Episode 351 · August 4, 2026

What a Direct-Booking Website Builder Wishes Every Host Knew

🎙️ Short Term Rental Riches with Tim Hubbard ⏱️ 44:30
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We sit down with Gil Chan, founder of CraftedStays, about what it takes to build a direct booking website for a STR.

We cover the gap between a generic template and an expensive agency build, the new AI tool Aria, and why owning a few direct bookings changes a host's leverage across platforms:

  • What a direct booking site actually replaces for an Airbnb-only host?
  • The 2 options hosts face for a website, and why neither worked?
  • How Aria reads a portfolio and reviews before writing a single word?
  • What OTA fees really add up to over a year of bookings?
  • Why this isn't about leaving Airbnb, and what it's really about?

Gil's story is a good reminder that owning your guest relationship matters as much as owning your listing.

Subscribe to the show, leave a review, and share it with another host who is tired of renting shelf space on someone's platform.

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