When someone Googles “cabin near Gatlinburg with hot tub,” what shows up in the search results matters. The title and description beneath your link are often the first — and only — impression you get before a guest decides to click or scroll past. Until now, CraftedStays auto-generated those meta tags based on your property details. That works well for most hosts. But if you want full control over how each property appears in Google, social media shares, and AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT — you now have it. What’s New: SEO Meta Overrides You can now customize the meta title, meta description, and social sharing image for each individual property on your CraftedStays site. These are the fields that control: How to Set Custom Meta Tags All fields are optional. If you leave them empty, CraftedStays continues auto-generating your meta tags from your property details — exactly like before. Nothing breaks. Why This Matters Stand Out in Search Results Your auto-generated meta description might say “3 bedroom cabin in Pigeon Forge.” A custom one could say, “Family-friendly mountain cabin with private hot tub, game room, and panoramic Smoky Mountain views — book direct and save.” Which one gets the click? Control Your Social Shares When a past guest shares your property link on Facebook or texts it to a friend, the title, description, and image that appear are pulled from your meta tags. Custom overrides let you choose exactly what shows up — instead of leaving it to whatever the platform auto-scrapes. Get Found by AI Search AI-powered tools are increasingly how travelers discover places to stay. These tools pull from structured metadata to build their recommendations. Better meta descriptions give AI more context about your property, which means better visibility when someone asks ChatGPT, “Where should I stay near Asheville?” Best Practices for Writing Meta Tags Meta Title (50–60 characters): Example: “Luxury Lakefront Cabin | Hot Tub & Dock | Lake Tahoe” Meta Description (120–155 characters): Example: “Wake up to lake views from every room. Private dock, hot tub, and 5 minutes to downtown. Book direct for the best rate.” Social Sharing Image: Pro Strategy: Prioritize Your Top Properties First You don’t need to customize meta tags for every property on day one. Start with the properties that get the most traffic or the ones you’re actively marketing. Those are the listings where a compelling meta description can make the biggest difference in click-through rates. For a detailed walkthrough, check out our help article: How to Set Custom SEO Meta Tags for Your Properties Your properties deserve to stand out — in search results, social shares, and AI recommendations. CraftedStays gives you the tools to control exactly how the world sees your brand. → Get Started with CraftedStays

Guests aren’t just Googling anymore — they’re asking ChatGPT for travel recommendations. Here’s how CraftedStays is building the direct booking platform for AI-powered discovery.

Your brand is more than a logo and color palette. The fonts on your direct booking site shape how guests perceive your property before they ever scroll to your listings. Why Typography Matters for Direct Bookings Before diving into the how-to, understand this: typography is one of the fastest ways to elevate your site from “template” to “brand.” The right font pairing creates visual hierarchy, builds trust, and guides guests toward your Book Now button. Generic fonts signal a generic experience. Custom typography signals intention. The Result: A site that feels like yours — not a cookie-cutter listing page. How to Customize Fonts in Refined 2.1 Step 1: Open the Typography Panel All global text styles are managed here, so changes apply across your entire site without editing each page individually. Step 2: Understand the Default Font System Refined 2.1 ships with a curated set of font families designed for clarity and hierarchy: All font sizes are based on a 16px root size with rem-based scaling, so your typography stays consistent and responsive across every device. Step 3: Know What Each Text Style Controls Here’s what you can customize and where each style appears on your site: Headings: Body and UI Elements: Pro Strategy: You don’t need to change everything. Start with your headings and body text. Those two alone account for 90% of what guests read on your site. Recommended Font Structures by Page Type Blog Posts Landing and Campaign Pages Best Practices When Changing Fonts When you adjust typography, keep these guidelines in mind: Tips for Hosts Note: Typography controls are currently available for websites using our Refined 2.1 template, with rollout to all templates coming soon. Your brand deserves more than default fonts. CraftedStays gives you full control over typography, colors, and every detail of your direct booking site — no code, no agencies. → Get Started with CraftedStays

Learn how to optimize your short term rental direct booking website for both traditional search engines and AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

