Direct bookings let guests book your property through your Hospitable-powered website either a Hospitable site or a self-hosted site with the Hospitable booking widget. This article covers the full booking lifecycle: how guests submit a request, how pricing is calculated, what each booking status means, how to handle issues, and how payouts work.
Whether you're on Direct Basic or Direct Premium, this guide will help you understand the end-to-end flow.
How a Guest Books Your Property
1. Selecting Dates and Property
Guests can start a Direct booking in three ways:
From your Hospitable site: Guests browse your listings, select available dates, choose the number of guests, and proceed to checkout.
From a self-hosted website: If you've embedded the Hospitable booking widget on your own site, guests interact with it the same way.
Via a custom quote: You send the guest a unique booking link with pre-filled dates and pricing. The guest clicks the link and completes checkout.
2. Reviewing the Price
Before completing the booking, the guest sees a full price breakdown on the checkout page, including:
Nightly rate (per night × number of nights)
Cleaning fee (if configured)
Taxes (if configured)
Guest service fee (Direct Premium only: see Pricing section below)
Promo code discount (if applicable)
3. Submitting a Booking Request
The guest enters their details, billing information, and credit card. When they click Confirm, their card is authorized (not charged) for the full booking amount.
At this stage, the guest's card is only authorized, no funds are captured yet. The actual charge happens only after the host accepts the booking. If the booking is declined or expires, the authorization is released within 3–5 business days, depending on the guest's bank.
Accepted payment methods: Credit and Debit cards, including Google and Apple pay.
4. Accepting or Declining the Booking
Once a booking request comes in, you have 24 hours to accept or decline it.
Accept → The guest's card is charged and the booking is confirmed.
Decline → The authorization is released. The guest is notified.
No action within 24 hours → The request expires automatically. The authorization is released.
Instant Book (Direct Premium): If you have Instant Book enabled, the booking is confirmed immediately, no manual acceptance needed (unless verification requires your final review).
5. Guest Vetting (Direct Premium Only)
If you're on Direct Premium, Hospitable can automatically screen guests before you accept. Guest vetting checks include identity verification and risk assessment. See Direct Premium Guest Verification for more details.
Booking Statuses Explained
Every Direct booking moves through a series of statuses. Here's what each one means for you and your guest.
Status | What it means | What the host sees | What the guest sees |
Pending | The guest submitted a booking request. Card is authorized but not charged. | New booking request in your inbox. You have 24 hours to accept or decline. | "Your booking request has been submitted" confirmation. Waiting for host response. |
Accepted | The host accepted the booking (or Instant Book confirmed it automatically). Card has been charged. The booking remains in this status through the stay and after checkout. | Booking appears as accepted. Calendar is blocked. The booking stays in Accepted status throughout. Payout is processed on the check-in date (see Payouts section). | "Your booking is confirmed" email with reservation details. |
Cancelled | The booking was cancelled by the host, the guest, or due to a policy trigger. | Booking marked as cancelled. Calendar is freed. | Cancellation confirmation. Refund processed per cancellation policy. |
Declined | The host declined the booking request within the 24-hour window. | Request removed from pending. Calendar remains open. | "Your booking request was declined" notification. Authorization released (3–5 business days). |
Expired | The host did not respond within 24 hours. | Request auto-removed from pending. Calendar remains open. | "Your booking request has expired" notification. Authorization released (3–5 business days). |
Most status changes happen automatically. You don't need to manually update a booking after checkout, it stays in Accepted status and your payout is processed based on the check-in date.
Pricing: How the Guest Total Is Calculated
The price your guest pays at checkout is built from several components. Understanding each one helps you set the right nightly rate and avoid confusion.
