Direct booking: taking back control

Direct booking does not replace platforms. It recovers the share of your bookings that never had any reason to be paid for.

What you pay today

Airbnb runs two service-fee structures. The older split fee charges 3 % to the host and 14.1 % to 16.5 % to the guest. The host-only fee, now becoming the rule, charges 15.5 % for most hosts, in a 14–16 % range.

Whether the fee is taken from you or from the guest makes no difference to the total paid to sleep at your place. It is the same money. For other platforms, take your own statement and divide total commission by total collected — that is your real rate.

What direct booking does not do

It will not, in year one, replace the traffic of a global platform. Platforms outbid you on Google, reassure a guest who does not know you, and handle a stranger's payment. Cutting them overnight costs nights booked.

What it does

It recovers four families of bookings: regulars who come back every summer, recommendations who arrive with your name, brand searches for the name of your gîte, and awkward requests — the group of twelve, the late arrival, the dog — that you close better by phone.

When it pays for itself

Monthly subscription ÷ commission saved on one night. At €39 a month and a €100 night at 15.5 %, three direct nights a month cover it.

The method

Have an address of your own; make booking possible without you; synchronise calendars so you never double-book; put the address everywhere you already are; and keep your guests' e-mail addresses — one message in January fills weeks in summer.

Sources

• Airbnb, Airbnb service fees (help centre article 1857), accessed September 2026.