A booking channel
you own.
Built on your domain, filmed on site, listed where travellers search. We set it up, and if you want, we do the work of filling it.
An illustration of a booking page with the tour embedded. Yours is built to your property and filmed on site.
What would you actually keep?
Your numbers, worked through before you spend anything.
The starting figures describe a small multi-unit property booking at Mid-Island market rates. The 30% is the low end of what professional operators aim to book direct; most independent hosts sit closer to 10% today. Change any of it to your own. Estimates, not quotes; we'll work through your real numbers before you commit to anything.
The commission is just one reason why.
Commission eats the margin
Airbnb's host-only fee now runs up to about 15.5%, and Booking.com's visibility programs reach 23%. A direct booking costs you 0 to 5%.
The gap is widest on the stays you already earned. A guest who found you once and comes back every summer still costs you a commission on every return trip.
You own the guest, and the data
On a booking site the platform owns the relationship: the email, the preferences, the stay history. You get a masked address you lose at checkout.
Owning it yourself is what makes the rest possible. A good stay plus a post-stay follow-up turns into a second booking, and that second booking costs you almost nothing. Direct guests also book longer and further ahead.
Your rates, your rules, your name
Pricing, house rules, cancellation terms, messaging, and vendors are yours to set, instead of complying with whatever the platform decided this quarter.
Guests remember the platform, not the property. A booking under your own name builds recognition for you, and it drops the surprise checkout fees that cause people to abandon a booking.
One channel is a business risk
Platforms change fees and cancellation policy on their own terms, and hosts have been blocked from cancelling stays both sides had already agreed to. A second channel you control is insurance.
Longer stays on direct bookings than on booking-site bookings, with booking windows 51% longer.
Of operators get no direct bookings at all, and two-thirds get under a quarter of their bookings direct.
Working with existing OTAs
The OTAs stay in the mix. They are good at one thing: putting you in front of people who have never heard of you, and building the review count a new listing needs. Keep them for that. The problem is when the second and third stay from the same guest still cost you a commission. Roughly 70% of operators already have a direct-booking site and most of them barely convert through it. Owning the channel is the easy part. Getting guests onto it is the work, and that is the part we run for you.
Figures from 2026 industry reporting on short-term rental distribution. Platform fees change without notice; verify current rates with the platform before making a decision.
Everything to run your own channel.
Built and maintained for you. Nothing here requires you to learn new software.
Your property in a directory of Canadian places that take direct bookings. It sends travellers to your own booking page, not to a listing we take a cut of.
On your own domain, styled to your property, with a real booking engine taking reservations in your name instead of a platform's. Set up on Lodgify's builder so you can edit it yourself, or built custom by us when a template will not do.
Guests pay you. No third party holding your money, and no commission taken off the top before it reaches you.
Your property listed on Google Vacation Rentals, where travellers searching for a place to stay can book straight with you. Google charges nothing for the referral. Included with Direct Complete, or added to Direct Start.
We open and configure your booking software, connect your calendars, load your rates and photos, and test a real booking end to end. The account is in your name from day one.
Filmed on site and hosted on your booking page, included with Direct Complete. The tour also plays on a headset in our lounge for a year, in front of travellers already planning a trip.
Getting guests onto it
Building the channel is a one-time job. Filling it is not. If you want us actively working the calendar, that is Direct Growth: paid search and paid social run for you, a seasonal campaign calendar, repeat-guest email, and monthly reporting. Add it when you are ready, drop it when you are not.
Start small. Grow into it.
Getting the channel built is the cheap part. Filling it is the work, so that is the part you pay for by the month, and only when you want it. Prices in CAD, quoted before we start.
The channel, built
One unit. Anywhere in Canada.
- Your Lodgify account set up and configured
- Booking site on your own domain
- Guests pay you direct
- Calendar sync to Airbnb and Vrbo
- Google Business Profile tune-up
- Listing on bookdirectbyowner.ca
Built, filmed, launched
Two to six units. Mid-Island, for the shoot.
- Everything in Direct Start
- Listed on Google Vacation Rentals
- 360 tour filmed on site, plus a year on the headset in our lounge
- Photo and drone package
- A 90-day launch plan
We fill it
Added to a build, once you want the calendar worked.
- Managed Google and Business Profile presence
- Paid search and paid social, run for you
- A seasonal campaign calendar
- Repeat-guest email campaigns
- Monthly reporting
- Quarterly rate and occupancy review
Add-ons ▾
Available on any tier, priced the same as on our virtual tour page.
Designed and built by us instead of set up on a template, on any tier. Keeps the booking engine, calendar sync and payments. Scoped and quoted per project.
Included in Direct Complete. Add it to Direct Start from anywhere, no visit needed. Needs the Lodgify plan that carries it.
Included in Direct Complete. Add it to Direct Start if you are within driving range.
Your guests get check-in details in the Lodgify guest app. Needs their Ultimate plan, so it costs a little more per month on the software side.
Each extra unit or room filmed on the same visit.
Stills of the property inside and out, plus aerials that show where it actually sits.
Photo and drone, plus a short video cut you can use on your site and on social.
No shoot needed. We review your photos and quote honestly before starting.
Keep your space in front of travellers in our lounge after the included year ends.
Booking software is billed by Lodgify, not by us, and the account is yours. Direct Start needs their website plan, roughly $24 to $33 a month per property. Google Vacation Rentals needs the plan above it, roughly $26 to $53, and the guest app needs their top plan, roughly $39 to $77. Lodgify takes no cut of your direct bookings on any plan. We may earn a referral commission from Lodgify, which does not change what you pay.
Fair questions, straight answers.
What does the monthly fee actually cover? ▾
Which software do you build on, and what does it cost me? ▾
Do I still list on Airbnb and Vrbo too? ▾
Is the website custom built, or a template? ▾
One trade-off worth knowing before you choose. Google Vacation Rentals reaches travellers through Lodgify, so that listing needs a Lodgify-built site. A custom site keeps the booking engine, calendar sync and payments through Lodgify's embeddable widget, but not the Google Vacation Rentals listing, unless we run a small Lodgify site alongside it to feed that one channel. We will tell you which way we would go for your property.
What is bookdirectbyowner.ca? ▾
What if my property is outside Mid-Island? ▾
Is the 360 tour required? ▾
A fit if any of these sound like you.
- You're paying real commission to Airbnb, Vrbo, or another booking site every month
- You already have a bookable calendar and a property worth showing off
- Guests come back, and you'd rather they came back to you than to a listing
- You want the guest's name and email, not a masked address you lose at checkout
- You'd like your property in front of travellers already planning a trip through Unravel
Keep more of every booking.
Tell us about your property and we'll walk through the numbers together before you spend anything.