Cut the middleman, keep the earnings
A holiday home in Molise was silently handing up to 20% of every booking to Airbnb and Booking.com. Enough.
The challenge
La Collina degli Ulivi had beautiful rooms, happy guests, and one big problem: every single booking came with a platform fee attached. Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO — they all take a cut of up to 20%. The owners had no direct channel, no way to build a relationship with guests before they arrived, and no single tool to manage their calendar across platforms without the constant risk of double-bookings. They were working hard, but a significant share of every euro earned wasn't theirs.
What we did
I built them a complete direct-booking web application — guests check availability, pick their dates, and pay securely, all in one seamless flow. The platform fee? Just 1.5% for payment processing. That's it. To keep everything perfectly in sync without any extra effort, the platform connects automatically to Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and any other OTA via iCal — so the moment a booking arrives on any channel, the calendar updates everywhere. I also launched a blog to build organic traffic through search engines, steadily reducing their dependence on paid platforms. The site is fully bilingual (Italian and English), built for international guests, and needs virtually no day-to-day maintenance.
The results
The maths speaks for itself: 1.5% instead of up to 20%, across a full season, is a transformative difference. No more double-booking anxiety. A growing stream of organic visitors. And for the first time, they own the guest relationship — from the very first click.
Visit live site
https://lacollinadegliulivisernia.com
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