The short-term rental market has changed. The era when any cabin or beachfront condo could print money simply by listing it on Airbnb is behind us. The operators thriving today are the ones who made smarter decisions before they ever signed a purchase agreement, and it all starts with one thing: knowing exactly who their ideal guest avatar is. This is not a branding exercise. This is an acquisition strategy. The guest avatar you define at the front of the funnel — before you buy, before you design, before you market — determines the ceiling of your property’s performance for years to come. Getting it wrong makes everything downstream harder. Getting it right gives you compounding advantages that your competition simply cannot replicate. Why Acquisition Is the Real Starting Block Most hosts think about guest avatars when they sit down to write their listing description or pick paint colors. That is already too late. The highest-performing operators treat their guest avatar as the very first filter when evaluating a potential investment. Consider the difference between two neighborhoods in the same city. One is walkable to nightlife and attracts bachelorette parties and friend groups. The other sits near golf courses and family attractions. These two locations demand entirely different property types, bedroom configurations, amenity packages, and marketing strategies. If you buy a property suited for families and try to market it to groups of friends, you are fighting an uphill battle that no amount of clever copywriting can fix. The takeaway is straightforward: your acquisition criteria should be built around who travels to that specific micro-market and why. Revenue data, seasonal patterns, and local demand signals all feed into this decision. When you nail it, every step that follows — setup, design, photography, and marketing — flows naturally. Efficient Design Beats Oversized Everything A common trap in the short-term rental space is over-building or overpaying for square footage that does not generate additional revenue. A five-bedroom property at 3,000 square feet does not meaningfully outperform a five-bedroom at 2,000 square feet if that extra thousand square feet is sitting in oversized master bedrooms and walk-in closets that no guest will appreciate. Smart design focuses on efficiency. Bedrooms need room for a bed, nightstands, and a walkway. Guests are there to sleep, not to lounge in their rooms. The real magic happens in the common spaces — the living room, the kitchen, the game room, the deck. These are the places where memories are made and where your listing photos do the heavy lifting. Bathrooms follow the same logic. An en suite in every bedroom sounds luxurious, but the data rarely support the added cost. A thoughtful ratio — say a six-bedroom with three and a half baths — usually performs just as well as a six-six split, while keeping your construction or renovation budget in check. Redirect those savings into amenities that actually move the needle. Building a Moat Your Competitors Cannot Copy In a competitive landscape, differentiation is no longer optional. The concept of a “moat” — a sustainable advantage that competitors cannot easily replicate — applies directly to short-term rentals, and the best moats are built into the property itself. A mountaintop view cannot be manufactured. A flat half-acre lot near a popular downtown cannot be expanded by the neighbor on a tenth of an acre. An indoor-outdoor pool combination in a market with cold winters creates a booking advantage that lasts for years before anyone else can match it. These physical advantages compound when paired with the right amenities. Pickleball courts, mini golf, fire pits, and putting greens on a large lot create experiences that listings on standard-size parcels simply cannot offer. The key principle is this: choose amenities and property attributes that are hard to clone, not just impressive on paper. Even if you are not building from scratch, the moat concept applies. A flat driveway in a mountain market where every other property is on a steep hill is a moat. A large lawn ten minutes from downtown in a region where no one else has green space is a moat. Recognize what your property uniquely offers and lean into it. The Must-Have vs. Nice-to-Have Framework Not all upgrades are created equal. A disciplined approach to amenities and finishes separates profitable operators from those who overspend without a return. The framework is simple: classify every potential investment as either a must-have or a nice-to-have. Must-haves are features that directly influence booking decisions and revenue — game rooms, hot tubs in mountain markets, heated pools in shoulder-season destinations, and strategic outdoor living spaces. Nice-to-haves are things like exposed cedar beams or designer tile that look great but will not justify a premium purchase price or renovation budget. When you stick to must-haves, you protect your margins. When you overpay for nice-to-haves, you eat into the return that compounds over the life of the investment. This does not mean you ignore aesthetics — it means you prioritize the features your ideal guest avatar actually values and that the data supports. Photography and Marketing That Speaks to Your Guest Once your property is set up and your guest avatar is defined, your marketing should reflect both. One of the most effective emerging trends in short-term rental photography is using models and props that represent your ideal guest. If your property caters to young families, your photos should show a high chair at the dining table and a pack-and-play in the bedroom. If you target couples, your hero shot might feature two people enjoying the hot tub at sunset. Bachelorette markets benefit from lifestyle photography that features groups of women enjoying the space together. This level of intentionality in your visual marketing helps potential guests see themselves in the property before they ever click “book.” It is one of the highest-ROI changes a host can make, and it reinforces the guest avatar work you did from the very beginning. Direct Bookings Start Simple, Then Scale Getting into direct bookings

