DirectStay gives independent South African guesthouses a complete direct booking infrastructure — website, CRM, SEO, and PayPortal — for 7.95% all-in. Not 21% to Amsterdam.
Every service your guesthouse needs to win direct bookings — included in the 7.95% commission. Zero setup fee. Zero monthly software charge. Zero hidden cost. We earn when you earn.
See the pricing →Mobile-first, branded to your property. Built on South African infrastructure — SSL, backups, updates all maintained by DirectStay. No WordPress. No plugin conflicts. Fast and secure.
Included in 7.95%Commission-free reservations on your own site. iCal sync with Booking.com and LekkeSlaap — no double-bookings, ever. Guests book direct. You pay nothing per booking to us above the 7.95%.
Included in 7.95%FluentCRM — automated sequences that convert OTA guests into loyal direct bookers. Pre-arrival, post-stay, returning guest offers. Your guest data. Your list. Not Booking.com's.
Included in 7.95%JSON-LD schema, meta tags, Google Business Profile, Search Console — all configured at onboarding. Your property appears when guests search your town. A 0.45% SEO fund builds Google Ads from your own bookings.
Included in 7.95%EFT, PayShap and Capitec Pay — no extra charge. Card payments with a disclosed 1.45% guest surcharge. Real-Time Clearing payout to your SA bank account within one business day of check-out.
Included in 7.95%Maximum 2 properties per town on DirectStay — permanently. Your Google ranking cannot be diluted by 50 competitors in the same suburb. This is the competitive moat no other platform offers.
Permanent exclusivityYou do not need to leave Booking.com. You need to stop paying them twice. Use them once — to introduce new guests. Then own the relationship from the second stay onwards.
They search, compare, book. You pay 21.6%. Fair enough — once. Booking.com did its job.
OTA bookingWiFi card. Checkout note. A warm welcome. They see your direct website for the first time.
Intercept momentBetter price on your site. DirectStay Rewards points. You pay 7.95%. Everyone wins.
Direct bookingFluentCRM fires a returning offer at 6 weeks. Booking.com never sees them again. R1,228/year extra per guest.
Fish is yours
I built DirectStay because I could see, as an accountant, exactly what independent guesthouse owners were losing every month to platforms built in Amsterdam and San Francisco.
The accounting truth was simple. The alternative needed to exist.
Drops to 7.40% automatically in Year 2. No renegotiation. No conditions. No surprise invoice.
Zero floor fee for 6 months. Permanent SEO town exclusivity. Two slots per town — once both are taken, the town is permanently closed to new listings.
The first 10 clients nationally to sign have their commission rate locked at
7.40% for life — permanently, regardless of future rate changes.
Launch date: 1 July 2026.
Booking.com Genius rewards guests for staying loyal to Booking.com — not to your property. DirectStay Rewards accumulates across every property in our national network. The loyalty belongs to the guest — and they redeem it at your door.
Points accumulate on every direct booking across all DirectStay properties nationally — from the Drakensberg to the Garden Route, from Clarens to Hoedspruit.
Guests use their Rewards balance as a discount at any DirectStay property. No blackout dates. No minimum stay. No expiry on active accounts.
A guest who earns Rewards on their first direct booking has a reason to come back — and to stay in the DirectStay network rather than opening the Booking.com app.
DirectStay lists a maximum of 2 properties per town, permanently. Once both slots are taken, the town is closed to every property — including yours. Check now.