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Direct bookings for your guesthouse, with no portal commission to pay
Portals bring you a guest who never heard of you, and they earn their commission for that. The trouble is they also take it from the guest who has come back five years running and searched for you by name.
Direct bookings on your own guesthouse website start at €470 and carry no commission. A portal typically takes fifteen percent of every booking, so on turnover of around forty thousand euros a year that is a sum which pays for itself many times over in the first season alone.
What costs a guesthouse the most money
Commission even on repeat guests
The family that comes back every year looks you up by name and books through the portal, because there is no other way.
You have no contact for the guest
You cannot reach them before the season. The portal can, and it does so in your competitor's favour.
Seasonal prices get changed by hand
Across several portals at once, which means mistakes and the occasional double booking.
The website only has photos and a phone number
A guest who would rather not call leaves for a portal, where free dates show up right away.
What a system like this includes
A booking form right on the website with real room availability and a price based on season and length of stay. The guest sees free dates instantly, which is the only reason they head to a portal today.
An occupancy calendar by room, linked to the portals so one room never sells twice. This is the most demanding part technically, and without it turning on direct bookings is not worth the risk.
A guest database with a stay history that stays with you. A message before the season to those who have already stayed is the cheapest marketing there is, and the portal will not let you send it.
A deposit through a payment button or a QR code at the time of booking, so direct bookings are no less committed than the ones through a portal.
A website built around what people actually search for, which is the type of lodging and the location. A booking form is pointless if nobody ever reaches it.
- Today: a booking through a portal Commission on every night, the portal holds the guest contact, and your competition lights up right next to you.
- Later: a booking on your own website No commission, with the guest contact yours and the chance to reach them before the next season.
What stands behind it
I have not built for a guesthouse yet. The closest is a bike service shop with bookings in six languages, no commission and a calendar link, which is the same backbone. What lodging adds is syncing occupancy with the portals, and that is the part you have to get right, or double bookings appear.
I built fee-free bookings for a bike service shop that was paying about a thousand euros a year for a paid portal. After moving to its own booking system that fee disappeared and bookings did not drop.
The same website reached an average position of 5.9 in Google and 3,125 impressions in the first month, with 76 percent of visits coming from mobile. With lodging the mobile share is higher still.
Frequent questions
Do I have to drop the portals?
No, and I would not advise it. Portals are a good source of new guests. What makes sense is moving the guests who already know you to direct booking, because you are paying commission on them for nothing.
How do you prevent a double booking?
By syncing the calendar with the portals. Without that I do not turn on direct bookings, because one double booking in the season does more harm than the entire saving on commission.
We have four rooms. Is this too big for us?
With four rooms the commission percentage is the same and the system is smaller and cheaper. If anything, commission hurts small lodging the most, because there is nothing to spread it across.
How much does it cost?
A website with direct bookings from €470. There is no commission and no per-booking fee.
How much did you pay in commissions this year?
Write to me with how many rooms you have and what share of bookings comes through portals. Guests book directly with you, the confirmation lands straight away, and the commission stays home. The first call is free.
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