Stop paying 15% to rent your own house.
We build you a direct booking site. You pay once and own it. The OTAs take 15 to 18% of every stay in fees, straight from your payout. Direct runs about 7% all-in, everything counted. Those are the honest numbers, and the gap is yours.
A year on the OTAs
$6,820
Airbnb's 15.5% host fee on the average $44,000 year
A year booking direct
$3,003
Same $44,000 year. Cards, engine, hosting, domain. All of it.
The gap: $3,817 a year. Yours.
The real math
Same house. Same guests. Very different fees.
Direct booking is not free. It is just a lot cheaper, and the difference is yours to keep.
What the OTAs take
$6,820
15.5% of the average $44,000 year
What direct costs
$3,003
Cards, engine, hosting, and domain on the same year
What you keep every year
$3,817
About 9% of your bookings, back in your pocket
How this breaks down: as of 2026, Airbnb charges hosts a single host-only service fee of 15.5% of the booking subtotal, taken directly from your payout. Vrbo hosts pay 8% (5% commission plus 3% payment processing) while Vrbo guests add a 6 to 15% service fee on top; Booking.com charges hosts 15 to 20%. We use Airbnb's 15.5% here. On a $44,000 booking year, the 2025 average for an active US listing (AirDNA), that is $6,820. Direct booking has real costs too: 3% card processing ($1,320), a booking engine at about $40 per month, our hosting (billed annually), and a $15 per year domain, for $3,003 all-in. Net, most owners keep an extra 8 to 9% of everything they move direct. Estimates, rounded.
Savings calculator
What are the OTAs costing you?
Move the sliders. The math updates as you go.
How the math works
Platform fees apply to your booking subtotal: nightly rate plus cleaning, pet, and extra guest fees, before taxes. As of 2026, Airbnb charges hosts a single host-only service fee of 15.5% of that subtotal. Vrbo hosts pay 8%, a 5% commission plus 3% payment processing, and Vrbo guests pay an additional 6 to 15% service fee on top of your rates. Booking.com charges hosts 15 to 20% commission, and the calculator models the 17.5% midpoint. The direct side counts every real cost of running your own site: about 3% card processing, a booking engine, our hosting, and your domain, about $1,683 per year in fixed costs plus the processing.
A worked example: $200 per night, a $100 cleaning fee, and 150 booked nights per year at 3 night average stays is 50 stays and a $35,000 subtotal. Airbnb's 15.5% fee on that year is $5,425. Running the same bookings through your own site costs $2,733 all-in. The difference, $2,692 per year, pays off a one-time $1,490 direct booking site in about 7 months, roughly 28 direct bookings. After payback, the savings repeat every year you own the site.
Still with a property manager? Their cut sits on top of everything above. If you are thinking about taking the property back, we wrote the whole handoff down: how to leave your property manager, from the notice period to who keeps the bookings already on your calendar.
What's included
Everything a direct booking site needs. Nothing it doesn't.
Custom brand guide and logo
Logo, colors, and fonts built for your property, delivered as a one-page brand guide. The logo files and the guide are yours to keep and use anywhere, on the site or off it.
Your website
Home, property, photos, area guide, and contact, built around what your property actually needs. Written, designed, and built for you.
Booking widget setup
We wire in the booking engine you choose (OwnerRez, Hospitable Direct, Lodgify, Hostfully, Guesty, or another with an embeddable widget) so guests book and pay on your site.
Mobile-first build
Most guests book from a phone. Your site is designed there first, not shrunk down later.
SEO foundations
Clean structure, fast load, and the metadata search engines expect from day one. Ongoing SEO/GEO work after launch is a separate optional add-on, priced below.
Digital guest book
House info, check-in, wifi, and local recommendations, on your own domain. Comes with a print-at-home QR sign pack matched to your brand.
Business email setup
We wire up the DNS so email at your own domain works with Google Workspace, Apple, or whoever you choose. The account is yours and you pay that provider directly.
Cleaning guide
A written turnover checklist for your cleaning team, built from your property details.
Returning guest coupon setup
A discount code for repeat guests, so your best guests have a reason to book direct again.
Two revision rounds
Two consolidated rounds of changes are included before launch. Most clients use one.