Price Breakdown
Component | Who sets it | Details |
Nightly rate | You (the host) | Your base price per night, multiplied by the number of nights. |
Cleaning fee | You (the host) | A flat fee added to the total. Configurable per property. |
Taxes | You (the host) | If you've configured taxes in your Direct settings, they are calculated and added to the guest total. |
Guest service fee | Hospitable (Premium only) | A 4% fee added on top of the booking total, paid by the guest. Alternatively, hosts can absorb this as a 7% host-only fee — in that case, the guest sees no separate service fee. |
Promo code discount | You (the host) | If the guest applies a valid promo code, the discount is subtracted from the total. |
Processing fees | Hospitable / Stripe | Direct Basic: ~1% Hospitable fee + ~3% Stripe processing fee (deducted from your payout, not shown to the guest). Direct Premium: Processing fees are included in the service fee structure. |
Why the Guest Total Differs From Your Nightly Rate
If the guest's total is higher than the nightly rate you configured, it's because additional components are added at checkout:
Cleaning fee — added as a flat amount on top of your nightly rate.
Taxes — calculated based on your tax configuration and added to the subtotal.
Guest service fee (Direct Premium) — a 4% fee added on top of the booking subtotal.
Example:
You set a nightly rate of $100 for a 3-night stay with a $75 cleaning fee and 10% tax.
Nightly total: $100 × 3 = $300
Cleaning fee: $75
Subtotal: $375
Tax (10%): $37.50
Guest service fee (4%, Premium): $16.50
Guest pays: $429.00
On Direct Basic, Hospitable recommends adding a ~4% markup to your nightly rate to cover the ~1% Hospitable fee and ~3% Stripe processing fee, since these are deducted from your payout rather than shown to the guest.
Changing the Price After a Booking Is Confirmed
You can modify the price of a confirmed booking, whether increasing or decreasing it, by processing an alteration. This allows you to adjust the booking total after confirmation, for example to account for an extended stay, a rate correction, additional charges, or a discount.
What Can Go Wrong
Not every booking goes smoothly. Here's what happens in common problem scenarios and what you can do.
Payment Declined During Booking
What happens: The guest's credit card authorization fails when they try to submit the booking request.
What the guest sees: An error message at checkout indicating the payment could not be processed. The guest is prompted to try a different card or contact their bank.
What the host sees: Nothing, the booking request never reaches you because it could not be submitted.
Is the booking held? No. If payment authorization fails, no booking request is created and your calendar is not affected.
What to do: If a guest contacts you about a failed payment, suggest they:
Try a different card or payment method (Apple Pay, Google Pay, or another credit/debit card).
Contact their bank to ensure the card is approved for online transactions.
Try again after resolving the issue with their bank.
Calendar Conflict After a Booking Request
What happens: Calendar conflicts with Direct bookings are rare because Hospitable checks availability before allowing a booking request to reach the Pending state. However, in edge cases, such as a near-simultaneous booking on another channel, a conflict can occur.
What you'll see: The conflicting booking appears highlighted in red on your calendar.
What you should do: Decide which booking to keep and cancel the other. Cancelling the Direct booking does not penalize you as a host, so if you need to choose, it's generally safer to cancel the Direct one.
What happens to the guest? If you cancel the Direct booking, the guest's card charge is refunded per your cancellation policy.
Calendar conflicts are rare because availability is validated before a booking request can be submitted. If one does occur, you'll see it highlighted in red on your calendar and can decide which booking to keep.
Booking Request Expires
What happens: You don't accept or decline a booking request within the 24-hour window.
What the guest sees: A notification that their booking request has expired.
What the host sees: The request is removed from your pending bookings.
What happens to the pre-authorization? The hold on the guest's card is released. Depending on the guest's bank, this can take 3–5 business days to appear as available funds again.
What to do: If you missed the window and still want to host the guest, send them a new custom quote link so they can rebook.
Expired requests cannot be retroactively accepted. If you want to proceed with the booking, you'll need to send the guest a new booking link.
Guest Disputes a Charge (Chargeback)
How chargebacks are handled depends on whether you're on Direct Premium or Direct Basic.
