Your calendar. Your guests. Your money.
Stop handing 15.5% of every booking to Airbnb.
Take bookings on your own website instead. Synced with Airbnb and Booking.com. Accept card payments directly. No commission. No monthly booking software fees.
Book a discovery call✓ 20 minutes on the phone. You'll leave knowing exactly what a direct booking site would cost you — and save you.
Built for cottages · pods · glamping sites · apartments · guesthouses
Take bookings directly
Guests book through your own site, not only through the platforms.
No commission fees
Keep the 15.5% that would normally disappear from the booking.
Calendar sync
Book a date anywhere, your site, Airbnb or Booking.com, and it's blocked everywhere else.
Mobile-first performance
Fast, clean booking pages for guests comparing on the sofa.
Another booking, another £93 gone in fees.
Noticed your payout line change in June? UK hosts were moved to Airbnb's single 15.5% fee on 22 June 2026 — the cut you used to half-see is now deducted, in full, from payouts on new reservations.
You did the work. You bought the property, furnished it, cleaned it, answered the 11pm “Is there parking?” messages. Airbnb sent an email and kept 15.5%. Booking.com shows the exact commission in your agreement; sector research commonly places the base rate around 15%.
Worse, they keep the guest too. You can’t email the lovely couple from last summer. You can’t offer them 10% to come back direct. That guest list is what fills February — and the platform owns it, not you. And if the algorithm buries your listing next month, your calendar empties and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The cut only moves one way
What started low has become 15%+ for many hosts.
2015
Airbnb host fee
~3%
2020
Guest fees rose
14.1–16.5%
Today
Many hosts now pay
15.5%
Direct booking keeps more of each reservation
Less commission. More revenue stays with you.
Booking.com is often around 15% too — and can cost more once discounts or visibility programmes are added.
A direct booking website fixes all three problems. Most pay for themselves inside 8–12 bookings.
Why those fees are unlikely to come back down
Airbnb's fee began at 3% for hosts. Since June 2026, UK hosts pay a single 15.5% deducted from each payout — near 18.6% with VAT for many small hosts.
When Airbnb started, hosts paid 3% and guests paid a service fee on top. That guest fee later reached 14.1–16.5%. Then in June 2026, UK hosts were moved — no opt-out — to a single 15.5% fee taken straight from payouts on new reservations. Not VAT-registered? VAT on that fee takes it to roughly 18.6%.
Etsy sellers have watched the same pattern: its transaction fee rose from 3.5% to 5% in 2018 and to 6.5% in 2022. Shops above Etsy’s sales threshold must also participate in Offsite Ads, paying 12% on orders attributed to those ads. TikTok Shop launched its US referral fee at 2% in September 2023; by July 2024 it was 8%.
The playbook rarely changes: build the audience cheaply, then raise the rent once leaving costs more than staying. Nobody can tell you what the cut will be in three years — including the platforms. What you control is how exposed you are when it moves.
A host with only a platform listing pays whatever the platform decides. A host with a direct booking channel gets to shrug.
What you get
A direct booking website takes payments on your own domain, syncs calendars with Airbnb and Booking.com, and charges no commission on any stay.
Take bookings while you sleep
Guests check availability, pick their dates and submit — day or night. You approve each booking before anything's confirmed or charged.
Never get a double booking
Calendars sync across your site, Airbnb and Booking.com — and with owner approval on, nothing is confirmed until you've checked.
Stop paying rent on your own booking system
No commission, and no monthly booking software fee — the software is licensed for life. After launch you pay for hosting and nothing else.
Get found when AI does the looking
Property details, prices and FAQs are structured so Google and AI assistants can read them.
Win the booking made from the sofa
Fast mobile pages help guests finish the booking before drifting back to the app they came from.
Skip the admin
Booking confirmations, arrival details and check-in instructions can send themselves.
DIRECT BOOKINGS · REPEAT GUESTS · OFF-PEAK DATES
Turn every stay into the next direct booking.
Your website should help create the next booking, not just process this one.
A direct-booking website gives every satisfied guest a simple route back to your property — and an easy link to pass on to friends and family.
While they are staying
Leave a small card in the property with your website address and QR code. Add the link to your welcome information, departure message and social profiles.
After they leave
Send a thank-you email with the direct-booking link and invite them to join your mailing list.
When you have dates to fill
Use your guest list to share quieter dates, cancellations or off-season availability.
Every platform booking can become the start of a future direct relationship.
Included with your website: a branded QR code and print-ready guest card.
Start cautious. Go instant when you're ready.
Your site launches in request-to-book mode: guests pick dates and submit, and you approve every booking before anything is confirmed or a card is charged. You check your calendars, your changeover times, your gut — then click confirm.
Once you trust the setup, flip the switch to instant booking and automatic payment. Nothing gets accepted that you can't honour — from day one.
Who’s building it
Holiday-let owners are often sold the same thing: a pretty brochure site with a “Check availability on Airbnb” button. That’s not a booking site. That’s a more expensive way to send people back to Airbnb.
