Here are some questions that we see regularly. We want you to immediately get an answer, so see if your question is answered here before contacting us!
Why did my payout method not get verified?
Why did my payout method not get verified?
There are a few reasons why payout verification could take longer than usual. These are the most frequent that we see:
You have yet to nominate all required decision-makers. At least one signatory, one controller, and one owner must be named in this section. One person can occupy all three roles.
You could be missing required documents. If you have chosen manual verification of your bank account, you are required to provide a copy of your bank statement and an email or letter from your bank, among others. Missing or incorrect documentation can lead to delays.
You've selected the wrong company type. Most short-term rental companies should select Private Company for this field.
Once submitted, verification usually takes only a few minutes. However, it can take 1-2 business days. If you have waited longer than 3 business days, please get in touch with our support team.
What’s the difference between Direct Basic and Direct Premium?
What’s the difference between Direct Basic and Direct Premium?
Direct Basic is the “just the payment processing” option, primarily for hosts that already have experience in taking direct bookings. You can use our Direct websites and booking widget, but you need to connect your own Stripe account. This means you pay your own payment processing fees, you are liable for chargebacks, and you need to keep up with the various taxes for all of your properties. There are also no integrated solutions for guest vetting and damage protection.
Direct Premium is the fully featured package. Hospitable acts as the merchant of record for payment processing while also handling tax calculations on your behalf (in select jurisdictions). Any payments received are paid out to an account of your choosing. Guest vetting and damage protection are also included.
What does it mean when Hospitable is the Merchant of Record?
What does it mean when Hospitable is the Merchant of Record?
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.
How does Direct Premium compare with OTAs on price?
How does Direct Premium compare with OTAs on price?
Direct Premium is 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, 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.
Premium charges guests a 4% service fee and deducts a 3% host fee from your payout or 7% at the maximum if you set up host-only service fee, while Airbnb charges a 14% service fee and a 3% host fee. Other OTAs can charge considerably higher fees.
In our price comparisons, Direct Premium can save you:
10-25% on a 5-day booking
10-35% on a 20-day booking
How are taxes managed?
How are taxes managed?
Hospitable collects applicable taxes from the guest and 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.
Hospitable files and remits taxes for Premium hosts in a limited number of jurisdictions. For all other jurisdictions, filing and remitting taxes are your responsibility. Premium users may be required to sign regular affidavits that they are properly remitting the taxes that have been passed through to them.
You can learn more about how Hospitable handles taxes in this article.
Hosts are responsible for filing and remitting taxes to the appropriate jurisdiction in a timely manner (most jurisdictions are monthly filings) except taxes filed and remitted by Hospitable.
When will I receive my payout for a Direct booking?
When will I receive my payout for a Direct booking?
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 via Stripe. We strongly advise you to keep funds in reserve to cover liability for cancellations, refunds, and chargebacks.
Important: When your payout status shows "Settled," this means Hospitable has released the funds — but the money may not be in your bank account yet. ACH transfers typically take an additional 3–5 business days to arrive after the payout is marked as Settled.
If your payout is delayed beyond this timeline, check the following:
Is your bank account verified? Payouts are held until verification is complete.
Was this a last-minute booking? If a guest booked within ~4 days of check-in, the guest's payment may not have cleared yet, which can delay your payout by up to 3 additional business days.
Was there a refund or adjustment? Refunds, chargebacks, or cleaning fee adjustments can reduce your payout amount — check Financials → Payouts for a breakdown.
For detailed payout troubleshooting, see Managing Payouts and Bank Accounts.
How do I check which Direct plan I currently have?
How do I check which Direct plan I currently have?
You can check your current plan under Direct > Your Plan page.
What’s included in Premium damage protection?
What’s included in Premium damage protection?
Accidental and malicious damage
Damage due to theft
Damage to belongings/contents
Damage to common/shared areas
What’s not covered?
General wear and tear/cosmetic damage
Damage not caused directly by a guest
Bodily injury suffered by a guest or host
and more
Damage protection is provided by Truvi and covers from $0 to US$5M with no deductible. You can find more details regarding the damage protection plan on their site.
Can I display reviews from Airbnb on my Direct booking site?
Can I display reviews from Airbnb on my Direct booking site?
Yes. We automatically pull the Airbnb reviews for each property that is connected to Direct and display 2 that meets the conditions listed in this article.
Do you support payment processing for all Direct bookings?
Do you support payment processing for all Direct bookings?
Payment processing is available for those on Direct Basic or Premium plans and is not available on Direct Lite.
Direct Premium is only available on properties in the US, UK and Australia. We will continue to roll this out to other markets in the near future, with Canada at the top of our list. Check out our article here for all the info and updates.
Direct Basic is available on locations where Stripe is supported.
