on the beach here and we stayed in this vacation rental on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this is who we booked it through or whatever.

So word of mouth and repeat is, you have to have a book direct ability for that.

But it’s the discovery that, you know, as a traveler, I’m not gonna go open 20 different browser tabs in a market and look at 10 to 30 different properties on each different one to try to compare availability and rates and descriptions.

I want to go to one place. I mean, I’m in the industry and I’m not going to 20 different websites when I’m traveling somewhere.

So what we’re trying to do, and I think we’re making good progress, is create that alternative for travelers.

Because until someone gives them a way, and AI is going to help it, but until someone gives travelers a way to do discovery at scale, meaning they can go to one place they trust and find what they’re looking for, but then not book with a middleman and pay an additional 15 to 20%, but they can book direct.

So it meets the needs of the host and it meets the needs of the traveler. We think that’s the win.

How AI, AEO, and GEO Are Changing Travel Search

Orlie Benjamin 41:56

I would just add to that that the world is also changing a lot.

And so the world of SEO has now become one of AEO and GEO.

And so that one place where people are going to was probably a couple of places historically, whether it’s Google, maybe they’re starting on Airbnb, maybe they’re starting on a different search engine.

And now there’s more places. And a lot of people are starting to have these very tight relationships with their favorite LLM engine, whether it’s Claude or it’s ChatGPT.

And so it’s just another place where everyone is starting to ask questions.

What is becoming just as important is not just having a marketplace, but so does content because everything is now about context.

And so that AI capability, whether it’s even Gemini through Google, is all going to be about how specific is the search of that person and then how quickly can the right place be matched off of those specifications?

And it doesn’t matter if it’s a marketplace or if it’s a direct booking capability, it’s about how that gets mapped.

And so if someone’s like, I want to go to the Poconos and I’m specifically looking for a five-bedroom that sleeps at least 10 because I’m going with several extra people and I want certain amenities, the ability to narrow that down and come back.

And then that whole engine optimization component, whether it’s Google reviews or it’s a great content engine or whatever it is that’s helping engine optimization, that’s where I believe the future is in terms of the discovery phase.

I think the repeat guest and the referral is a much simpler world because it’s about owning customer data and reactivating it.

But the top of funnel is getting really flipped upside down right now. And I think it’s a really interesting time for Savvy to enter because there’s that opportunity to think about the whole world of AI and engine optimization.

And it’s also one where people’s behaviors are really shifting too.

Why There Will Never Be Only One Booking Channel

Eric Goldreyer 49:04

It will remain a multi-funnel discovery process forever. I mean, there’s never going to be one solution.

As a property manager, you just want to make smart decisions on where you spend your time and your money to maximize your lifetime value of a guest while providing the best hospitality that you can, which allows you to keep your homeowners happy and retain them, and allows you to get good ratings so you can start building some trust.

Because some people will book direct. Some people are always going to want Airbnb.

You know, there’s a lot of people that showroom. They’ll go look on Airbnb and then they’re going to spend 30 minutes or an hour trying to find the property manager’s website directly to book.

So it’s a huge industry. There’s lots of ways people can find vacation rentals.

And I think the trick for property managers is we’re busy. I mean, I know we’re busy. I know property managers are busy.

It’s where do you get the biggest return and how do you ultimately build, as Orlie was saying, a business that has the value inherent beyond just the next transaction.

Building Around Customer Feedback and Relationships

Orlie Benjamin 51:31

I am very customer-centric. It’s the way I’ve been trained, and I can’t wait to listen to feedback and wishes from as many operators as I can.

I have a philosophy that you win or you learn. So no matter what, I’m either winning or learning, and I’m good with that.

And so I can’t wait to really just use this as an opportunity to understand the need of the industry and how can we serve that industry in a way that’s highly concentrated.

I do a lot of that with one-on-one calls and, you know, I’m literally asking people to complain to me and still they don’t want to.

So for me, that’s the excitement.

Eric Goldreyer 52:16

I mean, I’d say the same thing. I mean, the conferences are, you know, I’ve been in hospitality over 30 years. It’s the relationships, that’s what the industry is, and that’s why I feel so blessed and love what I do.

And the conferences are just an opportunity to get out and actually speak to your friends that you work with and try to find ways we can provide more value and let them know that we’re real and that we care and that we answer the phone and we answer emails.

So it’s just an opportunity for everybody to see who they’re working with. And I think that’s what hospitality is about. It’s about relationships. So that’s what we love.

Alex Husner 52:54

Yeah, definitely. Well, me and Annie and Jinnie will be walking around the vendor showcase at VRMA and going to sessions.

And we’re gonna make sure that we stop by to see both of you, and then we’ll also be stopping to see some other of our partners and just kind of getting those hot takes from attendees while we’re there.

So we’re excited to capture that and to see you guys.

But in the meantime, if anybody wants to reach out, Orlie, what’s the best way for them to contact you?

Orlie Benjamin 53:21

Email or LinkedIn are both great. My email is my name, O-R-L-I-E at lasoh.io. I check all my messages as well, at least most of my messages. So yeah, reach out.

Eric Goldreyer 53:35

LinkedIn or via email. It’s Eric, E-R-I-C, at savvy, S-A-V-V-Y dot com.

Alex Husner 53:42

Awesome. And if anybody wants to get in touch with Annie or Jinnie and I, you can go to alexandanniepodcast.com.

And until next time, thanks for tuning in for our First of the Month Wrangle.