How to get direct bookings

Plenty of advice on this subject will get your listing suspended. Here's what the policy says, then what works within it.

What Airbnb prohibits

From Airbnb's Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy, hosts may not:

• ask or encourage users "to move current, future, or repeat bookings (including reservation extensions) off of Airbnb"
• offer or solicit "discounts to book off of Airbnb"
• request, send or receive "payments outside of Airbnb"
• ask guests "for contact information prior to booking"
• solicit guests "for their email, mailing address, or other communications channels using the Airbnb messaging system or email alias after a booking"
• include "links that take people off of the Airbnb platform in listings or messages"

Note that repeat bookings are named explicitly. "They've stayed before, so it's fine to message them my website" is exactly what the policy rules out.

What it allows

The same policy permits asking for contact or identity information where it's "required for legal or compliance reasons", such as HOA rules or local law, provided you disclose that in your listing. It allows asking guests to confirm contact information after a booking is accepted, and using another communication method if the guest asks for one after booking.

None of those is a marketing channel, and we wouldn't treat them as a loophole.

So how do owners get direct bookings?

By making the direct route something a guest finds on their own.

Give the property a name, and own that name online. "The Heron House" is searchable. "Cozy 3BR near beach" is not. A guest who loved the stay and searches the name a year later should land on your site, not on a marketplace page with ten alternatives beside you. This is the single highest-value thing a direct booking site does.

Make the stay memorable in the physical world. Everything inside your own property is yours: the welcome book, the framed Wi-Fi card, the fridge magnet. Your brand and web address belong on them the way a hotel's name is on its notepads. That's your premises, not Airbnb's messaging system.

Be where non-Airbnb guests look. People who find you through Google, an AI assistant, Instagram, a friend's recommendation or a local tourism site were never Airbnb's customers. A site with real local content, such as area guides, who the place suits and answers to common questions, is how those people arrive. More on that here.

Build a list from your own channels. Guests who book on your site, enquire through it or join your email list there are yours to write to. Over a few seasons this becomes the most valuable thing you own: "August weeks are open, past guests get first pick."

Price honestly. On Airbnb's single-fee structure your listing price carries roughly 15% of platform margin. Your site doesn't need to. You're not allowed to advertise that difference on Airbnb, and you don't have to; a guest comparing the two will see it.

The order to do it in

1. Name the property and register the domain.
2. Get a proper site live with your booking system's checkout in it.
3. Put the name and address on the physical things guests touch.
4. Start publishing local content so the site earns its own traffic.
5. Capture emails on the site and write to the list twice a year.

Steps 2 and 4 are the ones owners stall on, and they're the part we do for you.

This is a summary of a published policy, not legal advice. Read the policy yourself before you act on it; platforms change their terms.