# How do I take direct bookings for my holiday rental? Canonical: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/take-direct-bookings-holiday-rental Last checked: 2026-10-04 Source: Airflow (https://www.airflowhq.com) ## Short answer You need a link a guest can book from, a way to be paid, written terms, and your dates blocked on the platforms you list on. You do not need a full website to start. In Airflow, each listing has a booking page and a shareable booking link: the guest picks dates, sees the price, pays a deposit or the full amount by card into your own Stripe or Paystack account, and gets a confirmation and a guest portal. The booking goes into your calendar and your accounts automatically. ## What hosts worry about, with reason On a platform, the platform takes the payment, enforces the cancellation policy and deals with disputes. Take a booking yourself and those jobs are yours. Hosts who take direct bookings over email and bank transfer often have no deposit, no written terms and no record beyond a message thread. The other risk is practical: a direct booking nobody remembered to block on Airbnb. The steps below exist to cover those points before the first direct guest books. ## How to do it with Airflow 1. **Set your price and rules**: Nightly rate, seasonal rates, minimum stay, cleaning fee, and a cancellation policy, in writing, where the guest reads it before paying. 2. **Connect payment and set a deposit**: Connect Stripe, or Paystack for cards and M-Pesa in Kenya. Choose a deposit at booking with the balance due before arrival, or full payment up front. Bank transfer can be offered too. 3. **Block your other calendars**: Exchange calendar links with Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo so a direct booking closes those dates and their bookings close yours. 4. **Share the link**: Send your booking link to an enquiry, put it on your social profiles and in your email signature, or embed the widget on your website. For a guest who books by phone, add the booking yourself and send them a payment request. ## One direct booking, start to finish What happens after a returning guest opens your booking link. - Guest books: Dates held while they pay; deposit taken by card - Confirmation: Confirmation code and a link to their guest portal - Calendar: Dates blocked in Airflow and in the calendar link other platforms read - Balance: The portal shows what is owed and when, with a way to pay - Accounts: A draft invoice in your accounting package, payments recorded against it The guest pays you. Airflow takes its commission from the card payment and does not hold the rest. ## Where direct guests come from Mostly from people who already know the place: returning guests, their friends, people who search for the property by name after seeing it elsewhere, and followers on social media. Give every guest a reason and a route to come back, such as your own name on the welcome information and a guest portal carrying your brand rather than a platform's. For new guests, the same listing can go on Airflow Stay, which is launching soon and will show travellers places that book direct, on a map and inside published trip routes. Listing is free and takes a switch, so hosts who list now are in from launch. ## Is it worth it? A direct booking saves the platform's commission and gives you the guest's contact details. It costs you card fees, a small commission and the work the platform did for you. For returning guests the sums are clearly in your favour; for strangers, the platforms still do the marketing. Most hosts keep both. ## Other ways to do this - **Bank transfer and email**: No software and no commission. Also no deposit protection, no automatic calendar blocking and no record beyond your inbox. Use written terms at the very least. - **A payment link from Stripe or PayPal**: Takes a card payment safely. You still handle availability, terms, confirmation and the calendar yourself. - **A PMS booking engine**: Property management systems include a booking engine tied to their channel manager. Appropriate for larger portfolios. ## What Airflow does not do - Airflow does not provide damage protection or host insurance of the kind a platform includes. Consider a security deposit and your own insurance. - Airflow does not issue refunds for you, and disputes and chargebacks on card payments are handled between you and your payment provider. - Airflow Stay, where travellers will find places that book direct, is launching soon. You can list now; it is not a source of bookings yet. ## Frequently asked questions ### Do I need a website to take direct bookings? No. A booking page with its own link is enough to start, and every Airflow listing has one. A full website on your own domain is an add-on for when you want it. ### How do I take payment for a direct booking? By card through your own Stripe or Paystack account, with a deposit and balance if you choose, or by bank transfer. The money goes to you, not to Airflow. ### How do I avoid double bookings with Airbnb? Exchange calendar links. A direct booking in Airflow blocks the dates Airbnb reads, and Airflow reads Airbnb's calendar every hour. Dates are also held while a guest is checking out. ### What does it cost to take a direct booking? A commission on bookings paid through your Airflow booking page, at a rate set by your plan, plus the card provider's processing fee. The rates are on the pricing page. ### Can I add a booking a guest made by phone? Yes. Add it by hand. If it is already paid when you add it, it carries no Airflow commission. If you send the guest a payment request and they pay through Airflow, it carries your booking page rate. ### Can guests cancel? On the terms you set, so put your cancellation policy in writing before you take a booking. Airflow does not issue refunds for you: you decide what is due and refund the guest from your own payment account. ## Related - [How to get direct bookings](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/how-to-get-direct-bookings) - [How to take a deposit on a direct booking](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/how-to-take-a-deposit-on-a-direct-booking) - [A cancellation policy for direct bookings](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/cancellation-policy-for-direct-bookings) - [Is a direct booking worth more?](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/is-a-direct-booking-worth-more) - [Airflow Stay for hosts](https://www.airflowhq.com/stay) Get started at https://www.airflowhq.com/get-started. Plans and prices: https://www.airflowhq.com/pricing.