For reference: the same deliverables typically start around $3,500 per property elsewhere. A custom logo and brand guide alone start around $500 from a freelance designer, and a custom website around $3,000 from an agency, often far higher. Here it is one flat $1,490, and every deliverable, logo files included, is yours outright.
Pricing
Simple numbers. No surprises.
Your site, all-in
$1,490
One-time. Brand guide, your website, booking widget, digital guest book, SEO, two revision rounds, live in 7 business days.
Start your buildEach additional property
$750
One-time. Its own pages, its own guest book, its own booking widget, under your same brand and domain.
Hosting and care
$1,188
first property, about $99 a month, plus $468/year each additional property
Billed annually, one number, no first-year discount to track. First year goes on your final invoice, then it renews on your launch date. Covers the website and every property's guest book together: SSL, updates, and one content change per month, up to 30 minutes (extra time billed at $150 an hour). Or self-host after a one-time $400 handoff. Every build runs on the same plain-English service agreement.
SEO/GEO, ongoing
$1,188
per property per year, about $99 a month
Optional. Ongoing search and AI-answer-engine optimization on top of the SEO foundations already in your build. Billed annually alongside hosting. Ask when you start your build, or reach out anytime after launch.
One brand across your properties is what builds a guest list that comes back without the OTAs. Want a genuinely separate brand and site for a property instead? That is priced as a new build, $1,490, not the additional-property rate.
Website builds are 50% up front. The rest, plus your first year of hosting, is one final invoice at completion.
Business email setup, a cleaning guide, and returning guest coupon setup are all included. The only extra when you need it: rush delivery in 3 business days for $250, additional revision rounds for $150 each.
You will also need a booking engine, about $14 to $40 a month, a domain, about $15 a year, and an email host if you want mail at your domain. All are paid to those providers, not to us, and the engine and domain are counted in the calculator above.
Cleaning guide
One page your turnover crew actually opens.
Every build ships with a private checklist for your cleaning team, room by room, with real counts. It comes standard, not as something you buy on top.
01
We build a room-by-room checklist for your property from your own details: real counts, not a guess. What "stocked" means at your place is not generic.
02
Your cleaner opens it from their phone mid-turnover, or works off the print-ready version if that is how their crew runs.
03
Running low on something? One tap sends a single text straight to you. No app for your cleaner to install.
04
It lives on its own address, gated behind its own code, separate from your guest-facing site.
Comes standard, not sold separately
Your cleaning guide lives on its own address, something like cleaning.yourdomain.com, gated behind a code just for your crew. Nothing for guests to stumble into, nothing extra to pay for.
How it works
Intake to launch in six steps
01
Intake
One required form collects your photos, details, branding, and your booking engine widget code. You sign the service agreement at the end of it, before any invoice.
02
Deposit
50% down via QuickBooks invoice locks in your build slot. The 7-business-day clock starts once it is paid and your widget code is in.
03
Brand guide
We design your brand guide first. You approve it, within 3 business days, before we build the site.
04
Build
We write your pages and wire up your booking widget. You get a preview and two revision rounds, one consolidated list each.
05
Launch
One final invoice: the rest of the build plus your first year of hosting. Paid, the site transfers to your domain. You own it outright.
06
Add your info
After launch, you add the finishing touches yourself, right in your site's own dashboard: guest book extras like local tips, and the room-by-room turnover checklist. Short forms, at your own pace.
Recent work
Built with this exact process
Real owner sites, start to finish: custom brand, a full website, live booking widget.
FAQ
Straight answers
What percentage does Airbnb take from hosts in 2026?
15.5% of your booking subtotal: nightly rate plus cleaning, pet, and extra guest fees, before taxes. It is a single host-only fee taken straight from your payout. The old split model, about 3% host plus a 14 to 16.5% guest fee, is retired, and the last US self-managed hosts migrate by September 15, 2026. In practice, the host-side cost jumped from 3% to 15.5%.
How much do Vrbo and Booking.com charge hosts?
Vrbo hosts pay 8%: a 5% commission plus 3% payment processing. Vrbo guests also pay a 6 to 15% service fee on top of your rates. Booking.com charges hosts a 15 to 20% commission. Every platform's cut disappears when a guest books on your own site.
How much does a direct booking website cost?