Can a Direct guest leave a review?
Can a Direct guest leave a review?
Yes! Once a stay is completed, guests are sent an email to review their stay. The content will be shown on the Inbox and will be reflected on your site if the conditions are met.
How long does it take for my Direct site to be up and running? / Why isn't my Direct site working?
How long does it take for my Direct site to be up and running? / Why isn't my Direct site working?
Once you've completed your setup and hit Publish, we start working on issuing your site with an SSL certificate. This can take up to 24 hours, but is usually completed within 30 minutes.
If you have set up your Direct site with a custom domain, please make sure you set up your DNS records correctly with your provider. Take a look at this article for the information you need to do this.
If you've been waiting for longer than 24 hours, please get in touch with us
Which payment processors can be used for Direct Basic?
Which payment processors can be used for Direct Basic?
Stripe is currently our only supported payment processor for Direct Basic. Basic is available in all countries where Stripe is supported.
If Stripe is not available in your country, you will be unable to use Direct Basic at present. We have a Lite version of Direct that does not include payment processing, so it is just your Direct website and booking requests, with payments taken off-platform. Lite is only available for hosts with properties in regions not supported by Stripe.
What happens if a guest's payment fails after they book?
The answer depends on how the booking was created:
Bookings via your Direct site
If a guest's card is declined during checkout on your Direct site, no booking is created. The guest stays on the payment page and can immediately try a different card. You won't see anything in your dashboard — failed payment attempts from your Direct site are not visible to hosts because no booking request is submitted until payment succeeds.
Custom Quotes
If you sent the guest a Custom Quote and their card is declined when they try to pay, the booking remains in Pending status. The guest can retry with a different card using the same payment link. You'll see the booking as Pending in your dashboard.
Payment Terms (installment payments)
If a booking is confirmed and you use Payment Terms, Hospitable has built-in retry logic:
When a scheduled payment fails, the system retries within the Grace Period you've configured in your payment terms settings (Direct → Payment Terms).
If the grace period expires without successful collection, the booking is automatically cancelled and a refund is processed according to your cancellation policy.
You can extend the grace period before it expires to give the guest more time.
The guest receives an email with a link to update their payment method.
For a detailed walkthrough, see Direct Payment Failures: Declined Cards, Retries & What Happens Next.
How do I issue a partial refund for a Direct booking?
You can issue a partial refund for a Direct booking in two ways:
Process an alteration — Modify the reservation (e.g., shorten the stay or reduce the nightly rate) and the price difference will be refunded to the guest automatically once the alteration is accepted.
Ad-hoc refund — Issue a refund directly from the booking in your Hospitable dashboard without cancelling the reservation.
Important notes:
On Direct Premium, service fees are refunded on full refunds but retained on partial refunds.
On Direct Basic, if a full refund is processed, the Hospitable service fee will be collected from the host.
Do not refund directly through Stripe (Basic users) — always process refunds through the Hospitable UI. If you refund manually in Stripe and later cancel the booking in Hospitable, the system may initiate a duplicate refund because it doesn't detect external Stripe refunds.
For more details, see Direct Booking Refunds.
,What happens if a guest's payment fails after they book?
,What happens if a guest's payment fails after they book?
The answer depends on how the booking was created:
Bookings via your Direct site
If a guest's card is declined during checkout on your Direct site, no booking is created. The guest stays on the payment page and can immediately try a different card. You won't see anything in your dashboard — failed payment attempts from your Direct site are not visible to hosts because no booking request is submitted until payment succeeds.
Custom Quotes
If you sent the guest a Custom Quote and their card is declined when they try to pay, the booking remains in Pending status. The guest can retry with a different card using the same payment link. You'll see the booking as Pending in your dashboard.
Payment Terms (installment payments)
If a booking is confirmed and you use Payment Terms, Hospitable has built-in retry logic:
When a scheduled payment fails, the system retries within the Grace Period you've configured in your payment terms settings (Direct bookings → Booking Policies → [Click policy] → Payment Schedule).
If the grace period expires without successful collection, the booking is automatically cancelled, and a refund is processed according to your cancellation policy.
You can extend the grace period before it expires to give the guest more time.
The guest receives an email with a link to update their payment method.
For a detailed walkthrough, see Direct Payment Failures: Declined Cards, Retries & What Happens Next.
How do I issue a partial refund for a Direct booking?
How do I issue a partial refund for a Direct booking?
You can issue a partial refund for a Direct booking in two ways:
Process an alteration — Modify the reservation (e.g., shorten the stay or reduce the nightly rate), and the price difference will be refunded to the guest automatically once the alteration is accepted.
Ad-hoc refund — Issue a refund directly from the booking in your Hospitable dashboard without cancelling the reservation.
Important notes:
On Direct Premium, service fees are refunded on full refunds but retained on partial refunds.