That's the gap I built this service to fix. One person — me, Peadar — builds your site, sets up your calendar and payments, and answers the phone afterwards. No account manager, no handoffs, no ticket queue.
And the words matter as much as the build. The site is written to help the guest book, not just admire the property.
You get:
✓ Your site, your domain, your data
✓ Fixed price agreed up front
✓ Clear handover and training
✓ Optional Website Care & Improvement if you want it
✓ No lock-in
How it works
Three steps from first call to first direct booking: a 20-minute call, a fixed-price build with calendar and payments, then launch and training.
Book a call
Tell me about your property and your bookings. If a direct site doesn't stack up for you, you'll hear it straight and it costs you nothing.
Get your site built
Design, booking calendar, payments, OTA sync and your property content, all handled for you at a fixed price agreed up front.
Take your first direct booking
Go live, get shown how to run it in plain English, and keep every penny except the card fee from then on — no commission, ever.
The maths
Say your average stay is £600. Airbnb's cut: £93.
Booking.com’s rate is property-specific, but sector research commonly places the base commission around 15%. Same problem, same fix.
2
direct bookings a month
=
£2,232
extra in your pocket every year.
Your website stops being a cost and starts being the highest-paid cleaner you’ve ever hired — except it works nights.
A direct booking isn't free — Stripe takes a card fee like any card machine. Call it £9 on that £600 stay. £9 to a card processor versus £93 to a platform.
Your own figures will likely vary.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers on calendar sync, double bookings, Stripe payments, cancellations, GDPR and running your own direct booking website day to day.
Do I have to come off Airbnb or Booking.com?
No — and you shouldn’t. The platforms are good at finding you new guests. Your own site is where repeat guests, referrals, and anyone Googling your property name book you commission-free. They run side by side, with calendars kept in sync.
How will anyone find my website?
Three ways, in order of value: past guests you can now email directly, people who Google your property name after seeing it on a platform, and local searches like “cottage with hot tub near Warrenpoint”. Your property details, prices and FAQs are structured so Google and AI assistants can read and quote them. A card in the welcome pack — “Book direct next time and save 10%” — turns every platform guest into a future direct one.
What happens if someone books the same weekend on Airbnb and my site?
It can’t be confirmed behind your back. Your site launches in request-to-book mode — you approve every booking, so you check your calendars before anything is accepted. The calendars also sync automatically between your site, Airbnb and Booking.com, typically updating within the hour. Belt and braces.
How do guests pay me?
By card, straight into your own bank account through Stripe. You choose the rules: full payment up front, a deposit now with the balance due before arrival, or card-on-file for damage cover. The money never passes through a booking platform — or through me.
What about cancellations and refunds?
You set the policy — flexible, moderate or strict — and the site enforces it. Refunds go back to the guest’s card in a couple of clicks. No more arguing with a platform’s resolution centre over your own money.
What does it cost?
A fixed price, agreed in writing before any work starts. No hourly billing, no surprise extras. You’ll get an exact figure on our call once I’ve seen your property and setup — most builds pay for themselves inside 8–12 direct bookings.
Are there monthly fees after launch?
Hosting is an ongoing cost, and your domain also needs renewed. The exact figure will be confirmed before work begins. The booking software on your site is licensed for life, so there is no monthly booking-software fee added by me.
Can I show my Airbnb reviews on my own site?
Yes. Your hard-earned reviews and Superhost record can be displayed on your site, so direct guests get the same reassurance they’d see on the platforms — without you starting from zero.
I've got more than one property — does that change things?
It works in your favour. One booking system runs them all — each property gets its own page, calendar and pricing, and guests can check availability across all of them in one place. The fixed price scales with property count, agreed up front as always.
Can I change my own prices and block dates myself?
Yes, from day one. Seasonal rates, minimum stays, last-minute discounts, blocked dates for your own week in July — all yours to change, no developer required. The handover includes plain-English training, and it’s shorter than you’d expect.
Who looks after the site after launch?
You continue dealing directly with me after launch.
If you want ongoing help with WordPress updates, backups, security and general site care, an optional Website Care & Improvement plan will be available. Alternatively, I can hand the website over properly for you to manage yourself.
How long until I'm taking bookings?
The timescale depends on the booking setup, the amount of content required and how quickly property information is supplied. I’ll confirm the expected schedule before the project starts.
Is guest data handled properly?
Yes. Card details are handled entirely by Stripe — they never touch your site. Guest details are stored on your own site under UK GDPR, and — unlike the platforms — that guest list is yours to keep and email.
Keep the next 15.5%.
Book a free 20-minute call. You'll get a straight answer on whether a direct booking site makes sense for your property — and an exact fixed price if it does.
✓ No pressure, no jargon, no obligation. Just the person who'd actually build it.
20 minutes on the phone. You'll leave knowing exactly what a direct booking site would cost you — and save you.