The Trap Most Vacation Rental Operators Fall Into There comes a point in every short-term rental operator’s journey when the business stops growing — not because demand has dried up, but because the owner becomes the bottleneck. You’re responding to guest messages during dinner, manually adjusting pricing at midnight, and handling every operational decision yourself. Revenue is steady, but nothing moves forward. You’re stuck in maintenance mode, and direct booking growth stalls completely. This is one of the most common ceiling types in the vacation rental industry, and operators who break through it share a few traits. They build systems that don’t depend on them. They delegate not just tasks, but ownership. And they brand their properties with intention, so that guests find them through search — not just through OTAs. Why Systems Are the Real Foundation of Direct Booking Growth The temptation when scaling a vacation rental portfolio is to keep doing everything yourself. After all, you know the business best. But there’s a paradox here: the more you control, the less you grow. The operators who eventually reach 20, 50, or even 100+ units aren’t the ones grinding through every task — they’re the ones who built repeatable processes early on. Standard operating procedures aren’t glamorous, but they’re the engine behind real direct booking growth. When a new team member joins, they shouldn’t need you hovering over their shoulder. They should be able to search an internal knowledge base and find the answer. When a guest scenario occurs for the first time, the response gets documented and stored so the next occurrence is handled without escalation. The shift from “I’ll just handle it” to “there’s a process for that” is one of the most valuable transitions an operator can make. It frees up time, reduces errors, and — most importantly — it creates the capacity to focus on strategies that actually grow the business. That includes your direct booking channel, which demands consistent attention to branding, marketing, and guest relationships. Building a Team That Runs Without Micromanagement Hiring your first virtual assistant can feel like a leap of faith, and the first attempt rarely goes perfectly. Some operators go through a dozen hires before finding the right fit. But the ones who succeed at building a team share a specific approach: they focus on outcomes, not instructions. Rather than scripting every action your team should take, share the context and the goal. When a team member understands why something matters to the business, they make better decisions on their own. They push back when something doesn’t make sense. They find shortcuts you wouldn’t have considered. The result is a team that doesn’t just execute — it contributes. This applies directly to direct booking growth efforts. If your assistant understands that the goal of posting in local Facebook groups isn’t just “marketing” but rather capturing midterm rental leads in a short-term-heavy market, they’ll craft better posts, choose better groups, and adapt when a strategy isn’t working. Give them the “what” and the “why,” and let them figure out the “how.” One powerful mindset shift to embrace: even if someone does a task 80 percent as well as you would, it’s still better than you doing it yourself. They’ll improve with time. You’ll get that time back to invest where it truly matters — growing revenue and building your brand. Branding Your Property Around Guest Search Behavior Here’s a tactic many operators overlook: name and brand your property based on what guests are already searching for. Think about it from the guest’s perspective. When someone plans a trip, they don’t search for a clever brand name. They search for the destination, the landmark, or the experience. If your property is steps from a popular boardwalk, naming your rental brand around that landmark ties your direct booking website to the exact terms people type into Google. This isn’t about keyword stuffing. It’s about aligning your brand identity with local search behavior. When your property name, website domain, and page titles all reflect the area your guests are actively researching, your direct booking site is much more likely to appear in those results organically. Compare that to a creative but generic brand name that sounds cool but tells Google nothing about where you are or what you offer. The operators who align their branding with local search intent are building SEO authority into their business from day one — and that’s a compounding advantage. If you already have an established brand, you can still apply this principle by creating location-specific landing pages, writing blog content about local attractions, and ensuring your site