1 pet-friendly property
2 years of hosting experience
5/5 Google Review Rating
The first time you say it, the word tilts in the mouth: “A-bai-ta” half Hebrew current, half Sicilian shore. It’s a name stitched from two languages and one intent: a journey toward home that isn’t a pin on a map so much as a feeling that rises to meet you at the door.
“You don’t just feel like you are going on a vacation,” Kobi told me. “You’re literally coming back home.” He and Vincenzo built the rooms, so the world could do what it promises: carry people, not to an address, but to the place inside where one finally exhales.
Introducing Kobi & Vincenzo
Kobi is the calibrator. He’ll shift a lamp two centimeters, and the room sighs in relief. Sight lines, clearances, and the distance from the sofa edge to the coffee table were measured, noted, tested, and then tested again. He is logical to the bone, rigorous with details, but when the decision is significant, he listens to his instinct.
Vincenzo is the storyteller. He gives the house its voice, its warmth, its welcome; he’s the color on the walls and the line that makes sense of it all. If Kobi tunes the instrument, Vincenzo plays the song.
They named the house for the thing it protects: ordinary hours that feel like a gift—reading in a quiet corner. A long meal as the light slides across the table. A film by the fire. A slow walk that resets the week. What they had planned for their guests turned out to be what they loved most themselves.
A Home Shaped by Intention
ABAITA didn’t start as a business plan; it began as a conversation about how home should feel.
One foggy October evening, walking along Brandenburg's Haffendorf-Zerpenschleuse with their dog Choya, they felt a calm that asked to be built into something lasting.
“It was the first time in my life I’d ever imagined owning a home,” Kobi recalled. “The fog was dense, peaceful. Something about it felt right.” They studied other houses nearby that were functional but impersonal, furnished from catalogues.
“We wanted to feel what it was like, actually, to live. That’s how we discovered that the upstairs lounge catches perfect evening light for reading, or that the dining table needed to be exactly the size of our dinners together."
The 1% details mattered. Even the guest guide became a story: A hardcover book filled with photos, reflections, and small explanations of how the space is meant to be lived in.
“It’s storytelling with intention,” Kobi said. “When guests understand the ‘why,’ they naturally respect the space more.”
A pet-friendly retreat by design, not exception
From the beginning, they refused the trade-off so common in “dog-friendly” travel. The places that welcomed pets rarely welcomed taste, as if allowing dogs meant forfeiting comfort. As dog lovers, that was a no-go.
ABAITA would test a different idea: human-friendly and dog-friendly by design. They fenced the garden. They chose easy-to-clean materials for beauty and durability. They pulled the rugs. They adjusted their prices to reflect the extra care.
“Many of the choices here were made with Choya in mind,” Kobi said. “She didn’t live long enough to see the finished house, but her spirit is really in it. In a way, this is as much her home as it is ours.”
“Guests respect the space because they feel it’s been created with care. Often, when we go there after check-out, before the cleaner comes, we can’t believe how spotless it is. People treat it like their own home,” Kobi says proudly.
Vincenzo adds, “There’s no reason to fear opening your doors to dog owners if you design accordingly and price smartly. It’s one of the best decisions we made.”
As a result, they were one of the most booked properties, especially for families traveling with pets. What came was not damage, but gratitude: longer stays, families with pets, and recognition for care.
ABAITA x Smoobu: building a system that protects a feeling
Owning the voice meant owning the work. After a year with an agency, they took back the name, pricing, and guest communication with Smoobu. In Sicily, on Vincenzo’s birthday, they sat at his mother’s kitchen table with three laptops, writing the website, shaping their automated messages to sound like them.
“It’s a lot,” Kobi laughs, “but it made the hospitality feel human.”
“With our old agency, the listing didn’t feel like ours,” he adds. “The host photo was theirs. I wanted guests to see two human beings behind this profile.”
Why Smoobu (after testing the field)
“We invested a lot of money testing out other software, and we still pay for some of them. But after months of trying to make them work, we returned to Smoobu. It felt like coming home," Kobi recalls.
"From the very first time I used it, the UI felt friendlier and right for us. The moment I played with it, I knew."
“With Smoobu, we run ABAITA like a brand, not just a listing. We look professional, but we don’t lose our personality in the process. Smoobu isn’t hotel software; it’s light, intuitive, and doesn’t get in the way of hosting. At the same time, it’s powerful enough to handle everything we need. That balance is rare.”
A website that sounds like the living room
They wanted a front door that felt like the living room. “From the very beginning, I want guests to know there are two human beings behind this listing.” Smoobu’s Website Builder gave everything to fill the frame; they chose the words, images, and brand.
Return guests were eager to book direct. “Before our official direct launch date, people had already booked through our website,” they note. ABAITA is run like a brand, but a human one: professional enough to inspire confidence, personal enough to keep its soul. Philosophy first, systems second.
