A website for your B&B: direct bookings, zero commissions.

Informational guide · updated July 2026

The maths few owners ever do: how much OTAs keep

I am a web developer based in Palermo, and with anyone running a B&B or a holiday rental I always start from a simple calculation that almost nobody puts down in black and white. OTAs — Booking, Airbnb, Expedia — typically keep a commission of between 15% and 25% of the value of every booking, depending on the portal, the visibility programme and any extra services you have switched on.

In plain numbers: if your property takes in 20.000 € a year through the portals, you are leaving 3.000 to 5.000 € every year on the table. Over three years that adds up to 9.000–15.000 €: more than a well-built website costs, multiplied by three. That is not a reason to abandon the portals — we will see why that would be a mistake — but it is an excellent reason not to depend on them alone.

Your website does not replace Booking: it works alongside it

In the travel industry there is a behaviour that has been documented for years, the so-called billboard effect: many guests discover you on the portal, then search for the name of your property on Google to see more photos, more reviews and — above all — whether there is a better way to book. At that moment, one of two things happens:

• they only find your Booking page → they book there, and the commission kicks in;
• they find your website, with better photos, a direct contact and perhaps a small exclusive perk → they book with you, and the commission stays in your pocket.

So your website does not need to “beat” Booking on generic searches: it needs to be found by people looking for you by name and win them over in thirty seconds. On top of that, a website gives you what the portals never will: your guests’ contact details, the chance to bring them back next year without intermediaries, and an image you control yourself.

What a B&B website really needs

Real photos, not stock images

Anyone booking a holiday rental is buying an expectation: photos are 80% of the decision. You need real, recent, bright images of the rooms, the bathrooms and — if you have one — the view or the terrace. One day of proper photography is worth more than any graphic effect.

Calendar and availability

Guests want to know straight away whether their dates are free. You do not necessarily need a booking engine with online payment: even a simple availability calendar synced via iCal with Booking and Airbnb, plus an enquiry form, cuts out half of the pointless emails.

Multilingual

If part of your guests come from abroad — and in Sicily that is the norm — the site must speak at least English, ideally French and German too. A real project I worked on, the B&B Miravalle in Agrigento, is online in 5 languages: guests arriving from Lyon or Munich book in their own language, without going through the portal.

Local SEO

A well-kept Google Business Profile, structured data, copy that answers real searches — “b&b with a terrace near Palermo Cathedral”, “holiday rental with parking a short walk from the sea”. That is what brings in new guests too, not just people who already know you from the portals.

Flawless on mobile

Most travel searches start on a smartphone. If your site is slow or hard to read on a phone, the guest goes back to the portal — where everything works — and the commission is served.

To give you a concrete idea of the result, I have put together a browsable demo of a B&B website with an availability calendar; more examples, demos and real projects are on the projects page.

How much it costs: average market prices

These are the average market prices in Italy for the website of an accommodation business. They are indicative averages (2026): every project is a story of its own.

Type of website	What it includes	Average price
Showcase site with enquiry form	4–6 pages, photo gallery, availability enquiry form, basic SEO, mobile-ready	800–2.000 €
Site with calendar / booking	as above + availability calendar, iCal sync with the portals, online booking	1.500–4.000 €
Additional language	professional translation of the content, per language	150–500 €
Recurring costs	domain, hosting, maintenance and small updates	100–300 € per year

When it pays for itself: the explicit maths

Let us run the numbers on a typical case. An average stay worth 350 €, average portal commission at 18%: every booking that comes through the direct channel saves you roughly 60 €.

• A calendar-equipped website at 2.500 € pays for itself after around 40 direct bookings.
• At 3–4 direct bookings a month — realistic numbers for a well-reviewed property — you get there in about a year.
• From the second year onwards, those 2.000–2.500 € of saved commissions are pure margin, every year, against 100–300 € in running costs.

Honestly: if you rent out a single room for a few weeks a year, a 4.000 € website makes no sense — better a lean showcase site, or even just a well-kept Google listing with a WhatsApp number. The “right” website depends on your numbers, not on the price list of whoever is selling it to you.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep Booking and my own website together?

Yes, and it is the right strategy: the portals bring visibility you would never get on your own, while the website converts people searching for you by name and gives you back margin. Just watch out for rate-parity clauses: how much room you have on the public price varies, but you can always offer direct perks — breakfast included, late check-out, a discount reserved for returning guests.

Do I need a channel manager?

If you have a single property listed on two or three portals, the free iCal sync — which updates the calendars at regular intervals — is often enough. A channel manager (on average 20–60 € per month) becomes useful when you manage several units or want prices and availability updated in real time across all channels.

How much traffic does the website need to pay for itself?

Far less than you might think. The site does not need to win the “b&b Palermo” search against the portals: it needs to catch people searching for your name, plus a handful of specific local searches. A few dozen targeted visits a month are enough to generate 3–4 direct bookings — and that is the traffic that pays for the project.

Is my Booking page not enough, if it is well maintained?

Your Booking page works well, but it works for Booking: it does not give you your guests’ email addresses, it does not help you bring back the people who come every summer and, if the portal changes its rules or commissions tomorrow, you have no alternatives. Your website is the only piece of your online presence you truly own.