Getting found, and getting booked direct.
What we learn running direct booking for small operators: what moved the direct share, what the platforms really cost, and what we change next season. Written for the person who owns the calendar.
Latest posts
Hostaway API: what it takes to build a direct booking checkout
Hostaway's public API lives in a single reference, the key is yours to create, and the request that makes a reservation can charge the card at the same time. If that charge fails, Hostaway deletes the reservation. Nothing it publishes holds the dates while a guest is paying.
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.
Bed and breakfast direct booking: how a small B&B gets more of them
Direct bookings at a bed and breakfast come from people who already have your name. What it takes to catch them: a booking page that holds the date and takes a card, a clear read of what your Booking.com contract lets you charge, a deposit guests will finish, and somebody asking at checkout.
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.
Hotel rate parity: what your contract covers and what you can still do
Rate parity promises a booking platform the same or better price, conditions and availability than you make available anywhere else. Booking.com runs three versions of it, and the United States and Canada get the widest one by default. Here is what the clause reaches, what it can be used for, and the narrow routes that stay open.
Airbnb channel manager: what it does and what it costs you
An Airbnb channel manager keeps one calendar and one price list across Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and your own site. What connecting actually changes, including the 15.5% host-only fee, what Airbnb keeps hold of, and a three number test for your own books.
Hotel post stay email templates for direct and platform guests
Your post stay email should ask for one thing, and which one depends on where the reservation came from. Booking.com is already collecting the review, so a platform guest gets the invitation back. A guest who came direct gets the review request. Both emails are written out, with where the address comes from.
How to keep hotel guests booking direct after checkout
A returning guest who books with you instead of the platform is worth about $65 more on a $540 stay, and you never pay for the introduction twice. Here is what that list is worth, how to reach it, and what to skip.
Price disparity: what it means and why platforms undercut your own site
Price disparity means one stay carrying two different prices in two places. At a small property it usually runs the wrong way, with your own website asking more than your platform listing, and four settings cause most of it: a platform discount you fund, a child billed as an extra guest, a lodging tax counted twice, and two totals that were never comparable.
Direct booking discount: how deep you can safely go
A direct booking discount stops paying for itself at about 12 to 13% off list once card fees are counted, or at about 30% if you also fund a platform loyalty discount. The three cases worked on one real stay, where the discount has to live so the platforms never read it, and why a US or Canadian property has to check its Booking.com parity clause before publishing one.
Airbnb host fees calculator: how to do the sum yourself
Most Airbnb hosts now pay one service fee of 15.5%, so multiply your nightly rate times the nights, plus cleaning and extra guest fees, by 0.845. Worked here on a $180 night, with the eleven things Airbnb says will move the money that finally lands, the Genius discount you fund on top at Booking.com, and what the same stay leaves you on your own site.
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