payments
Direct booking website cost: what small operators pay
Between zero and about $3,500 a year in software, plus 2.9% and 30 cents a payment. The published builder prices, what a build really costs in developer weeks, and how much business has to move direct before any of it pays for itself.
Cloudbeds API: how to build a direct booking checkout
Cloudbeds will write a real booking into the property system from your own page, and it will not take a cent of the money. There is no hold on the room either, so a refused card leaves a booking your own code has to cancel. What that build involves, and what the platform costs.
Guesty vs Hostaway: which is better for a small lodging business
Guesty publishes a starting price and Hostaway quotes every account, so an 8 to 25 unit property cannot compare them without two sales calls. Here is what each one costs, what its support covers, what happens when a guest's card fails, and which sort of property should buy which.
Guesty API documentation, and what a direct booking page costs to build
Guesty has two APIs, and the narrow one is built for a direct booking site: your checkout requests a reservation quote, Guesty guarantees that price for 24 hours, and the quote becomes a booking. Nothing it publishes says the dates are held while the guest pays.
Cloudbeds Payments pricing vs your own Stripe account
Cloudbeds publishes no processing rate for Cloudbeds Payments, and Stripe publishes 2.9% plus 30 cents. What each does with a failed card, where the payout fee falls, who holds the guest's card and the record of a charge, and the verdict by property size.
What a direct booking website needs, what it costs, and how to test yours
A direct booking website is your own site with a booking engine inside it, so a guest books and pays you with no commission on top. What the four parts cost, where fifteen systems put the guest's card, and a twenty minute test you can run tonight with your own card.