Direct Booking Savings Calculator
Model the annual saving from moving a share of your OTA revenue to direct booking. Card processing on the shifted revenue is netted off, because direct booking is cheaper than an OTA, not free, and ignoring the payment fee overstates the result.
Free, no signup, and everything runs in your browser.
The saving only exists if people can find you.
Direct bookings start with ranking for the searches your guests actually run. InkSTR builds the content that wins them and publishes it to your site on a schedule.
Common questions
About the Direct Booking Savings Calculator.
It depends on the model you are on. Airbnb's split-fee structure typically takes about 3% from the host with the rest charged to the guest, while host-only pricing runs around 14 to 16%. Vrbo commission plans are commonly around 8% plus payment processing. Use your own blended effective rate rather than the headline number.
Because a direct booking still has to be paid for. Card processing on a direct booking is usually somewhere around 3%, so the real saving is the OTA commission minus that cost, not the full commission. A calculator that skips this overstates the benefit.
Operators with an established brand and repeat guests do reach a substantial direct share, but it takes a working website, a booking engine, and consistent content and email over a period of years. Modelling a modest shift first is more useful than assuming you will replace the OTAs entirely.
Usually not, and most operators should not. The OTAs are a genuine discovery channel for guests who have never heard of you. The common strategy is to keep the listings for reach while converting repeat and referral guests to direct, where the margin is better.
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Stop doing this by hand every week.
InkSTR researches the keywords, writes the articles, and publishes them to your site on a schedule.
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Across every channel.
Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com combined.
Use your own effective rate, not the headline number. Host-only pricing often lands near 15%.
A modest first target is more useful than assuming you replace the OTAs entirely.
Direct is cheaper than an OTA, not free. Around 3% is typical.
Net annual saving
$6,000
after card processing
Over five years
$30,000
undiscounted
This models commission only. It does not account for the cost of running a direct channel — a booking engine, a website, email, and the time to manage it — nor for the guests you would still acquire through the OTAs. Treat it as the ceiling on what the shift is worth, then subtract what the channel costs you to run.