Growing
Getting bookings that pay zero commission
Keep Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo for finding guests — and make sure the ones who love your place come back to you.
Guides · Updated 12 October 2026
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are brilliant at finding you a first guest. They are an expensive way to keep one: every repeat stay through a platform pays the platform again. The goal isn’t to leave them — it’s to make sure the guests who already love your place come back to you.
1. Your own booking website
Add a website to SortedStay for £100 a year and it is built from what’s already in your account: your properties, photos, live availability and prices. It runs on your own domain, with a blog, guides and the page builder to make it yours.
Guests book and pay on the site, and the money goes straight into your own Stripe account. SortedStay takes no commission on those bookings — none. Stripe charges its normal card fee, and that’s it.
2. Give repeat guests a reason to book direct
- Create a discount code for returning guests (say 10% off) — it costs you far less than a platform fee.
- Put your website link in your check-out message and your guidebook, where happy guests see it.
- Show “no booking fees” plainly on your site — it’s the first thing guests compare.
3. List on Offer2Stay
Offer2Stay is the marketplace from the same group as SortedStay. Guests name the price they’d like to pay; you accept, or counter with yours. You pay 10% only when a booking actually lands.
4. Be findable
A direct-booking site only works if people find it. The SortedStay site builder handles the technical side — page titles, descriptions, sitemaps and structured data for Google — so your job is the human side:
- Link your Google Business Profile to your site, not to a listing on someone else’s.
- Write about your area: what’s on each month, the best walks, where to eat. Guests search for these.
- Ask local partners — the golf club, the restaurant you recommend — to link to you.
Where to start
If you only do one thing this month, add the website and put its link in your check-out message. Every repeat guest who books through it is a booking that pays you in full.
Questions hosts ask
The honest answers
Does SortedStay take a cut of direct bookings?
No. Guests pay into your own Stripe account and SortedStay takes no commission. Stripe charges its standard card processing fee.
How much does the website cost?
£100 a year, on top of your SortedStay subscription.
Do I need to leave Airbnb to get direct bookings?
No. Most hosts keep the big platforms for new guests and use their own site for repeat guests and people who find them directly.
Keep reading
More for hosts
Moving to SortedStay — without a gap in bookings
Run SortedStay alongside your current system first, then move your channels across on one quiet morning — with a way back.
Read the guide →Starting outYour first week on SortedStay
From “just signed up” to “runs itself” — what to do on each day, so nothing is rushed.
Read the guide →Direct booking websiteA direct booking website that sells, not just a widget
Your own booking website, built from your properties and ready on day one. Guests book and pay you directly, so you keep the whole price — no commission.
See the feature →Ready when you are
Six months free. Set up in an evening.
Bring your properties in, connect your channels, and let the routine run. No card, no contract.