How to get direct bookings

1. What does commission cost you?

Booking.com takes a commission on every booking, usually between 10 and 25%, most often about 15%. From 13 October 2026 Airbnb charges most hosts in Croatia 15.5%. Croatian hosts on the flat-rate tax scheme also pay 25% VAT on foreign platforms’ commission, so 15% commission really costs 18.75%.

An example from our commission calculator: with 120 nights a year at €80 and 15% commission, the platform takes about €1,440, or 18 nights. Every night a guest books directly leaves you €12 more.

2. What do the platforms allow?

You may have your own website alongside any platform. The rules only limit how you reach the platforms’ guests.

• Booking.com. In 2024 the European Commission designated Booking a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act. Since 14 November 2024 Booking may not require, in the EU, that the price on your own website is the same as or higher than on Booking.com.
• Airbnb. Airbnb’s off-platform policy forbids encouraging guests to move current, future or repeat bookings off Airbnb. It also forbids off-Airbnb links in listings and messages, discounts for booking outside Airbnb, asking for contact details before booking and using guests’ contact details for marketing.
• Offers by email. In Croatia, sending offers by email to a private person generally needs their prior consent (Electronic Communications Act, art. 50).

So guests have to be able to find you by themselves, by name. That makes Google the most important step.

3. How do guests find you by themselves?

A guest who stayed with you types your apartment’s name into Google the next year, or the place and your surname. If they only find the listing, they book through the platform. If they find your website, they write to you.

• The same name everywhere. On the listing, the website, the sign at the door and the invoice. Guests remember a name, not a listing number.
• A domain with the property’s name. For example apartmansali.com: easy to remember and easy to type.
• Name and place in the page title. That tells Google which search the page answers.
• A site in your guests’ languages. German guests search in German, Italian guests in Italian.

Put the website address on the invoice and the house rules, as on any business document. Don’t offer Airbnb guests a direct booking or a discount for one.

4. What about Google Maps?

On Google Maps and in Google’s lodging search, holiday apartments usually show up through the platforms, with a price and a link to Booking.com or Airbnb. An apartment generally can’t have its own Business Profile. Google’s rules list vacation homes and vacant apartments as examples of places that aren’t eligible. Businesses that meet customers in person during their stated hours can have one.

That is why a website Google finds by name matters. If you run a place with a reception and staff, such as a guesthouse or a small hotel, a Business Profile can make sense, and it should link to your website.

5. What must the website have for a guest to enquire?

On your website guests want what they see on the platform, only faster: free dates, the price of the stay and photos. If any of that is missing, they go back to the platform.

• A calendar and the price of the stay for the chosen dates, with the minimum stay.
• Photos in the order a guest walks in.
• An enquiry or booking request in one form, plus WhatsApp.
• Directions, house rules and cancellation terms.
• Who the host is and a privacy notice.

More on websites for holiday rentals.

If you make the site yourself, we describe the process step by step in the guide how to make a holiday rental website.

6. May your website be cheaper than Booking.com?

Yes. You set the price on your own website. According to the European Commission (September 2026), Booking does not use prices outside Booking.com for its default ranking or for access to programmes such as Genius and Preferred.

You can also give returning guests a small extra, such as a late check-out. Don’t offer Airbnb guests an extra for booking outside Airbnb.

7. How do you take a deposit and issue an invoice?

With a direct booking the money comes to you, with no middleman. Usually that means a deposit by bank transfer and the rest on arrival.

• Terms in writing. The deposit, the payment deadline and what is refunded on cancellation, sent to the guest before they pay.
• A booking confirmation by email, with dates, price and address.
• An invoice for every stay. In Croatia, hosts taxed on income from property, for example at a flat rate per bed, are not required to fiscalise invoices issued to private persons according to TEB (May 2026), but they must issue the guest an invoice. Sole traders and companies fiscalise their invoices.

This isn’t tax advice. Check your case with an accountant or on the Croatian Tax Administration’s website.

8. What about eVisitor?

The same as for platform guests. In Croatia every guest is registered in eVisitor within 24 hours of arrival and checked out within 24 hours of departure. Neither the platform nor the website does it for you.

9. How do you avoid double bookings?

Booking.com and Airbnb offer calendar import and export (iCal). With calendars linked, dates taken in one place show as taken in the others. The platforms refresh calendars at intervals, not in the same second.

So confirm a direct booking only once the dates are closed on the platforms too, or close them by hand right after agreeing with the guest.

10. How many direct bookings are realistic?

It depends on how many guests come back, how many come by recommendation and whether Google finds you by name. Guests who already know you come first. New guests still come from the platforms, and that’s fine.

The sums are simple: at €80 a night and 15% commission, every direct night leaves you €12 more, so a €399 website pays for itself after 34 direct nights. Try your own numbers in the calculator.