Direct Premium
Hospitable is the Merchant of Record for Direct Premium bookings, which means Hospitable handles chargebacks directly. In most cases, you won't be notified or involved at all.
When would Hospitable contact you? Only if there isn't enough evidence from the booking UI to defend the dispute. This is why it's important to keep all communication with guests on the Hospitable platform — messages exchanged through the UI serve as evidence if a dispute arises.
Direct Basic
On Direct Basic, payments are processed through your own Stripe account, which means you are responsible for handling chargebacks yourself. Hospitable does not have visibility into Direct Basic disputes.
What to do: Monitor your Stripe dashboard for dispute notifications and respond with evidence (booking confirmation, guest communication, cancellation policy) within Stripe's deadline.
The best way to protect yourself from chargebacks is to keep all guest communication on the Hospitable platform. On Direct Premium, Hospitable uses this as evidence to defend disputes on your behalf.
Managing an Accepted Reservation
Once you accept a booking, it works like any other reservation in Hospitable:
Automated messages — Your scheduled messages (check-in instructions, house rules, etc.) are sent automatically.
Calendar sync — The dates are blocked across all your connected channels.
Guest communication — You can message the guest directly through Hospitable's inbox.
Payouts
How and when you get paid depends on whether you're on Direct Basic or Direct Premium.
Direct Premium Payouts
Method: ACH bank transfer (US) or supported payout method for your region.
Timing: Payouts are initiated 24 hours after the guest's check-in date.
Payout amount: The booking total minus the Hospitable service fee.
Direct Basic Payouts
Method: Settled directly to your connected Stripe account.
Timing: Follows Stripe's standard payout schedule (typically 2–7 business days after the charge).
Payout amount: The booking total minus Stripe processing fees (~3%) and the Hospitable platform fee (~1%).
Payout Calculation Example
Direct Premium example (4% GSF + 3% HSF setup):
Guest pays $429.00 (from the pricing example above, which includes the 4% guest service fee).
Guest service fee (4%): $16.50 — added on top, paid by the guest.
Host service fee (3%): Calculated on the total guest payment (including the GSF). 3% × $429.00 = −$12.87
Your payout: $429.00 − $16.50 (GSF) − $12.87 (HSF) = $399.63
Direct Premium example (7% host-only fee setup):
Guest pays $412.50 (no guest service fee visible).
Host fee (7%): Deducted as a full 7% of the total payment. 7% × $412.50 = −$28.88
Your payout: $412.50 − $28.88 = $383.62
Direct Basic example:
Guest pays $412.50 (no guest service fee).
Stripe processing (~3%): −$12.38
Hospitable fee (~1%): −$4.13
Your payout: ~$396.00
Common Reasons for Payout Discrepancies
If your payout is different from what you expected, check for:
Service fees or processing fees deducted from your total.
Promo codes that reduced the guest's payment.
Partial refunds issued after the booking was confirmed.
Tax withholding in certain jurisdictions.
Currency conversion if your payout currency differs from the booking currency.
Managing Payout Methods
You can view and update your payout settings in your Hospitable dashboard under Settings → Payments.
Direct Premium: Configure your ACH or bank transfer details.
Direct Basic: Connect or update your Stripe account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What payment methods can guests use?
Most major credit and debit cards are accepted, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Q: What happens if I decline a booking?
The guest is notified and their card authorization is released within 3–5 business days.
Q: Can I extend the 24-hour acceptance window?
No. If you don't act within 24 hours, the request expires automatically.
Q: How do I issue a refund for a Direct booking?
See our article on Direct Booking Refunds.
Q: Where can I see my payout history?
You can view your payout history in two places: Direct Bookings → Payout History or Settings → Payments & Payouts → Payouts.
Here's an overview of what a Direct booking looks like:
More articles about Direct
For additional guidance, watch our Meet Your Host Mentor video.