The Pilot Room
$189 / night
For inns, B&Bs and rentals
Every night booked through a platform costs you a room.
A direct-booking site is the rare design project where the return is arithmetic, not taste.
Airbnb takes roughly 15% from most hosts. Booking.com takes 15 to 20. On a property grossing $60,000 a year, that is nine thousand dollars leaving before you have washed a single sheet.
Guests are not loyal to the platform. They are loyal to the place. Most of them will book direct if there is somewhere obvious to do it — and the ones who come back a second time almost always will.
~$9,000 Annual commission on a property grossing $60,000 through a major platform.
The site pays for itself inside a season, and then keeps paying. Keep your listings up if you want — most owners do, and use them for discovery while the repeat guests come straight to you.
What's included
- Booking engine with live rates and availability
- Two-way calendar sync with Airbnb and Vrbo
- Card payments and deposits
- Automated confirmation and pre-arrival emails
- Room, rate and minimum-stay management
- Local guide pages that earn search traffic
- Photography direction
From $4,500 · four to six weeks
Sample
The Ferry House
A four-room river inn. The booking bar is the first thing on the page, because it is the only thing most visitors came for.
theferryhouse.com Sample
Worth knowing
Indiana businesses can apply for INTAP through the Small Business Development Center, which covers up to $15,000 of professional services and pays the vendor directly. A website qualifies. Applications open in mid-January.