All About Direct Bookings

Direct Basic is the “just the payment processing” option, primarily for hosts that already have experience in taking direct bookings. With Direct Basic, you can use our Direct websites or your own self-hosted site, but you need to connect your own Stripe account, you pay your own payment processing fees (including on refunds), you are liable for chargebacks, you need to keep up with the various taxes for all of your properties, and we currently do not have integrated solutions for guest vetting and damage protection.

As the Merchant of Record, Hospitable processes the payment, accepts liability for refunds and chargebacks, covers costs associated with cancellations, provides customer support during the booking process, and in general is responsible for the quality of the marketplace experience.

Chargeback liability can be especially important for smaller-scale hosts, where a single chargeback against a small volume of transactions could trigger consequences with a payment service provider. Instead, Hospitable can spread the risk and liability of chargebacks across a large client base, so occasional chargebacks don’t restrict your ability to keep processing payments.

We like to think of Direct Premium as a hybrid between an Online Travel Agent like Airbnb and the do-it-yourself direct booking options out there that require a lot of setup and leave you bearing all the risk.

Similar to OTAs, Direct Premium helps hosts manage risk by investing in things like Merchant of Record liability, guest vetting, chargeback, and damage protection on every reservation.

Unlike OTAs we don’t pass on the costs of big budget advertising campaigns to you and your guests.

So how do we stack up? Let’s compare direct booking versus OTAs. Total savings are calculated by comparing the guest price and the host payout. You can use Hospitable's markup rates to adjust the balance between price and payout. In our price comparisons, Direct Premium can save you 10-30% depending on the OTA.

Hospitable collects applicable taxes from the guest and, in most jurisdictions, passes them through to you with the payout. For Direct Basic, you need to enter your own taxes for each property. For Premium, we will calculate them for you and update them when there are changes.

You are responsible for filing and remitting your taxes to the appropriate jurisdiction in a timely manner, unless all of your taxes are in regions where Hospitable files on your behalf. Hospitable has started filing and remitting for Premium hosts in a limited number of jurisdictions (see table) where 1) we are legally able to do so, and 2) where it makes business sense for us to do so. Premium users may be required to sign regular affidavits that you are properly remitting the taxes that have been passed through to you. More about taxes.

For Direct Premium, we make an ACH transfer to your bank account 24 hours after check-in or when the payment settles, whichever comes later. If a guest books within four days of their check-in, the funds may not be available when the guest checks-in, in which case we will show you the settlement date, which is your payout date for that booking.

For Direct Basic, you are in charge of your payouts. Note you will need to keep funds in reserve to cover liability for cancellations, refunds, and chargebacks.

What’s not covered?