Direct bookings saved rental hosts $6.9 million, Hospitable reported in December 2025

Updated 15 October 2026. After a source check by the standards desk, 1 sentence was corrected to what a public source says; the sources used are listed below. Corrections log.

On December 17, 2025, property management software provider Hospitable reported that short-term rental hosts and property managers using its platform saved $6.9 million in booking fees during 2025 by shifting a larger share of their reservations to direct booking channels. Revenue generated through these direct channels rose 91% year on year to $53.7 million, allowing operators to retain a larger portion of their rental income rather than paying commissions to third-party online travel agencies. This shift toward direct distribution reflected a growing movement among operators to protect their profit margins in an environment of rising operational costs.

The transition to direct channels was not an overnight phenomenon but the result of deliberate strategic planning by hosts. According to research published by Hospitable earlier in 2025, reducing booking fees was a priority for nearly two-thirds of short-term rental hosts. The platform's end-of-year data demonstrated how that strategic focus translated into concrete operational changes, with operators investing more effort into converting bookings through their own channels and retaining a greater share of each reservation. In practical terms, these incremental gains in direct bookings had a material impact on margins when applied across the platform's global scale.

What the data shows

In 2025, short-term rental operators using Hospitable generated $53.7 million through direct booking channels, representing a rise of 91% compared to the previous year. This growth in direct reservations resulted in $6.9 million in saved booking fees, which would have otherwise been paid to third-party online travel agencies (OTAs) as commission. The data indicated that operators successfully convinced a larger portion of their guest base to book directly, bypassing traditional intermediary platforms.

Beyond direct booking fee savings, operators on the platform utilized new tools to generate additional income and recover losses. Hospitable reported that hosts generated $177,343 in ancillary revenue through upsells, a feature that the platform launched in June 2025. This feature allowed hosts to offer extra services or amenities to guests during the booking process, creating a new revenue stream. Additionally, hosts recovered nearly $18,000 through security deposits over the course of the year, demonstrating the utility of automated security deposit management in mitigating property damage and operational losses.

These figures occurred within a larger volume of activity on the platform. In 2025, operators using Hospitable generated a total of $5.2 billion in booking revenue and paid $141.5 million in taxes. The scale of guest operations was reflected in communication volume, with hosts sending more than 108 million messages throughout the year. This high volume of interaction underlined the operational complexity managed by hosts who were simultaneously trying to shift their booking mix toward direct channels.

Comparing these metrics to the previous year revealed the rapid expansion of the platform's footprint and the growing activity of its user base. In 2024, Hospitable processed $4.6 billion in reservation income and automated nearly 25 million messages. The increase to $5.2 billion in booking revenue and over 108 million messages in 2025 highlighted the expanding operational scale of the hosts using the software, as well as the increased reliance on automation to handle guest relations.

How it was measured

The performance metrics and financial figures published by Hospitable were derived from aggregated, anonymized platform data. This dataset covered 7.02 million reservations processed through the Hospitable platform over the course of 2025. The platform tracked the source of each reservation, allowing it to isolate direct bookings from those originating on third-party online travel agencies and calculate the corresponding fee savings based on standard industry commission rates.

The report also incorporated findings from two separate industry surveys conducted by Hospitable to capture qualitative sentiment among operators. The first survey, which informed the platform's report titled The 2026 Hospitable Industry Report, was conducted in November 2025. This survey gathered responses from 566 short-term rental hosts and property managers across various regions and property types, focusing on their operational priorities and challenges for the year.

The second survey was conducted in November 2025 to gather insights for the 2026 STR Industry Report. This survey included responses from 554 short-term rental hosts and property managers operating across multiple regions and property types. This survey focused on future distribution plans, technology adoption, and strategic priorities for the December 2025 calendar year, providing a forward-looking counterpart to the historical platform data.

Why operators focused on fees

The financial pressure of third-party platform fees emerged as a primary driver of operator behavior in 2025. Hospitable's first-quarter survey of 566 hosts established that reducing booking fees was a priority for nearly two-thirds of operators. This sentiment drove hosts to invest more operational effort into direct booking channels, converting guests who might otherwise have booked through online travel agencies. The fees charged by major platforms were increasingly viewed as an adjustable cost rather than a fixed operational expense.

Pierre-Camille Hamana, CEO and Founder of Hospitable, explained the motivation behind this transition in a statement released on December 17, 2025:

“Third-party fees remain a big concern for hosts and property managers. Rather than accepting them as a fixed cost, more operators are taking a closer look at how much they pay to OTAs and where they have scope to retain more revenue. We’re seeing more hosts take small, deliberate steps to bring bookings directly, because it’s one of the few levers they can realistically pull to keep more of what they earn.”

By taking these deliberate steps, hosts sought to gain greater control over their pricing and margins. The transition to direct bookings allowed operators to avoid the standard commission structures imposed by major booking platforms, transferring those savings directly to their bottom lines. This was particularly critical in a market where other operational costs, such as cleaning, maintenance, and insurance, remained largely outside the direct control of the operator.

The shift in distribution strategies

The emphasis on direct booking channels was expected to influence distribution strategies heading into 2026. Hospitable's survey of 554 hosts in November 2025 indicated that around a quarter of short-term rental operators planned to expand their use of direct booking websites in 2026. This planned expansion suggested that the success of direct booking initiatives in 2025 had validated the strategy for many operators, encouraging them to allocate more resources to independent marketing and web development.

This intention was particularly strong among self-managed operators, who often operate with tighter margins and fewer administrative resources than large property management companies. The survey data showed that 70% of self-managers cited increasing direct bookings as a priority for the year ahead. For these self-managers, direct bookings represented not only a way to save money but also a method to establish direct relationships with guests, fostering repeat business and reducing long-term customer acquisition costs.

To support this shift, property management software tools evolved to offer more comprehensive direct booking capabilities. Hospitable, which originally launched in 2016 as a time-saving property management system (PMS), expanded its functionality to operate as a short-term rental super app. By 2025, the platform automated guest messaging using artificial intelligence, optimized nightly rates, managed rental agreements and security deposits, coordinated operational teams, and powered direct booking websites equipped with built-in payment processing and property protection. This evolution reflected a demand for integrated tools that could replicate the security and convenience of major booking platforms while allowing hosts to maintain independence.

What to take from it

The shifting distribution landscape in 2025 offers several clear lessons for short-term rental hosts, property managers, and investors looking to optimize their channel strategies.

• Compare the total cost of direct booking infrastructure, including software subscriptions and credit card processing fees, against the commissions paid to online travel agencies to determine the true net margin of each channel.
• Evaluate the potential of ancillary services and upsells to generate incremental revenue, as demonstrated by the $177,343 generated by Hospitable users following the feature's launch.
• Implement independent security deposit and rental agreement protocols to protect assets and manage risk without relying on third-party platform mediation.
• Monitor the direct booking strategies of self-managed operators, who are prioritizing direct channels at a high rate, to identify competitive benchmarks in local markets.