Always the same question at the start: What do we want people to feel here? Only then do the tools, prices, and rhythms earn their place—as did Smoobu.
The calendar where everything touches
“We love the calendar,” Vincenzo says.
“Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Landfolk, AlohaCamp, all sync in one calendar, which gives peace of mind. We also use PriceLabs with Smoobu, so our prices are flexible but still in our control.”
With a dynamic pricing tool like PriceLabs’ Integration into Smoobu, prices are always adjusted to the best available pricing of each day, based on billions of data points. The same goes for Smoobu Dynamic Pricing, without losing control over your own railguards & preferences.
Vincenzo was also impressed by the flexibility: “From a base price, we can mark up other platforms and give an advantage to direct bookings on our site.”
Complete control over the guest’s path to the door.
One Unified Inbox, for every communication channel
Smoobu pulls guest messages from Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and your direct site/email into a single, booking-linked thread. Innovative templates and scheduled automations keep replies fast without sounding robotic.
Kobi highlights the significant time saved by consolidating all guest messages, from Airbnb, Booking.com, and direct bookings, into a single, easy-to-manage thread. For Vincenzo, the automation features are crucial for efficiency, but it’s the ability to keep their communication personal that stands out.
Kobi: “Revolutionary for me! Everything in one place. And the messaging tools are brilliant, automated, but still in our own voice, I can't wait to use them more.”
A real partner in Smoobu’s Customer Support
“Customer service [from Gabriella] is perfect,” Kobi says, half-seriously, that they should start paying her.
This partnership shines through, especially when they worked on the website. Gabriella guided them step-by-step, offering both technical help and fresh ideas. Even when challenges arose, she was always quick to respond and provide thoughtful solutions.
Vincenzo summarizes it best: “When you’re running a business like this, you need more than just technical support. You need someone who understands your vision, who gets your goals. Gabriella does that, and it’s invaluable.”
Thank you, Gabriella!
The road to independence
The vacation rental ecosystem is complicated. Airbnb isn’t Booking.com, and payment flows never match neatly. “Smoobu focuses everything,” Vincenzo says. “So even when we change something, the system helps us keep it simple.”
For them, simplicity was key. “We didn’t want a system that required a team of five to manage,” Kobi adds. “It’s important for us to remain hands-on, but still have the power to make informed decisions. Smoobu gave us just the right balance of automation and control.”
For Kobi and Vincenzo, that’s the sweet spot: “Smoobu protects the atmosphere we want to create while keeping everything organized."
“Especially for design-focused, owner-managed places, it’s the perfect blend: professional enough to give guests confidence, but personal enough to let your own style shine through.”
For ABAITA, Smoobu is not the story, but it’s the binding that holds their pages together.
What’s next for Kobi, Vincenzo & ABAITA
Looking ahead, Kobi and Vincenzo are focused on introducing new features that will enhance the guest experience while preserving the intimate, personal atmosphere that defines ABAITA. "Next on the list is a Nuki smart lock. We know there’s integration with Smoobu. We’ll panic a little for sure,” Vincenzo laughs, “and then it will work.”
Beyond that, the vision stays close to home. People suggest franchising, but “ABAITA isn’t a product, it’s a story. You can’t copy and paste a feeling.” A sister house in Sicily is imaginable, but only with the same calm and intention, keeping its own soul.
“What makes ABAITA work isn’t just the design,” Kobi said. “It’s the story behind it, the attention, the empathy. That’s what people feel when they stay.”
Why not write your own story? Trial Smoobu for 14 days for free and experience the intuitive and straightforward design that Kobi & Vincenzo value so much.
ABAITA in a nutshell
- ABAITA’s core idea: A home shaped by intention, not a business plan. Kobi & Vincenzo built a place that feels like coming home and feels like an exhale of belonging.
- Design choices with purpose: They lived in the unfinished house to watch light and flow, then designed from real use. Even the guest guide is a hardcover “story manual” so visitors understand the “why.”
- Dog-friendly by design: Garden fencing, durable materials, smart pricing. Inspired by their dog Choya, pets are welcomed as part of the house’s identity. Result: longer stays, high care, returning guests.
- Why Smoobu won: After paying for subscriptions with other platforms, they returned to Smoobu for simplicity and control. It lets them “run ABAITA like a brand, not just a listing” without losing personality.
- What they use daily:
- Central calendar with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Landfolk, AlohaCamp, plus PriceLabs integration
- Website Builder that reflects their own voice and images, already driving direct bookings
- Unified Inbox for every channel (“Revolutionary for me, everything in one place”)
- Fast, human support at every step from Customer Support when it counts
- Next steps: Nuki smart lock with Smoobu integration. A sister house in Sicily is possible, but only if they can maintain the same level of care and closeness.
