Interactive example · Accommodation
A direct booking website that keeps the commission and sets the tone for the stay
Guests find you on Airbnb and Booking.com, then look for your own site to see if it's cheaper, safer, or simply nicer to book direct. Most small properties lose them there, to a template and a clunky widget. Below is what it looks like done properly, for a fictional retreat outside Mansfield.
In short
A direct booking website lets guests check live availability, see transparent pricing and book and pay a deposit on the property's own site, without the 14 to 18 per cent a booking platform takes. It works alongside Airbnb and Booking.com, not instead of them, by syncing calendars so nothing double-books.
Interactive demo: Direct booking for accommodation
Live demo · Stringybark Ridge, Mansfield is a fictional business with sample data. Nothing you do here is saved or sent.
- Pick a weekendTry a Friday arrival with one night. The two-night weekend rule explains itself.
- Add something to the stayA provisions hamper, late checkout or firewood. This is where direct bookings earn more.
- Book itGo through checkout and pay the deposit. It's a demo; no card is charged.
- Look behind the counterSwitch to the owner view and find your booking at the top, marked direct.
Example site
Stringybark Ridge
Mansfield · Victoria
The High Country · Taungurung Country
A quieter weekend in the High Country.
Three residences among snow gums and stringybark, twenty minutes from Mansfield. Book direct for our best rate.
Residences
Three places to stay, each with its own view.
Reserve direct
Plan your stay
Your stay
The Ridge House
Arrival to departure
2 guests
Choose your dates to see a full, itemised price. What you see is what you pay: no booking or service fees.
Built for boutique stays, B&Bs, cabins and holiday homes
Three people it has to work for, and what each is hiring it to do
- OwnerTake more bookings direct, on your own rules, and keep the commission
- Cleaner or caretakerKnow who's arriving when, without a phone call from the owner
- GuestSee real availability and a real price, and book in two minutes
What you just used
How Stringybark Ridge runs, screen by screen
- Calendars syncedSystemAirbnb and Stayz blocked out
- Reminders sentSystemCheck-in details, review ask
How the work moves through Stringybark Ridge: who does what, and where the software takes over. Steps with a mint mark are ones you can do in the demo above.
Availability the guest can see before they commit
The calendar shows what's free and what each night costs, so nobody enquires about a weekend that's gone. Booked nights come from the same calendar your platforms use.
Your rules, explained in the moment
Two-night weekends, seasonal rates, a ski-season premium, dogs only in the cabin. Each rule shows up as a sentence where the guest meets it, rather than as a rejected booking.
Extras that raise the value of every stay
Hampers, late checkouts, firewood, a chef on Saturday night. On a platform these are messages and cash on arrival. Here they're one tap and paid with the deposit.
Transparent totals, and a reason to book direct
Every night, fee and extra is itemised with no surprise at the last step. A fair direct rate, within whatever rate-parity terms your platform contracts set, is the argument for your own site, made where the guest is deciding.
Deposits, balances and policies handled
A deposit today, the balance charged automatically before arrival, and the cancellation policy stated before payment. Card payments run through Stripe, into your own account.
An owner's view that shows what direct is worth
Occupancy by residence, direct against platform bookings, and the commission you didn't pay this month, with your rate rules editable in the same place.
Built for you
Your rules, not a template's
Built for your property, it would carry:
- Your photography and writing, and a design that fits the place, not a theme
- Your rooms or residences, rates, seasons, minimum stays and long-weekend rules
- Two-way calendar sync with Airbnb, Booking.com and Stayz, or a channel manager if you use one
- Stripe payments with your deposit and balance schedule, gift vouchers if you sell them
- Automatic arrival guides, door codes and review requests after checkout
- Pages for the region that search engines and AI answers can cite, not just the booking widget
Connects to what you already use
Where a tool offers an API or a calendar feed, the build talks to it directly. Your data stays in accounts you own.
- Stripe
- Airbnb (iCal)
- Booking.com
- Stayz
- Channel managers
- Xero
- Mailchimp
- Google Business Profile
A platform, a booking widget, or your own site?
