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Vacation rental direct booking website
A vacation rental direct booking website is your rental's own site, on your own domain, where guests see the place and pick their dates; we build the site for $1,000 to $1,500, and a booking tool can be added when you're ready. Here's what one needs and what we built for Lark Hill Cottage, which still books through Airbnb.
- $1,000 to $1,500
- Your own domain
- Guest guide
What it needs
What a direct booking site needs
- Your own domain, so guests can find you again and you're not just one listing among thousands.
- Real photos and a walkthrough of the place, room by room.
- A way to book. A booking tool such as OwnerRez, Hostaway or Lodgify, or a request-to-book form; or, to start, a dates form that hands guests to your Airbnb or Vrbo listing.
- Your reviews, linked from the platforms where guests left them.
- A Google Business Profile, so the rental shows up on Google Maps with photos.
- A private guest guide for Wi-Fi and check-in that isn't public.
A rental website we built
Lark Hill Cottage
Lark Hill Cottage is a vacation rental cottage in Candler, near Asheville. We built its site on its own domain with the photos and a “Reserve your dates” form. Today that form opens Airbnb with the guest's dates already filled in, so the booking itself still happens on Airbnb. We also built a private guest guide behind 4-digit door codes that the host manages from an admin page (a code is never reused), and filled out its Google Business Profile with the house photos and a first post.
One thing we learned along the way: when we checked Google Maps for rentals near Asheville in October 2026, the vacation rental listings came from partners like Vrbo and Expedia, not Airbnb. If you want to show up there, a Vrbo listing matters as much as the website.
Questions
Common questions
Will a direct booking site replace Airbnb?
It doesn't have to. Lark Hill's site sends guests to Airbnb with their dates today, and a booking tool can be added when the host is ready.
Which booking tool should I use?
The one that fits how you manage your calendar. If you already use one, your Reserve button can point to its booking page; if not, a request-to-book form is a simple start.
Can the guest guide stay private?
Yes. Lark Hill's guide is hidden from Google and opens only with a door code the host gives each guest.