Country houses and holiday flats

The booking that comes in through your website you keep all of it

The portals charge you between 15% and 18% of every night. Your own website charges you nothing. The difference is not in the design: it is in who takes the money home at the end of the summer.

Talk about my property See examples

The calendar syncs with Booking and Airbnb. There are no double bookings.

The same booking, by two routes

Four nights for two people · 480 €

Through the portal 408 €
−€72 in commission (15%)
Through your website 473 €
−€7 for the payment gateway

€65 difference on a single booking. Over twenty bookings a year, one thousand three hundred euros that no longer leave your pocket.

What it costs you to have nowhere to book direct

The commission is invisible because it never reaches your account: they deduct it and pay in what is left. Put in yearly figures, it shows up better.

15–18 %

of every booking

It is the usual range for the big portals. Airbnb splits part of it between guest and host, but it comes out of the same final price.

4.500 €

a year if you turn over 30,000

At 15% commission. That is more than the website, the domain and several years of maintenance put together.

0 €

the hundredth booking

The website is paid for once. From then on, every direct booking comes in whole, whether it is the first or the hundredth.

Indicative industry figures, for context: the exact commission depends on the portal, on your category and on the promotions you have switched on. With your real numbers the sum takes five minutes.

What I am not going to sell you

I am not telling you to drop Booking. That would be bad advice

The portal does something your own website will not do on its own: put you in front of people who did not know you existed. If you delete yourself from every portal tomorrow, come August the house is empty. What you can do is stop paying commission on the bookings that were already yours: the repeat guest, the one who comes recommended and the one who searches for you by name after seeing you on the portal.

That is what the portal is for

  • Being discovered by someone who did not know you
  • Filling the odd gaps in low season
  • The first few years, when you have no reviews of your own

That is what your website is for

  • The repeat customer who should not still be paying through someone else's till
  • The one who searches your name on Google after seeing you on the portal
  • Long stays, groups and the whole house, where the commission hurts most
  • Selling your own thing without competing in a list with forty others

A practical warning: before putting a lower price on your website than the portal's, look at what you signed. Many contracts have had price parity clauses and European rules have kept changing. You can reward direct booking without touching the price: late checkout, a hamper of local produce, cleaning included or the fourth night half price.

What the website includes

The same for a village house as for a building with six flats: clear, love at first photo, and bookable without having to message you.

Synced calendar

By iCal with Booking, Airbnb or your channel manager. If it is booked there, it is blocked here.

Deposit taken online

Card or Bizum at the moment of booking. It filters out the ones who book on a whim and never show up.

Full-screen photos

It is the only thing a guest looks at in the first three seconds. No crops and no odd frames.

What to do in the area

Walks, beaches, wineries, restaurants. It is what ranks you best on Google and what guests thank you for most.

Several properties

Each house or flat with its own page, its photos, its price and its own calendar.

Spanish, English and whatever else is needed

With Galician, Catalan or Basque if that is your area. Foreign visitors book more if they can read it in their own language.

Getting found in your area

«Country house in the Ribeira Sacra» has to bring up you, not just the portal you are listed on.

Metrics dashboard

Which countries people come from, which photos and which flats get looked at most, and how many click to book. Useful for knowing which market to speak to.

The legal details, in plain sight

Tourist registration number, cancellation terms and legal notice where they have to be.

No double bookings

The usual fear: the same night getting booked twice

It is the reason a lot of people do not dare with direct booking, and it has been fixable for years. The portals publish your calendar in a standard format (iCal) and read it just as well. Your website subscribes to theirs and publishes its own.

When someone books on Booking, those nights block themselves on your website. When someone books on your website, they get blocked on the portal. You do not touch a thing.

iCal syncing is not instant: the portals refresh every so often, usually between fifteen minutes and a couple of hours. For most small properties that is plenty. If you sell a lot of last-minute single nights, then a proper channel manager is worth having and I will tell you before we start.

August in your calendar

Came in through the portal Came in through your website Free

Who it works for

Small properties where the owner knows the guests by name.

Whole country houseWhole-property lets by the weekend
House let by roomsWith breakfast and communal areas
Holiday flatsOne or fifteen, each with its own page
Cabins and glampingWhere the photo sells everything
Small country hotelUp to twenty rooms
Village housesRestored, with a story to tell
HostelsOn the way, with spaces per night
Seasonal letsWinter months, remote working

Three ways to build it, hands-on

They are complete example websites: you can open them, browse them and fill them in. The first is built for accommodation; the other two are from another sector, but the architecture works just as well for a country house.

Map and listing

Several houses spread across the area. The guest chooses by location and compares without getting lost.

Open the example

Horizontal scroll

You move sideways, photo by photo, like someone showing you round the house. For when what sells is the place itself.

Open the example

Step-by-step wizard

Dates, how many of you there are, extras and done. Booking without thinking, in four short screens.

Open the example

See the fourteen styles

What accommodation owners ask me

What if I get two bookings for the same night?
That is what iCal syncing is for: your website reads the portals' calendars and publishes its own, so whatever gets booked in one place is blocked in the others. The real risk left is the refresh window, which is usually minutes. If your occupancy is very high and you sell last-minute single nights, the honest thing is to set up a proper channel manager, and I will tell you that before quoting.
Can I take the deposit through the website?
Yes, by card or Bizum. The usual thing is to ask for between 20% and 30% on booking and the rest on arrival, but it is set up however you want: fixed deposit, percentage, or payment in full for short stays. The gateway keeps a small percentage, around 1.5%, which is what appears in the sum above.
Do I have to drop Booking or Airbnb?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise does not know the business. The portal brings you the person who did not know you. Your website is for the person who already does: the repeat guest, the recommended one and the one who searches for you by name after seeing you on the list. What normally happens is that you start with 100% through the portals and within a couple of seasons half the bookings come in direct.
Can I put a lower price on my website than on the portal?
It depends what you signed. Price parity clauses have been a fight with the portals for years and European rules have kept changing, so the serious answer is: check your contract or ask whoever handles it for you. What you can always do is give more for the same price on the direct booking: late checkout, welcome hamper, cleaning included, the fourth night half price. It is what the ones who do it best do.
I have three flats. Do I need three websites?
No. One website with a page per flat: its photos, its capacity, its price and its calendar. The guest sees all three, chooses by dates and capacity, and books whichever fits. If one day you open a fourth, it gets added without rebuilding anything.
And the guest register they now ask for?
Sending traveller details to the Ministry's platform is your obligation and it is done there or from your management software; a website does not replace it. What the website can do is take the preparatory work off you: collect the guest's details before they arrive, with a form sent to them automatically a few days beforehand, so you do not have to copy them off an ID card at the desk. If that part interests you, tell me and we will look at it for your particular case.
I have not got good photos. Does it still work?
Honestly: no. In accommodation the photo is 80% of the decision, and a beautiful website with backlit phone snaps sells less than an ugly listing with good photos. I do not do photography, but I will tell you what is needed (the times of day, which rooms, how many) and, if you want, put you in touch with someone local. It is the better investment of the two.
How long before it brings me bookings?
The ones from people who already know you, from day one: as soon as you put it in your signature, on your Instagram and on a sign in the house, they start coming in. New people via Google take months, because ranking for an area takes its time. Anyone who promises you new bookings in the first week is selling you hot air.

Let us talk

Tell me about your property

Knowing how many beds you have, which portals you are on and how much commission you pay, I can already tell you whether it pays off and what it costs. The first conversation commits you to nothing.

WhatsAppThe quickest. I usually reply the same day. See the accommodation exampleA browsable website, not a screenshot.

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