Does Hostaway Support a Direct Booking Website? What You Get and What Haven Adds
Yes. Hostaway includes a direct booking website with every PMS subscription, and as of October 2026 it comes in two tiers: a Standard site at no extra charge, and Booking Website Pro at $49 a month per published site plus a 0.5% reservation fee. Reservations taken through Hostaway's booking engine on US listings using Stripe also carry a 1.8% Booking Engine Fee, which the guest pays by default. For a Hostaway operator, then, the question is rarely whether a site exists. It is whether the bundled template, the fee structure, and the guest tools around it are the ones you want carrying your brand. What follows sets out what Hostaway's site includes, what it costs on a real booking, what hosts typically add on top, and how Book With Haven connects to a Hostaway account.
Key facts
- Hostaway's Booking Website is included with the PMS subscription at no additional charge. Booking Website Pro is an add-on at $49 per month per published site plus a 0.5% reservation fee on the bookings it takes, billed from the day the site goes live, per Hostaway's direct booking page and Pro terms as of October 2026.
- Reservations through the Hostaway booking engine on US listings using Stripe carry a 1.8% Booking Engine Fee on the base rate and fees, excluding taxes. The guest pays it by default; the host can absorb it instead. Listings outside the US pay a 0.5% host processing fee, and the two never apply together.
- Hostaway's PMS pricing is quote-based and billed per listing, with no public price list.
- The bundled site does not include a guest guidebook, a guest CRM with remarketing, or guest screening; those arrive through third-party integrations.
- Haven connects to Hostaway through the Airbnb account Hostaway already publishes to, importing listing content, photos, prices, availability, and reservations. Haven bookings close dates through the Haven iCal feed added in Hostaway. Native Hostaway API sync is on Haven's roadmap.
- On top of Hostaway, Haven adds a branded site on your own domain with 0% commission and no guest service fee, guidebooks that capture guest emails into a built-in CRM, AI guest chat you can audit, free screening with optional damage protection up to $50,000, and native upsells.
What Hostaway's Booking Website includes
Hostaway's help center describes two plans. The Standard plan is a free one-page site with standard customization, a single layout, standard page indexing, and standard coupons; guests who click through complete the reservation on Hostaway's booking engine. It is built to show inventory correctly and take a card. For an operator whose priority is a working front door attached to the PMS, that is a fair description of the job.
Booking Website Pro is the tier Hostaway positions for operators who want a more flexible, conversion-focused site. According to Hostaway's direct booking page, Pro costs $49 a month and carries a 0.5% reservation fee on bookings made through the Pro site. Two details in the Pro terms deserve a read before signing: billing is per published site, and the add-on carries a minimum commitment that cannot be cancelled independently of the main Hostaway agreement during the subscription term.
Both plans live inside the Hostaway account, so availability, rates, and reservations come from the calendar that already feeds Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. There is nothing to connect.
What the fees look like on a $1,000 stay
Take a $1,000 booking subtotal on a US listing with Stripe connected. With the Booking Engine Fee passed to the guest, the guest pays $1,018 and the host's payout is untouched apart from Stripe's processing. If the host absorbs the fee, $18 comes out of the payout. Hostaway's help center notes that the 1.8% already includes Stripe's 1% application fee, so it is not charged twice.
On Booking Website Pro the same stay adds a $5 reservation fee, on top of the $49 subscription.
Neither figure is large next to an OTA. The same $1,000 stay under Airbnb's host-only fee costs most US hosts $155, a ladder we price line by line in the direct booking website cost post. The arithmetic matters for a different reason: a guest service fee on your own site is a line the guest can see. At the same nightly rate it makes the direct total higher than the Airbnb total for the same nights, unless you trim the rate to compensate. Pricing around that line, and the lock-in questions that come with any bundled site, are covered in PMS booking website vs standalone builder.
What hosts usually add on top
Hostaway's own 2026 report, quoted in that post, found that 70% of operators already have a direct booking website while nearly two thirds still take under a quarter of their bookings through owned channels. The site is rarely the bottleneck. What tends to be missing is the layer around it.
A brand on a domain you own. A PMS template presents inventory the way a channel manager thinks about it: a search box, a grid, a calendar. A house with a name and a story converts on pages that read like hospitality.
A guest guide and app. Check-in details, Wi-Fi, house rules, and local recommendations delivered before arrival, and a place for the whole party, not only the booker, to leave an email address.
