Airbnb and Booking.com typically charge hosts somewhere between 3% and 18% per booking depending on the platform and listing type, on top of what they charge guests in service fees. Ownia charges a flat 5% commission per booking, on every plan, with no listing fees — and unlike a marketplace, you also keep the guest relationship: their email, their booking history, and the ability to bring them back for a repeat stay without paying a marketplace a second time.
None of this means you should delete your Airbnb or Booking.com listings — those platforms are still valuable for discovery. The goal is to give guests who already know about you (past guests, referrals, your own audience) a better reason to book directly instead of defaulting to a marketplace out of habit.
Make your booking page easy to find and use
Your Ownia Web Store is your direct-booking website. A few things make it more effective:
- Connect a custom domain so the link is memorable and looks professional, not like a generic third-party URL.
- Keep your calendar synced so availability shown on your booking page is always accurate — nothing undermines trust in a direct-booking site like a stale calendar.
- Fill out your property description, photos, and amenities fully. Guests comparing your direct page to your Airbnb listing will notice if one looks less complete than the other.
Where to send guests
A few channels consistently work well for driving direct bookings:
- Past guests — after a stay, invite guests to book directly next time, ideally with a small incentive (a discount code, a free late checkout) that costs you less than the commission you’d otherwise pay a marketplace.
- Your own website or social bio — if you have any web presence, link straight to your Web Store.
- QR codes in the property itself — a card near the welcome book pointing returning or referred guests to book directly next time.
- Search engines — a custom domain with real content (descriptions, photos, and this kind of help content) is what search engines and AI assistants actually index; a marketplace listing is not something you control or that links back to you.
Give guests a reason, not just a link
Guests default to marketplaces mostly out of habit and trust, not loyalty. The way to shift that is to make booking directly the obviously better option — typically a small price advantage (since you’re not passing along the guest-side service fee marketplaces add), faster direct communication with you, and the same secure Stripe payment and cancellation protection they’d expect from a marketplace.