Barefoot recently announced that their customers can list their inventory on Airbnb through either of their two partners, Leisurelink or BookingPal. In a seminar earlier this month in North Carolina Barefoot Technologies, BookingPal and Airbnb met with property managers and discussed this integration.
According to Barefoot’s Claiborne Yarbrough, “There are several of interesting things that I have taken away from these discussions.”
Yarbrough observed the following:
- At a meeting with vacation rental managers in North Carolina, the booking process as currently laid out by Airbnb will not meet the requirements of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission (NERC). As one attendee put it “You (meaning Airbnb) are coming from a consumer perspective, whereas we are coming from a real estate transaction perspective… this is more than just technology, this is a mindset”. This is a great point and one that Airbnb will have to work out.
- There is a team at Airbnb that is focused on Vacation Rentals. They are in charge of being a liaison between not only the five current channels but also with the vacation rental management companies and their market needs. This team will work with NREC to figure out how Airbnb needs to function in the North Carolina markets. As their representative put it “we work with governments all over the world to work these things out and we have the resources to do it.” Alright then!
- One attendee noted that there was no doubt about the popularity of Airbnb. There was an interesting discussion about the idea that technology had created the sharing economy to help create actual connections for travelers with locals. Airbnb is successful because of our genuine desire to get to know other people. If you think about the typical vacation rental management company, this is also likely the basis of why an owner would start a rental company. I live here, I love it here and I want to share this place with other people. This is a tough industry, full of hard work that is fueled by, again, a genuine desire to meet and provide hospitality to visitors. The sentiment between Airbnb and this industry is the same.
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