metadata reflects the terms guests use. Creative Direct Booking Tactics That Go Beyond Email Blasts Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools in a direct booking growth strategy — but the operators who scale fastest go beyond the basics. They segment their email lists by guest type, separating business travelers from leisure guests, because those audiences respond to entirely different messaging. Business bookings, in particular, represent a goldmine for direct relationships. When a construction crew or an insurance company needs housing for a project, that’s not a one-night stay. That’s a 30, 60, or 90-day direct booking opportunity. Operators who track where their business guests come from and which projects they’re working on can proactively offer housing before those companies even start searching. Beyond email, the most underused direct booking channel might be local and niche Facebook groups. Posting in nursing groups, corporate relocation groups, or even neighborhood community pages can unlock midterm rental demand that platforms like Airbnb never surface. And referral programs — offering a cash incentive when past guests refer friends to you — turn your happiest customers into your most effective marketing channel. None of these tactics requires a massive budget. They require attention, consistency, and a system that makes sure they happen whether you’re at your desk or on vacation. The Mindset That Separates Scaling Operators From Stuck Ones The operators who

More doors won’t save you — but the right systems, data habits, and quality standards will. There’s a common trap in the short-term rental industry that catches ambitious operators off guard. You start with one listing, see some revenue come in, and immediately think the answer to more income is more properties. On paper, the math seems straightforward: double the doors, double the money. But that’s rarely how it works. Scaling a short-term rental business effectively isn’t about stacking listings — it’s about building the infrastructure underneath them. The operators who grow sustainably and profitably are the ones who invest in systems, data, and quality long before they add their next property to the portfolio. The Quality Trap Most Hosts Fall Into In the early stages, most operators take on any property they can get. The goal is to build revenue, prove the model works, and gain momentum. That urgency makes sense — but it often leads to a portfolio filled with mediocre listings that drain time and money without delivering meaningful returns. The shift happens when you realize that one premium, centrally-located property can outperform five average ones. Operators in high-demand urban markets often discover that a single well-positioned listing generates as much net profit as a handful of lower-tier properties — without the overhead of multiple cleaning teams, extra supplies, or constant guest troubleshooting. This doesn’t mean every host needs to chase the luxury segment. It means being deliberate about which properties you take on and what standard you hold them to. Saying “no” to properties that don’t meet your quality threshold is one of the most profitable decisions a growing operator can make. If you’re evaluating your portfolio’s performance and wondering where to focus, understanding the complete guide to vacation rental marketing can help you identify which listings deserve more investment. Data Is the Competitive Edge You’re Underutilizing Here’s a reality that separates high-performing operators from everyone else: the host with the most data — and the discipline to act on it — wins. When you’re running two or three listings, you can get by on intuition and manual adjustments. But as you scale, the gap between gut-feel pricing and data-informed decisions widens dramatically. Dynamic pricing tools analyze millions of data points daily — local events, seasonal patterns, supply and demand shifts — and adjust your rates automatically to capture revenue you’d otherwise leave on the table. Operators who adopt dynamic pricing often recover 15 to 20 percent of revenue they were previously missing during peak periods, while also pricing competitively enough during slower seasons to maintain occupancy. Without these tools, you’d need hours each week just to manually review and adjust rates across a growing portfolio. Beyond pricing, tracking your listing’s performance on OTA platforms — click-through rates, conversion rates, search ranking positions — creates a compound effect. Even improving each stage of the booking funnel by half a percent doesn’t produce a linear gain. It multiplies across the entire guest journey, sometimes resulting in five to fifteen times the return on that small adjustment. The key takeaway? You can’t improve what you’re not measuring. The investment in analytics and pricing software pays for itself many times over, and the competitive edge it creates is difficult for less data-savvy operators to overcome. Build the Team Before You Need It One of the most common regrets among operators who’ve scaled past ten properties is waiting too long to build a team. The instinct to do everything yourself is understandable — especially when margins are tight and every dollar counts. But here’s the paradox: you can’t scale past your own capacity without people and processes to