What's an "AirBnB" that you kept referring to in this podcast?

It's two things:

1) A Pubic Company worth Billions of Dollars

2) A Website where people can book accommodations (and now services and other things)

It's NOT a Vacation Rental, or a Short-Term Rental, or a Vacation Home.

Those are appropriate terms for private homes that people rent out for short term stays to travellers.

Calling a Vacation Rental an AirBnB is SUCH a gigantic faux pas!

1) AirBnB has enough money and business and market share. They don't need you promoting them and their name for free!
(For someone involved in the industry the way you are, this is additionally shocking. You have a business relationship with VRBO and Booking.com and other websites. How will they feel about your promoting their competitor? You need to keep yourself 'clean' and stop the obvious favouritism!)

2) Calling a Vacation Rental an AirBnB gives psychological weight to the idea that guests are dealing with and booking from AirBnB, instead of a private owner or manager. This is dangerous to the industry, and to the guest's themselves. For the good of everyone involved, guests need to understand that listing websites are NOT a party to the booking, and in reality have no legal control or input into what goes on between the guest and the host. Online booking will be much safer when everyone understands that and learns how to independently keep themselves safe conducting business online. Of course, the big listing sites don't want that to happen; they want customers scared so they'll stay on platform and be 'protected' by using a name brand site. But we all know guests pay for this, and unreasonably so. So why are you promoting one site's brand?

3) It gives 'ownership' of the guest to AirBnB, not the host owner or manager, leading to more business, bookings, and repeat stays for AirBnB, not the hosts. This is to the detriment of the hosts, who (at least in my market) make LESS money per booking than AirBnB does; and the guests, who pay roughly 18% more on average for the 'privilege' of booking through AirBnB. Guests need to understand that listing sites should be conduits to building a relationship with a great host, and are not the entity that is actually taking care of them.

4) It excludes those in the business who are NOT beholden to AirBnB for their bookings. They DO exist. And they don't rent out Verhbohs or Bookings either! Don't those owners have a right to participate equally in the industry? Or do you want a portion of your customers to be made to feel like second-class citizens that don't belong?

Sure, lots of people refer to vacation rentals as 'AirBnB's but that started with people, who generally speaking, were ignorant of what it means for the industry and for hosts when people do this. But for people within the industry to do it?

Exactly who do you work for? Where do you make your money, and who's business are you trying to promote and build? Those of your customers?

Or a multi-billion dollar internet company that's run for the good of its shareholders FIRST, and certainly NOT YOUR CUSTOMERS... or their customers!

Ending the reference to vacation rentals as 'AirBnB's' (or limiting the growth of it) must start with those that know better (or at least should!).

The most successful and profitable vacation rentals in the industry are those that don't operate as serfs to the big listing sites. Your software should be helping your customers to do this as much as possible. Perhaps it doesn't because the leadership's own thinking is just as beholden to AirBnB as the casual guest's is?

Some may dismiss this as 'no big deal' but it's actually huge, and the impact of what it represents is massive upon all of our businesses. Trust me on that, even if you don't understand why. Labels matter, and can and do steer the choices and activity of millions of people. And what happens with their billions of dollars.

You have a responsibility, and owe it to your customers, to do better.

Hey Robert, thanks for listening to the pod.

Personally, one of the great breakthroughs I had in life was learning to connect with others by using terms I don't necessarily agree with, but that provide a bridge to a broader conversation or audience. Having grown up in a fundamentalist household, I have a deep-seated disdain for dogma and legalism. Forcing myself to never say "Airbnbs" just to toe a dogmatic line in the sand just isn't my style.

You mentioned "Vacation Rental, or a Short-Term Rental, or a Vacation Home".  Which one is your term of choice?