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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, listeners. Welcome back for another great week. My name is Sarah Karakaian.
[00:00:04] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–
[00:00:06] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
[00:00:07] Sarah: And this is the–
[00:00:08] Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.
[00:00:09] Questions: Hi, Annette and Sarah. My name is Dori, and I have an A-frame right outside of the Smoky Mountains. My Instagram handle is @servingthroughstays, and I had a question about direct bookings and the tools that you use for that. I’m working on a website right now and was wondering if you had any recommendations on how to process online payments or what to use for that, as well as signing contracts electronically. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks.
[00:00:38] Sarah: All right. I love your handle.Serve through stays.
[00:00:40] Annette: I want to stay at your A-frame. By the way, everyone, I want to stay at all of your properties.
[00:00:47] Sarah: And actually, it might be a big part of our 2024.
[00:00:49] Annette: Yeah. Be on the lookout for a survey soon. We are coming to a town near you, hopefully. I’m putting it out there into the–
[00:00:57] Sarah: Annette’s got ants in her pants. She has to take this podcast on the road, or she’s going burst.
[00:01:01] Annette: Yes. I need to meet you, all of you.
[00:01:04] Sarah: With that, Dori, first of all, I have to do this not only because I’m so excited, but TFV Con is right around the corner. And if you are interested in direct bookings, if you’re like, what is this direct booking thing? First of all, Hospitable is going to be there. So they’re a direct booking, a channel manager that’s going to be there. Hostfully is who we use. They’re going to be there.
[00:01:23] So hundreds of hosts are going to be there who use other direct booking sites, so you can really understand what works for them and why they’ve chosen the property management software they’ve chosen. And so Dori, what I can offer you is, depending on your A-frame and what you need at direct booking, it might lead you to the right property management software which will help you take money from your guests through that booking process and help you sign contracts.
[00:01:51] SEGMENT GAP
[00:01:52] Now, here’s the deal. You can do it, I will say, a la carte. So Dori, to answer your question, you could use a website like HelloSign or Dropbox Sign. There are other ones out there too. There are tons of contracts signing–
[00:02:05] Annette: For your rental agreements.
[00:02:07] Sarah: Yes. For your rental agreements. And so you can have it linked as a template, or you can send it to the guest directly after they book and make it as manual or as automated as you feel comfortable with. And then for taking payments, you could take payments– we take them through Stripe. There are vacation rental- specific payment processors. You could use PayPal. There’s a lot of different payment– you could send them an invoice via QuickBooks. So it can be as simple and as a la carte or as, I don’t want to use the word complicated, but automated and seamless as you want it to be.
[00:02:42] So we use Hostfully. And if you have questions about Hostfully as a software, if you head to thanksforvisiting.me/partners, we have a Hostfully link there. I’ve been on their platform for years now. And the reason I like Hostfully is because they integrate with all of these sorts of things, Dori.
[00:03:01] They integrate with Stripe. They integrate with HelloSign. And so it’s just part of the booking process, and it’s all automated because we have several properties. We have our own, plus we manage for others. So Dori, for you, maybe you don’t need a direct booking software right now for your one A-frame, and you just want to have this as simple as possible. So then you just sign up for your own HelloSign account and your ownStripe account, and then you can set up all that stuff there.
[00:03:26] Annette: And you could do that today. Yeah. Which is awesome because as long as you have your business EIN, especially for a Stripe, and business bank account. But that is stuff that you really can set up today and get rolling. So also, don’t overcomplicate it. Maybe you start with HelloSign and Stripe today, and then you do move over to property management software, but we love where your head is at here in getting your direct bookings. And yeah, hopefully we can meet you at TFV Con, Dori. Everyone, go to tfvcon.com, buy your ticket, and we will see you soon.
[00:04:02] Sarah: With that, I’m Sarah Karakaian.
[00:04:03] Annette: I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–
[00:04:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
[00:04:06] Sarah: Talk to you next to you next time.