carry the load. The most impactful early hires often aren’t glamorous. A dedicated property assistant who manages supplies and inventory. An admin who handles guest communication within a tight response window. A virtual assistant in a different time zone who covers overnight inquiries so your guests get near-instant replies around the clock. That five-minute response time standard? It’s not just a nice-to-have. Guests today expect near-instant communication, and operators who deliver it consistently earn significantly higher review scores and more repeat bookings. It’s a competitive advantage that scales — but only when you have multiple team members covering the clock. And here’s the real test of whether your systems work: can you step away for three weeks and come back to a business that’s still running? That kind of operational resilience doesn’t come from working harder. It comes from building the right structure early. For more on building a team that can run without you, check out virtual team leadership for short-term rental operators. Your Direct Booking Engine Needs to Match the OTA Experience Perhaps the most overlooked bottleneck when scaling a short-term rental business is the direct booking experience itself. You can invest in SEO, collect guest emails, and run retargeting campaigns — but if your website doesn’t deliver a booking experience as smooth as what guests get on major platforms, they’ll default back to what they know. Think about what makes OTAs sticky: instant availability, seamless date selection, transparent pricing, and effortless communication. Your direct booking website needs to match or exceed that standard. That means having a booking engine fully integrated with your PMS so availability updates in real-time, guests can complete a reservation without friction, and your team can manage everything from a single system. Communication is part of that equation too. If a potential guest lands on your website and has a question, they need a way to reach your team immediately — not a contact form that promises a reply within 24 hours. Live chat functionality, ideally staffed by multiple team members, bridges that gap and turns hesitant browsers into confirmed bookings. Trust also plays a critical role. Guests who find you outside of an OTA need reassurance that booking directly is safe and worthwhile. Displaying reviews from multiple platforms, highlighting the benefits of booking direct (savings, better service, direct communication), and maintaining a professional,

A new year brings fresh opportunities to attract guests, refine your marketing strategy, and fine-tune every detail of your direct booking website. Among the many tasks on your to-do list, one often gets overlooked: updating the copyright year in your website footer. It seems minor, but that little © notice does more work than most hosts realize. When a potential guest lands on your site and scrolls down to see “© 2024,” it plants a subtle seed of doubt. Is this site still active? Is the business still operating? Has anything been updated recently? These micro-impressions matter in an industry where trust drives bookings. Your Footer Signals Professionalism Think of your footer as a timestamp that tells visitors your website—and by extension, your business—is current and maintained. A copyright year that reflects 2026 signals attention to detail, the same quality guests expect when they walk through your property’s front door. Whether you display a single year (© 2026) or a range (© 2019–2026), the update communicates that someone is actively managing this site. For hosts focused on building a brand that converts, these details matter more than they might appear. The SaaS Advantage—Automatic Updates Across the Platform For hosts using traditional website builders or self-hosted WordPress sites, updating the copyright means logging in, locating the right theme file or widget, making the change, and saving. It’s simple but easy to forget—especially when you’re juggling guest communications, property maintenance, and seasonal marketing campaigns. Modern SaaS platforms operate differently. Because they manage infrastructure centrally rather than maintaining separate codebases for each customer site, updates like copyright year changes can roll out automatically to every site on the platform. This means hosts using these platforms often find their footer already updated without lifting a finger. This same centralized architecture enables continuous improvements to performance, mobile optimization, and SEO foundations—all without requiring hosts to manually update plugins or theme files. What to Check Before Your Next Booking Season If your direct booking site runs on a traditional CMS, add “update footer copyright” to your January maintenance checklist. While you’re at it, consider reviewing other trust signals guests notice: For operators already on a SaaS-based direct booking platform, your copyright is likely already refreshed—freeing you to focus on what actually grows revenue: better photos, sharper copy, and more guests discovering your brand in 2026. Ready to build a direct booking website that stays current without the maintenance headaches? Start your free trial with CraftedStays and launch a mobile-optimized, SEO-ready site in minutes—with automatic updates handled for you.