On Direct Basic, if a full refund is processed, the Hospitable service fee will be collected from the host.
Do not refund directly through Stripe (Basic users) — always process refunds through the Hospitable UI. If you refund manually in Stripe and later cancel the booking in Hospitable, the system may initiate a duplicate refund because it doesn't detect external Stripe refunds.
For more details, see Direct Booking Refunds.
Why is my Direct site showing a different price than what I set?
Why is my Direct site showing a different price than what I set?
The price your guest sees at checkout includes several components on top of your nightly rate:
Component | Who sets it |
Nightly rate × number of nights | You |
Cleaning fee | You |
Taxes | You (Basic) or auto-calculated (Premium) |
Guest service fee (Premium only) | Hospitable — 4% added to the guest total |
Promo code discount | You (if applicable) |
Common reasons the total differs from your nightly rate:
Cleaning fee is added as a flat amount on top of the nightly total.
Taxes are calculated and added based on your tax configuration.
Guest service fee (Direct Premium) adds 4% to the booking subtotal. If you've chosen the host-only fee model (7%), the guest won't see a separate service fee, but the total may still differ from your base rate due to cleaning fees and taxes.
Dynamic pricing tools (e.g., PriceLabs) may have adjusted your nightly rate for specific dates.
OTA markups do not apply to Direct — the markup you set for Airbnb or VRBO is not added to your Direct pricing.
Example: You set $100/night for 3 nights with a $75 cleaning fee and 10% tax:
Nightly total: $300
Cleaning fee: $75
Subtotal: $375
Tax (10%): $37.50
Guest service fee (4%, Premium): $16.50
Guest pays: $429.00
Can I block specific dates from Direct while keeping them open on OTAs?
Can I block specific dates from Direct while keeping them open on OTAs?
No — Hospitable uses a unified calendar that syncs availability across all connected channels, including Direct and OTAs (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com). When you block dates on the Hospitable calendar, they are blocked everywhere.
There is currently no way to block dates on Direct only while keeping them available on other platforms.
Workarounds:
If you want to temporarily stop accepting Direct bookings altogether, you can unpublish your Direct site under Direct Bookings → Your Site.
If you want to discourage Direct bookings for specific dates without fully blocking them, you could adjust pricing for those dates on your Direct channel.
My guest says they didn't receive a confirmation email
My guest says they didn't receive a confirmation email
If a guest reports they didn't receive a booking confirmation email after completing a Direct booking:
Possible causes:
The guest entered the wrong email address when booking — this is the most common cause.
The email landed in their spam or junk folder.
The booking is still in Pending status — confirmation emails are only sent after the booking is accepted (or auto-confirmed via Instant Book).
What to do:
Check the booking status in your Hospitable dashboard. If the booking is still Pending, the guest won't receive a confirmation until you accept it.
Verify the guest's email address on the booking details. If the email is incorrect, you can update it from the Guest Profile page in your dashboard (click the guest's name → edit icon → update email).
Ask the guest to check spam/junk folders for an email from Hospitable.
Share the Guest Portal link — guests can also access their booking details, including confirmation and check-in instructions, through the Guest Portal using the "Manage my stay" button in any booking email they did receive.
How do I change my payout bank account?
How do I change my payout bank account?
The steps depend on your Direct plan:
Direct Premium:
Go to Settings → Payments & Payouts in your Hospitable dashboard.
Update or replace your linked bank account details.
Verification of a new bank account typically takes a few minutes, but can take up to 1–2 business days.
Direct Basic:
Go to your Stripe dashboard (linked from your Hospitable account).
Update your bank account under Stripe's payout settings.
Changes take effect according to Stripe's standard processing timeline.
Note: Changing your payout method does not affect any payouts already in progress. Pending payouts will still be sent to the original account. Only future payouts will use the new account. If you need a pending payout transferred to another payout bank account, contact Hospitable Support.
Can I change a guest's email address for a Direct booking?
Can I change a guest's email address for a Direct booking?
No, this is not currently supported. Once a Direct booking is created, the guest's email address cannot be changed by the host. If a guest needs to update their email, they should cancel and rebook, or the host can contact Hospitable support for assistance with edge cases.
This is a commonly requested feature and is being considered for future development.
Can I change my Direct booking site URL or subdomain?
Can I change my Direct booking site URL or subdomain?
No, the subdomain (e.g., yourname.hospitable.direct) cannot be changed after your Direct site is created. If you need a different subdomain, you'll need to delete your current Direct site and create a new one.
Before doing this, be aware that:
Any existing links to your old site will stop working.
You'll need to reconfigure your site settings on the new site.
Active reservations on the old site are not affected — they remain in your Hospitable account.
If you need help with this process, contact Hospitable support.