Success story
By submitting, you agree to be contacted by email, phone, or SMS about Hostfully updates and offers.
Karthik Kumar is an experience short-term rental business owner and Airbnb arbitrage coach. Karthik operates a blended portfolio, ranging from owned properties, and arbitraged rentals.
Location: Eastern US
Number of listings: 10
Using Hostfully since: 2023
Favorite features: Channel manager, centralized multi-property dashboard, dynamic pricing integrations
“Hostfully makes distributing my listings across the major sites so easy. Just set it up once, and the software takes care of the rest.”
Karthik Kumar entered the short-term rental space in late 2021 with one property and a clear goal: build a scalable business using systems, not guesswork. As both an operator and Airbnb arbitrage coach, he saw firsthand how most newcomers relied almost entirely on Airbnb.
“In most arbitrage communities, the advice is simple: just list on Airbnb,” Karthik said. “But relying on one platform didn’t feel sustainable.”
With a background in computer engineering, Karthik analyzed demand patterns across platforms. He discovered that Vrbo and Booking.com served different traveler segments and could complement Airbnb rather than compete with it.
The problem was execution.
There was no clean way to sync multiple properties across multiple channels into one reliable calendar. Managing Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and potential offline reservations manually would introduce risk.
“I knew multi-channel distribution would increase occupancy,” he said. “But I also knew manual syncing would eventually lead to mistakes.”
Once Karthik implemented Hostfully, he centralized his entire operation into one platform. Listings were created once and pushed simultaneously to Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. Availability synced automatically across all channels.
“Hostfully makes distributing my listings across the major sites so easy,” Karthik said. “Set it up once, and the system handles the rest.”
The results were immediate. Airbnb bookings continued to fill quickly, while Vrbo and Booking.com helped fill midweek gaps and shoulder-season vacancies. Together, the platforms created a steady flow of reservations.
With synchronized calendars and automated distribution in place, Karthik scaled from one property in late 2021 to ten properties by early 2023. Occupancy rates reached between 80 and 90 percent depending on seasonality.
Just as important, double bookings disappeared entirely.
“I’ve had zero double bookings since switching,” Karthik said. “That reliability gives me confidence to keep expanding.”
Does Karthik's situation sound familiar? Let’s talk.
To diversify even further, Karthik began sourcing longer-term stays through insurance housing portals. Although those niche platforms do not integrate directly with most property management systems, Hostfully makes manual blocking simple and fast.
“When an offline reservation comes in, I block the dates once in Hostfully and it syncs everywhere,” he said.
Dynamic pricing adds another layer of optimization. Through integration with Wheelhouse, pricing updates are calculated automatically and pushed through Hostfully to all connected platforms in real time.
“I can change my pricing strategy in one place and know it’s reflected everywhere instantly,” Karthik said.
By combining multi-channel distribution, centralized syncing, and automated pricing, Karthik built a high-occupancy portfolio with minimal manual work.