The platforms bring guests you'd never reach alone, and you should stay on them. The question is where your repeat and referred guests book.
| Criteria | Airbnb and Booking.com | Template site with a booking widget | Custom direct booking site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission per booking | Roughly 15% of the host's payout, plus guest-side fees | Widget fee, often a monthly plan plus a percentage | None; card processing only |
| Who owns the guest relationship | The platform | You, partly | You |
| Look and feel | The platform's | The template's, with the widget's styling on top | Yours, end to end |
| Extras and packages | Limited | Depends on the widget | Whatever you sell |
| Being found | Strong within the platform | Weak | Your own pages rank and get cited |
| Best when | You need new guests and aren't known yet | You have one room and a small budget | Repeat guests and word of mouth are a real share of bookings |
How we'd build yours
Fixed price, agreed before we start
Walk the property and the guest journey
We look at how guests find you today, which platform bookings repeat, and what you already upsell by message. That sets what the site needs to do first.
Fix the scope and the price
A written scope covering design, booking rules, calendar sync and payments, at one fixed price you approve before we start.
Design around the place
Your photography leads. Typography, colour and pacing are chosen for the property, so the site feels like arriving there, not like a theme.
Connect, test and launch alongside the platforms
Calendars sync both ways and payments are tested end to end before launch. Your platform listings keep running; the site catches the guests who come looking for you.
What moves the price
Custom work is quoted individually, at a fixed price, once the scope is written down. These are the things that make the biggest difference.
- Number of rooms or residences
- And how different their rules and rates are.
- Calendar sync
- iCal with the platforms is simpler than a full channel-manager integration.
- Content and design
- Whether photography and writing exist or need producing.
- Extras and vouchers
- Packages, gift vouchers and add-ons each add booking logic.
When you shouldn't build this
If you have one room, few repeat guests and no time to look after a website, stay on the platforms and put your effort into your listing and your reviews. A direct site pays for itself when enough guests already know your name, come back, or get sent to you by people who stayed. If that's a meaningful share of your bookings, it's worth doing properly.
Want this, with your name on it?
Tell us how the work runs today. We'll reply within one business day with what we'd build first, what we'd leave out, and whether an off-the-shelf tool would serve you better.
Common questions
A website where guests book and pay for a stay on the property's own site rather than through Airbnb or Booking.com. It shows live availability and prices, takes a deposit, and sends confirmations, and the property pays card processing fees instead of platform commission.
Booking platforms take a commission from the host, commonly around 15 per cent of the payout, and charge the guest a service fee on top, depending on the platform and settings. A direct booking pays only card processing, usually under two per cent. On a $1,600 weekend, the difference is around $200 after card fees.
Not if calendars are synced. Each booking blocks the dates everywhere else, using the platforms' calendar feeds or a channel manager. We test sync with real bookings before launch, because a double-booking is the one failure you can't apologise your way out of.
No. Platforms bring new guests you'd struggle to reach otherwise. The direct site is for returning guests, referrals and people who find you and look you up. Most properties run both, and the share of direct bookings grows over time.
Yes. A deposit is charged at booking and the balance is charged automatically a set number of days before arrival, with your cancellation policy stated clearly before payment. Payments go through Stripe into your own account.
Yes, and it should. Pages that genuinely answer questions about the area, such as how far the snowfields are or where to eat, are what search engines and AI assistants cite when someone plans a trip. A booking widget on a template can't do that.
More examples to try
- Party, event and equipment hire businessesBookings, stock and returns for event hireBook a marquee against what's free that weekend, pay the deposit, load the truck from a pick list, settle the bond.Live demoTry it
- Tour operators, experience businesses and anyone selling seats on a departureTour and experience bookingSeats on a dawn balloon flight: voucher, waiver and a weather hold that re-books guests by text.Live demoTry it
- Fire safety, test and tag and electrical compliance businessesTest, tag and fire safety inspectionsEvery asset due on its own cycle: tests done on a phone, failures tagged out, repairs approved, certificate sent.Live demoTry it
Last reviewed .