Winter Direct Booking Strategy Starts With Understanding Seasonal Behavior 🎿 The start of a new year brings a shift in how travelers search for and book accommodations. Winter months create distinct booking patterns that savvy vacation rental hosts can leverage to strengthen their direct booking channels. Understanding these patterns transforms what many consider a “slow season” into a strategic growth opportunity. Winter travelers tend to plan differently than summer vacationers. Ski enthusiasts book months in advance for peak powder conditions. Snowbirds seek extended stays in warmer climates. Families look for school-break getaways. Remote workers chase cozy retreats where they can blend productivity with relaxation. Each of these traveler types exhibits booking behaviors that favor direct relationships over anonymous OTA transactions. The key insight here involves timing and intent. Winter travelers often research more thoroughly before committing. They read reviews, compare amenities, and look for properties that match specific needs—whether that’s proximity to slopes, reliable WiFi for remote work, or pet-friendly policies for longer stays. This research-heavy approach means your direct booking website gets more consideration than during impulse-driven summer booking windows. Positioning Your Properties for Seasonal Search Intent ❄️ Search behavior changes dramatically between seasons. Summer queries focus on beaches, pools, and outdoor activities. Winter searches reveal different priorities: fireplaces, hot tubs, heated spaces, mountain access, and “away from it all” retreats. Your direct booking website should speak directly to these seasonal desires. This goes beyond simply updating a few photos. Consider how your property descriptions address winter-specific concerns. Does your listing mention heated floors, reliable heating systems, or cozy reading nooks? Do you highlight proximity to winter activities or emphasize the appeal of escaping cold weather entirely? These details matter more to winter travelers than generic amenity lists. Building content around seasonal intent also improves organic search visibility. Blog posts about local winter activities, guides to nearby ski resorts, or tips for enjoying your destination during colder months attract the exact travelers likely to book directly. This content positions you as a local expert rather than just another listing in an endless OTA scroll. For more insights on creating compelling website copy, this guide on writing direct booking content that converts offers practical frameworks. Extended Stays Drive Direct Booking Economics 🏔️ Winter creates natural demand for longer bookings. Snowbirds escaping harsh climates often seek month-long or even seasonal rentals. Remote workers increasingly book “workcation” stays spanning weeks rather than weekends. These extended-stay guests represent significant direct booking opportunities because the economics favor both parties. On OTAs, extended stays mean extended fees—sometimes thousands of dollars in platform commissions over a multi-week booking. Guests doing the math quickly realize that booking directly offers substantial savings. Hosts who prominently feature monthly rates on their direct booking websites capture this value-conscious segment before they even consider platform alternatives. The relationship-building potential of extended stays compounds these benefits. A guest staying three weeks has far more touchpoints with your brand than a weekend visitor. They experience your communication style, your attention to detail, and your hospitality philosophy. Converting these guests to repeat direct bookers becomes significantly easier because the relationship depth already exists. Email Collection During Peak Booking Windows 📧 Winter booking inquiries—whether they convert immediately or not—represent valuable opportunities to build your guest database. Every website visitor considering a winter getaway becomes a potential future direct booker if you capture their contact information thoughtfully. The timing works in your favor. Travelers planning winter trips often begin researching weeks or months ahead. They might visit your website multiple times before committing. Lead capture mechanisms that offer genuine value—local winter guides, packing lists for cold-weather stays, or early-bird pricing notifications—convert browsers into subscribers. Once in your email ecosystem, these contacts receive your direct communications rather than getting lost in OTA algorithms. When they’re ready to book their next trip, your property sits at the top of their inbox rather than buried on page three of search results. For strategic approaches to building your email list, this article on email collection tactics provides actionable methods that respect guest preferences while growing your database. Trust Becomes More Important in Slower Seasons 🔒 When booking volume decreases, each potential guest matters more. Winter travelers, particularly those planning extended stays or traveling with families during school breaks, scrutinize properties carefully before committing. Your direct booking website either builds or breaks trust during this evaluation process. Professional presentation signals legitimacy. Fast-loading pages, mobile-responsive design, secure checkout processes, and clear cancellation policies reassure guests that booking directly carries no additional risk compared to major platforms. Reviews and testimonials visible on your website provide social proof that supports conversion. The trust equation also includes communication responsiveness. Winter travelers often have specific questions about heating, road access during storms, or availability of nearby services during off-peak periods. Quick, helpful responses to these inquiries demonstrate the personalized service that distinguishes direct booking from platform anonymity. Exploring how to build guest confidence in your direct booking approach offers deeper insights into establishing credibility with first-time direct bookers. Turning Seasonal Strategy Into Year-Round Growth 📈 The strategies that capture winter travelers don’t disappear when spring arrives. The email addresses collected, the repeat guest relationships built, and the direct booking habits established create momentum that compounds throughout the year. Think of winter as a testing ground for your direct booking infrastructure. Lower volume allows you to refine your website, optimize your booking flow, and perfect your guest communication without the pressure of peak-season demand. Lessons learned during slower months prepare you to capture maximum value when summer travelers flood the market. Each direct booking secured in winter represents one less guest discovering you through OTAs in busier seasons. Over time, this compounds into a sustainable direct booking business that relies less on algorithm changes, fee increases, and platform policies beyond your control. Start Building Your Winter Direct Booking Strategy Now Seasonal opportunities favor hosts who prepare before demand peaks. If winter travelers can’t find and book your properties directly, they’ll default to whatever platform surfaces first