Here, $1,490 one-time: custom brand guide and logo, your website, booking widget setup, a digital guest book on your own domain, business email setup (you pay the email host), a cleaning guide, returning guest coupon setup, SEO, and two revision rounds. Each additional property under the same brand is $750. Ongoing costs are hosting (billed annually), a booking engine at $14 to $40 per month, and about $15 per year for a domain. An optional ongoing SEO/GEO package is also available per property, billed annually alongside hosting, if you want continued search and AI-answer-engine optimization beyond the SEO foundations already in your build. All-in, direct bookings cost about 7% versus Airbnb's 15.5%.
Do direct booking websites actually work?
Yes, with honest expectations. A direct site does not replace your OTA listings overnight. It captures repeat guests, referrals, and travelers who find you outside the platforms, and every booking it captures keeps roughly an extra 8 to 9% of the subtotal in your pocket. On an average calendar the site pays for itself in about 5 months of shifted bookings.
Is direct booking really fee-free?
No, and anyone who says so is selling something. Running your own site has four real costs: roughly 3% card processing, a booking engine at $14 to $40 per month, our hosting (billed annually), and about $15 per year for your domain. On an average year that adds up to about 7% of your direct subtotal. Compare that to Airbnb's 15.5%. We never claim zero fees. We claim much smaller ones.
Do I still need to pay for a booking engine?
Yes. Your site embeds a booking widget from the engine you choose (OwnerRez, Hospitable Direct, Lodgify, Hostfully, Guesty, or another with an embeddable widget), and you pay that provider directly, typically $14 to $40 per month. They handle calendar sync and payments through Stripe, and that cost is already included in all the math on this page. Your engine account has to exist before we build, because the build starts once you send us its widget embed code. No engine yet? We help you pick one during onboarding.
Will this replace my OTA listings overnight?
No. Most owners keep their OTA listings and use the direct site to move their best guests off-platform over time: repeat guests first, then referrals, then search traffic. That is the realistic play, and it is where the savings compound year over year.
How fast is delivery?
Seven business days from the moment three things are in: your deposit, your completed intake, and the widget embed code from your booking engine. Need it faster? Rush delivery in 3 business days is available for $250.
What do I need to provide?
A completed /start form: property details, house rules, guest book content, and a link to your photo gallery. If you have branding, share it there. If not, brand creation is included in the price. You sign the service agreement at the end of the same form.
How does hosting billing work?
Hosting is billed once a year, not monthly: $1,188 a year for the first property (about $99 a month), plus $468 a year for each additional property under the same brand (about $39 a month). One number, no first-year discount to track. That covers the website and every property's guest book together: hosting, SSL, software updates, and one content change per month up to 30 minutes (no rollover). Need more than that in a given month? Extra time is billed at $150 an hour, quoted before we start. Your first year is on the final invoice at completion, then it renews each year on your launch date. Prefer to host it yourself? A one-time $400 handoff covers the transfer, because you own the site either way.
Do you pay for referrals?
Yes, if you are already a client. Send another owner our way and we pay you $250 cash within a week of their deposit clearing. No cap, every client counts. Have them name you in the "Who referred you?" field when they start their build.
What's the difference between the SEO that's included and the SEO/GEO add-on?
The SEO foundations in every build are one-time and technical: clean structure, fast load, and the metadata search engines expect from day one. That's a foundation, not ongoing optimization. The SEO/GEO add-on is separate and ongoing: continued work to help your site rank in Google and show up in AI answers (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and similar), billed annually per property alongside hosting. It's optional. Ask about it when you start your build, or reach out anytime after launch.
Why I built this
Productized, priced like it.
I am a web developer, and I productize direct-to-guest tools for short term rental owners, starting with direct booking websites. Same deliverables every time: brand guide, your website, booking widget, digital guest book, SEO. The process is systemized end to end, which is why your site goes live in 7 business days and the price never moves: a flat $1,490, no hourly billing, no discovery calls, nothing you did not ask for. The calculator above tells you honestly whether this pays off for your property. If it does not, do not buy it. If it does, it usually pays for itself in months.
Referrals
Know another owner paying 15%?
Already a client? Send another owner our way and we pay you $250 cash within a week of their deposit clearing. No cap. Every client counts. They name you in the “Who referred you?” field when they start their build.
Ready to keep more of every booking?
Tell us about your property. We reply within one business day with next steps and your deposit invoice.
Start your buildPrefer to talk it through first? Book a free call