By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: A direct booking is cheaper but not free: UnityStays charges 5% on bookings through its own channels, against platform commission typically around 15%, so a strong direct share adds roughly ten points of gross revenue. Platforms still supply most demand, so the working strategy mixes both — listings across 15 platforms plus direct repeat and corporate bookings.
What the platforms take
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo each charge commission on bookings made through them, and the structures differ — some charge the host, some split it between host and guest, some do both depending on the plan.
The practical effect is the same: the amount that reaches you is less than the amount the guest paid. When you compare a nightly rate across two properties, you are often not comparing the same thing.
What a direct booking is actually worth
A direct booking avoids the platform's commission. It does not avoid ours: a booking taken through our own channels carries a 5% direct-booking commission instead. Against a platform rate usually somewhere around 15%, that is a substantial saving, and it is the honest size of the prize rather than the one this industry normally quotes.
We are spelling that out because the standard version of this argument, that direct bookings are free money, is not true of us or of anyone else charging a management fee. What is true is that a direct booking costs you roughly a third of what a platform booking costs, and that difference compounds across a year.
It also means you hold the guest relationship. Repeat guests who book direct cost nothing to acquire the second time, which over a few years is worth considerably more than the commission saved on any single booking.
Why not go direct only
Because the platforms are where the demand is. A property with no platform presence has to generate every booking itself, and for most owners that is not realistic.
The sensible position is a mix: platforms for reach and for filling gaps, direct for repeat guests, corporate accounts and anyone who arrives via your own site. That is how we run it.
For reference, we list each property across 15 booking platforms rather than the usual three. That includes curated sites like Plum Guide and corporate-facing ones like TrustedStays, which reach guests the big platforms do not.
How direct bookings actually happen
Mostly through three routes. A guest who stayed before and books again. A company that needs accommodation repeatedly and wants an invoice rather than a platform receipt. And someone who found the property through search rather than through a platform.
All three take time to build. The first is the easiest and the most valuable, which is why what happens at the end of a stay matters as much as what happens at the start.
What this means for your numbers
When you model income, be clear about whether your nightly rate is what the guest pays or what you receive. The income calculator assumes the rate you enter is pre-commission, and says so, because that is the honest default.
Its booking commission field takes whichever rate applies, or a blend of the two if your bookings come from both. Run it at 15% and again at 5% and the gap between the two answers is what a direct-booking strategy is worth on your property.
A property with a strong direct-booking share does earn more on the same occupancy. The gap is around ten points of gross revenue rather than the fifteen the headline version implies, which is still a great deal of money over a year.