Direct booking for London vacation-rental hosts
Keep the ~17% that booking platforms take, win back your repeat guests and grow a direct-booking channel in London — with your own branded website.
80,000+
active short-term listings in London
£165
average nightly rate for rentals
~17%
lost to OTA fees on every platform stay
Why go direct in London?
Platforms add roughly 14–17% to the guest's total in service fees — and still take a host fee on top. On an average £165 night in London, that is a meaningful slice of your rate handed over with every booking.
Booking via a platform
- Guest pays ~14–17% service fee on top of your rate
- You pay a host fee on each booking
- You don't own the guest relationship or data
- Your listing lives under platform policies
Booking direct
- Guests pay your full rate — no service fee on top
- Zero booking commission for you
- Every guest and stay saved in your own records
- Calendar sync stops double bookings automatically
Your guests pay the same — or less — and you keep the difference. See everything included →
The London market
London is a powerhouse short-term-rental market, from Shoreditch apartments to riverside family homes. Hosts routinely lose a meaningful slice of each booking to online-travel-agency commissions, which adds up fast across dozens of nights a year. A professional direct-booking website helps London hosts capture that revenue and build a repeat-guest base of their own.
Short-term-rental rules
London hosts generally need permission to let their property, and planning rules can require consent for short-term lets in some boroughs. Rules vary by borough, so always verify the current local requirements before listing.
Direct booking in London, answered
The questions London hosts ask us most — about rules, OTA fees and switching to direct bookings.
Generally yes, but you typically need your freeholder or mortgage lender's permission, and some boroughs require planning consent for short-term lets. Check your borough's current rules before listing.
Guests are typically charged a service fee of around 14–17% on top of the nightly rate, and hosts pay their own fee too. Booking direct with Stayolo means guests pay your price and you keep it.
Generate a branded website from your current listing with Stayolo, sync your calendar so no dates double-book, and share your booking link with past guests and enquirers. No technical skills needed.
Around £165 per night on average, with premium rates in central zones and around events like Wimbledon or the holidays. Direct booking keeps that full rate for you.
Hosts who took back their bookings
We stopped giving 17% away
“I had no idea how much we were handing to booking platforms until we switched. Now repeat guests book through our own site at our full rate, and the calendar sync means no double bookings.”
Sarah M.
Vacation-rental host · Lisbon, Portugal
Repeat guests now book direct
“The website looked like something a designer would charge thousands for. We send every past guest the direct link and around a third of our stays now come in commission-free.”
James T.
Vacation-rental host · Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Set up in an afternoon
“I expected a nightmare setting up payments and calendars. Stayolo did it all — Stripe, the iCal sync, guest confirmations — and I published my site before dinner.”
Elena R.
Vacation-rental host · Barcelona, Spain
Guests trust it instantly
“The secure checkout and clear policies made my guests comfortable booking directly. It took a season to build momentum, but direct bookings now pay better than any platform stay.”
Marco B.
Vacation-rental host · Tulum, Mexico
Build your London booking website.
Paste your listing, get a branded bookable site, and start keeping the ~17% the platforms take.
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