Frequently asked questions about direct-booking guesthouse websites in South Africa. Commission costs, build time, pricing, SEO and more — answered honestly.
Real questions from guesthouse owners. If your question isn't here, ask us directly.
Booking.com typically charges 15% commission per booking. For a guesthouse doing R40,000 per month, that is R6,000 monthly or R72,000 annually. A direct-booking website captures repeat guests and referrals commission-free, typically recovering 20-40% of those lost bookings.
A once-off build starts at R2,500 for a small guesthouse up to 4 rooms. The Professional package is R4,000 for 5-10 rooms. The Full Service package is R5,000 for 10+ rooms. Optional monthly hosting starts at R150/month.
No. Keep Booking.com for discovery — most first-time guests find guesthouses through the platform. A direct-booking site captures the bookings that were going to come anyway: repeat guests, referrals, and guests who Google your name. Those bookings become commission-free.
A standard guesthouse website takes one weekend from agreement to live. Larger properties with real-time availability or payment processing may take longer.
Every build includes: mobile-first responsive design, SEO setup with schema markup, WhatsApp booking form, Google Maps integration, photo gallery, SSL certificate, fast loading, and basic analytics setup.
No. The monthly hosting plan covers hosting, security updates, and backups. The Plus and Managed plans include content updates and blog management. You focus on your guests, we handle the tech.
Yes. The Full Service package includes direct payment integration. The Starter and Professional packages use WhatsApp/email booking requests, which is how most SA guesthouses prefer to operate. Payment links can be added to any package.
Yes. Every site is mobile-first. Over 80% of SA tourism searches happen on mobile, so we design for phones first and scale up to desktop. Your site will load fast on any device.
Every build includes SEO setup: structured data, schema markup, fast loading, clean code. Guests searching your guesthouse name on Google will find your site first, not just Booking.com. The Professional and Full Service packages include Google Business Profile optimisation.
Yes. Guest data collected through booking forms includes a privacy notice and consent mechanism. We do not sell or share personal information. See our Privacy Policy for details.
We can redesign it. Many guesthouses have outdated sites that don't work well on mobile or don't have booking functionality. Our Website Redesign service updates your existing site with modern design and direct-booking capability.
Based in the Free State, currently focused on Clarens and surrounding areas. We serve guesthouses throughout South Africa remotely. WhatsApp and phone support is available to all clients.
10-minute chat. No obligation. We'll answer any questions you have about whether a direct-booking site makes sense for your guesthouse.
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