What is Houfy? Should I List There?

With many new different platforms coming to the Vacation Rental space, which was dominated by Airbnb, it is very easy for Property Managers and Hosts to be confused about which platforms they should list on. The thing is, each platform may occupy the same space but operate differently. This article explores one of the newest members to the club; Houfy and hopefully answers if or not you should list on Houfy.

What Is Houfy?

Houfy provides an easy-to-use, unique, and enhanced experience to list or find vacation rental properties with no booking fees or communication restrictions. Houfy is very much a project in the making (Development stage) and aims to connect people with places directly.

What Makes HOUFY Different?

Houfy is a unique market network which combines the best elements of marketplaces like Real Estate and Lodging industries with social networks. With Houfy, members can easily share local information around their place attached to their listing(s) in the form of "guidebooks". Houfy derives its name from “HOUse For You”

In a nutshell:

• Houfy is a P2P (Person to Person) network that connects guests with owners … no middleman!
• HOUFY grows and evolves organically as users add listings and destination information.
• With HOUFY you can sync your calendars and communications across multiple rental sites.
• Dynamic SEO ( search engine optimization) means that user created pages, images, video and text will be easily catalogued by Google, BING, Yahoo, etc.
• Houfy employs next-gen’ technology to identify potential fraud and spam and promotes a safe and trusted marketplace.
• On HOUFY, members can share their experiences and travel tips as they believe travel is all about experiences with friends and family!

How Does Houfy Work?

1. Direct Communication: Houfy’s messaging system includes travelers' contact information and lets you communicate freely. Your phone number and e-mail can be displayed on your listing(s) as well.
2. No Booking Fees, No Commissions - Houfy connects Stripe and Square for you to get paid directly from your guests.
3. Houfy is FREE to list your property on the marketplace.
4. Rapid listing creation is enabled through the import tool, including reviews. Additionally it lets you import or export your reviews from other sites to/from Houfy.
5. Transparency - Houfy shows exact pricing when searched with dates.You could use its website widgets to embed your pricing and calendar on your own website.
6. Houfy creates easy posts, guides and sharing tools to further promote your listing or guides. Listings Include: Unlimited pictures, Calendar Sync, Reservation manager, Embed and website widget integrations, Dynamic Rate System, options to include website or video links, and much more.

Should You List On Houfy?

Now that you know how Houfy works, it’s time to decide if you should spend time listing on Houfy. Here are my observations.

Houfy makes it simple to list your property. It is ideal for your return guests to connect directly with you, in which way you are in full control of your calendar, pricing, rules, and how you connect with guests.

Houfy has connected both payment services; Square and Stripe for you to collect the payment directly from your guests or accept payments the way you want.

There is no cost to list a property on Houfy: no catches, no credit card required, and no limited free trials. There are 0% commissions and zero service fees.

Can Hostaway Users Connect to Houfy?

Yes you can! Hostaway allows for you to export ICal and import it into your Houfy clendar and vice versa. This allows you to sync the calendars of both Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Expedia, and Houfy.