Independent booking site
for vacation rentals

An independent booking site is your own website where guests book and pay directly — no Airbnb, VRBO, or other platform in between. You own the guest relationship, their email address, and their booking history. No commission fees (just 2.9% Stripe processing), no platform rules about messaging, no risk of listing removal. Your property, your rules, your revenue.

Five reasons: (1) Keep 97% of revenue instead of 84.5% after Airbnb's 15.5% fee. (2) Own your guest data — emails, phone numbers, booking history for remarketing. (3) Set your own policies — cancellation terms, minimum stays, house rules without platform interference. (4) Build a brand guests remember and return to. (5) Eliminate platform risk — Airbnb can suspend listings without warning. Your own site can't be taken away.

Absolutely. The smartest strategy is using both. Keep your Airbnb listing for discovery (new guests finding you) and use your independent site for repeat bookings, referrals, and Google traffic. Calendar sync via iCal ensures no double bookings between platforms. Most successful hosts maintain 2-3 listing channels plus their own direct booking site.

DirectBookings costs $9/month for 1 property, $29/month for up to 5, $79/month for up to 10. Includes: professional website, Stripe payment processing, calendar sync, automated emails, and online check-in. Compare this to Airbnb: on $50,000 annual revenue, Airbnb takes $7,750 in fees. Your own site costs $108-948/year. The savings are obvious.

Everything. You own: guest email addresses (for remarketing), booking history (for personalized offers), your brand and domain name, your content and photos, your reviews, your pricing strategy, and your business reputation. On Airbnb, the platform owns the guest relationship. On your own site, you build a real business asset.

Yes — if you do it right. Trust signals that matter: professional design (DirectBookings handles this), Stripe checkout (guests recognize the secure payment form), guest reviews displayed on your site, clear cancellation policy, property photos, and a custom domain (yourvilla.com vs a random subdomain). Guests who've already stayed with you via Airbnb especially trust booking direct.