Success story
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Steven Peterson is the President of Ur Home In Philly, a Philadelphia-based vacation rental management company focused on efficient operations and strong guest value.
Location: Philadelphia, US
Number of listings: 200
Using Hostfully since: 2020
Favorite features: Channel manager & integrations, centralized calendar, reservation management, and direct bookings
Multi-channel distribution is at the core of our business, and Hostfully makes it effortless. More exposure means more bookings without adding work.
Ur Home In Philly, known as Urhip, built its reputation on delivering strong value for guests while keeping operations lean for owners. As the portfolio grew, President Steve Patterson prioritized technology that could remove repetitive work and keep costs low. “If there’s software that can optimize a process, we’re going to find it and use it,” said Steve.
Early on, Steve chose hotel management software to support daily operations and distribution through Expedia and Booking.com. The system worked well enough, but it came with a major limitation. “Because it was built for hotels, it didn’t connect with Airbnb,” Steve explained. To compensate, Urhip listed properties on Airbnb separately and manually imported reservations into the hotel Property Management Software (PMS).
That workaround introduced risk. Manual data entry led to occasional mistakes and double bookings. “It wasn’t ideal,” Steve said, “but Airbnb was driving so much demand that we accepted the tradeoff.” As Urhip continued to grow, relying on manual processes and disconnected systems became unsustainable. Steve needed a vacation rental PMS that could handle operations and multi-channel distribution reliably, without human intervention.
Hostfully gave Urhip the operational foundation it needed, but Steve took distribution a step further. Drawing on lessons from his hotel PMS days, he doubled down on one core belief: relying on a single booking channel is risky. “Multi-channel distribution is one of the cheapest ways to increase occupancy and protect the business,” Steve said.
Using Hostfully’s PMS alongside its integration with the Rentals United channel manager, Urhip expanded distribution far beyond a single platform. Properties were now listed across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, and Urhip’s direct booking site, all synced automatically.
“With Hostfully and the channel manager working together, everything just stays in sync,” Steve said. “There’s no copying, no double-checking, no cleanup.”
The expanded distribution immediately helped fill gaps in the calendar. While Airbnb, Vrbo, and direct bookings still drove the majority of reservations, additional channels played a critical supporting role. “That extra visibility makes it much easier to fill mid-week gaps or short openings between longer stays,” Steve noted.
All of this happened without adding operational overhead. Listings, availability, and reservations flowed automatically through Hostfully, allowing Urhip to scale distribution without scaling staff.
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Beyond higher occupancy, Urhip gained resilience. With multiple channels driving demand, the business was no longer exposed to changes in performance or policy from a single platform. Direct bookings also became easier to support, creating a healthier channel mix over time.
“For us, multi-channel distribution is non-negotiable,” Steve said. “More exposure means more bookings, and Hostfully makes that effortless.”
By combining Hostfully’s PMP with third-party channel management, Urhip strengthened its business model while keeping operations simple and reliable.