Direct booking website
Your guests. Your dates. Nobody in the middle.
A direct booking website lets guests reserve with you instead of a platform. We build it, connect it and bring it traffic.
The short answer
A direct booking website is a site on your own domain where guests can check availability, see real prices and reserve your vacation rental without going through a marketplace such as Airbnb or Vrbo. The owner keeps the guest relationship and avoids marketplace service fees, and pays only a payment processing cost.
Why owners build one
Under Airbnb's single-fee structure most hosts pay 15.5% of each booking, and under Vrbo's pay-per-booking model hosts pay a 5% commission plus a 3% payment processing fee. Those are the platforms' own published figures. On a direct booking you pay card processing and nothing else.
The bigger reason is ownership. A guest who books direct is in your email list, not a marketplace's. They can come back next summer without either of you paying to be reintroduced.
What a direct booking site needs to work
- A real booking engine with live availability, connected to the same calendar as your listings
- Secure card payments and a rental agreement
- A reason to book direct, stated plainly: the best price is here
- Pages that answer what guests ask before they book: what's nearby, who it suits, how far to the lift or the beach
- A way to capture the email of visitors who aren't ready yet
Direct doesn't mean leaving the platforms
Most owners keep their listings. Marketplaces are good at introducing new guests. Your own site is where those guests, and everyone they tell, book the second time. We'd rather be honest about that than promise you can switch Airbnb off next month.
Questions
What owners ask us
Will I get double bookings?
No, provided the booking engine on your site shares a calendar with your listings. That's exactly what property management software does, and it's why we connect to yours rather than replace it.
How do guests pay?
Through your booking system's checkout, which pays out to your account. VacayDirect never holds your guests' money.
Is it against Airbnb's rules to have my own site?
Having your own website is entirely up to you. What marketplaces restrict is using their messaging to move a booking that started on their platform. We'll show you compliant ways to let past guests find you.
Let's get your place its own front door.
A 20-minute call. We'll look at your current site or listing, tell you what we'd build and answer anything. No pitch deck.