Practical guide
Direct booking for vacation rentals: a guide to getting started
Offering direct booking does not mean leaving the platforms: it gives some of your guests a simple way to book with you. This guide explains why it is worth developing, what you need to offer it properly, how to avoid double bookings and how to bring your guests back direct.
Updated
Why develop direct booking
Platforms remain the best showcase for guests who do not know you yet. Direct booking does not replace them: it is for guests who already know you or who reach you another way. There are three good reasons to start.
- Margin. Platforms take a commission on every booking. Direct, you set your own terms and fees.
- Relationship. A guest who books with you leaves their contact details. You can write to them before arrival, after departure, and invite them back.
- Independence. Part of your occupancy no longer depends on the rules, ranking or fees of a single channel.
Be realistic about where these bookings come from: mostly returning guests, recommendations, business travellers and visitors to your own website. A booking page does not attract traffic on its own; it turns the interest you have already created into bookings.
What you need to offer direct booking
With no platform between you and the guest, it is up to you to provide the framework it used to supply: clear terms, safe payment, an accurate calendar and evidence in case of a dispute.
Clear terms before payment
- The full price of the stay, itemised, with no fees revealed at the last minute.
- The minimum stay, the property's capacity and check-in and check-out times.
- House rules: pets, parties, smoking, noise.
- Your cancellation and refund terms, in writing.
Local rules apply just as they do for platform bookings. For tourist tax in particular, check with your local authority how to collect and pay it for stays you take payment for yourself.
Secure online payment
Bank transfers slow everything down: the guest waits for your bank details, you wait for the money, and the dates stay on hold in the meantime. Card payment at the time of booking confirms the stay straight away and blocks the dates. If you prefer to choose your guests, on-request booking authorises the card without charging it until you accept.
A calendar you can trust
This is the most sensitive point: your nights are on sale in several places at once. The next section explains how to protect yourself.
Evidence for every stay
Direct, no platform arbitrates a disagreement about the condition of the property. A check-in and check-out inspection report with time-stamped photos, written exchanges with the guest and, if you wish, a security deposit give you grounds to justify a deduction.
How to avoid double bookings
Double bookings almost always come from the lag between calendars. Calendar links (iCal) exchanged between platforms are read at regular intervals, not in real time: two guests can book the same nights between two reads. A few rules reduce the risk.
- Import into your direct booking tool the calendar of every platform where the property is listed.
- Export your direct booking calendar to each of these platforms, so they block the nights sold direct.
- Read the calendars again just before selling, not only at fixed intervals.
- Do not sell blind: if a calendar has not been read for a long time, it is better to pause direct sales.
- Plan what happens in case of a conflict: a full and immediate refund for the guest.
- If you have many properties or bookings, use a channel manager, which syncs availability in real time.
Check Easy applies these rules by default. Your platform calendars are imported and the Check Easy calendar is exported to them; before every booking, the calendars are read again and the dates rechecked. If a calendar has not been read for more than 6 hours, direct sales for that property are paused. Two simultaneous payments cannot create two stays, and a guest whose nights were taken in the meantime is fully refunded.
| With platform sync | Without sync | |
|---|---|---|
| Prices | The platforms' prices | Your prices: nightly, Friday and Saturday, minimum number of nights |
| Availability | From the channel manager | Imported calendars and exported Check Easy calendar |
| Check Easy commission | None | 5% of the price of each direct booking |
How to bring your guests back direct
A guest comes back direct if they had a good stay, know they can book with you and see a benefit in doing so. Each of these three points can be worked on.
- Get the first stay right. A clean property, a smooth arrival and quick answers matter more than any discount.
- Share the link at the right moment. On your website, in your welcome book, in your exchanges with guests who booked with you. Check each platform's rules on messaging its guests: some strictly limit invitations to book elsewhere.
- Give a reason to book direct. A slightly lower price than on the platforms, or an included service, makes the choice obvious.
- Make booking simple. One page per property, available dates in plain sight, card payment and instant confirmation: the guest should not have to message you to book.
- Offer your services at the same time. Early check-in, breakfast, baby kit: booked with the stay, they set up a better welcome (see paid extras).
What Check Easy does for direct booking
Each property has its own booking page, to share by link or embed on your website with the widget. The guest picks their dates and pays by card; the money is paid out to your company's payment account, opened with Stripe from Check Easy. For each property you choose instant or on-request booking, and you can apply a direct booking discount of 5 to 15%.
Every booking creates its stay and its guest check-in, just like a booking from the platforms: the guest receives a confirmation email, then the link to their arrival flow. Check Easy takes 5% of the price of each direct booking, with no extra subscription; properties connected to platform sync do not pay it. See pricing.