AI chat before the booking exists. Hostaway automates guest messaging once a reservation lands. The visitor deciding whether to book at 11 p.m. has questions too, and a grounded assistant on the property page answers them from your listing rather than from a generic script.
Marketing and a CRM. Past guests are the cheapest direct bookings a host will ever win. That requires their emails in a system you control, with gap-night, price-drop, and local-event campaigns that run without you writing each one.
Taxes. Once the OTA is no longer the collector of record, lodging tax on direct bookings is yours to register, calculate, and file. The complete guide to direct bookings covers the full stack a direct channel needs, with or without a PMS behind it.
How Haven connects to Hostaway
Hostaway does not yet have a native Haven connector; it is on the roadmap. Today, Haven connects through the Airbnb account Hostaway already publishes to. What moves is broad: listing content, photos, amenities, house rules, daily prices, minimum stays, check-in and check-out restrictions, blocked dates, and reservations from every channel Hostaway mirrors to Airbnb. It is the same inbound data a native connector would carry, because Hostaway already sends it to Airbnb. Checkout, the guest app, guidebooks, and protection are the full Haven product, not a lighter mode.
One step is different. Haven cannot create a Hostaway reservation through the Airbnb API, so Haven bookings and manual blocks close dates through the listing's Haven iCal feed. Add that feed in Hostaway, not only in Airbnb. Hostaway then closes Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com together, whereas a feed added only in Airbnb leaves the other channels open, because Airbnb does not pass an imported block back to a connected PMS. The Hostaway integration page walks through the five steps, and Hostaway hosts who opt in will be moved to the native connection when it ships.
Hostaway's site vs Haven on top of Hostaway
| Hostaway Booking Website | Haven on top of Hostaway | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee on direct bookings | 1.8% Booking Engine Fee on US Stripe bookings, guest-paid or host-absorbed; Pro adds 0.5% | 0% commission and no guest service fee; standard Stripe processing |
| Monthly cost | Standard included; Pro $49 per published site | Free to build; from $15 a month ($9 billed yearly) once you publish |
| Site design | Vacation rental templates; one layout on Standard, more flexibility on Pro | Design-forward branded pages on your own domain |
| Guest email capture and CRM | Guest data lives in the PMS; marketing through integrations | Guidebooks capture booker and co-guest emails into a built-in CRM with remarketing |
| Screening and protection | Deposits and card holds built in; screening through integrations | Free screening; optional damage protection up to $50,000 via Truvi |
| AI chat on the public site | Not documented | A grounded assistant on every page, with every reply graded |
| Where the booking lives | Hostaway calendar | Haven, with the dates closed in Hostaway through the Haven iCal feed |
The feature-by-feature version, including upsells, analytics, and content tools, is on Haven vs Hostaway.
FAQ
Does Hostaway charge extra for its direct booking website?
Not for the Standard site, which is included with the PMS subscription. Booking Website Pro is an add-on at $49 per month per published site plus a 0.5% reservation fee, as of October 2026.
Does Hostaway charge a fee on direct bookings?
On US listings using Stripe, yes: a 1.8% Booking Engine Fee on the base rate and fees, excluding taxes, paid by the guest by default or absorbed by the host. Listings outside the US pay a 0.5% host processing fee instead. Haven charges no commission and no guest service fee; only Stripe's processing applies.
Can I use Haven without leaving Hostaway?
Yes. Hostaway stays your PMS and channel manager. Haven imports the listings Hostaway publishes to Airbnb, runs the branded site and checkout, and closes booked dates in Hostaway through the Haven iCal feed.
Will a Haven booking block the dates on Vrbo and Booking.com?
Yes, provided the Haven iCal feed is added in Hostaway rather than only in Airbnb. Hostaway then pushes the block to every channel it manages.
Is the bundled Hostaway site enough on its own?
For an operator who wants a functional site that shows availability and takes a card, often yes. If your rate depends on how the property is presented, or you want guidebooks, a CRM, screening, and AI chat without assembling integrations, a purpose-built layer on top earns its keep.
Sources
- Hostaway — Direct booking website builder
- Hostaway Help Center — Booking Website: Booking Engine Fee
- Hostaway Help Center — Booking Website Pro: Terms of Service
- Hostaway Help Center — Booking Website Pro: Choosing your Plan
- Hostaway Help Center — Booking Website: Overview
- Hostaway Help Center — Hostaway Application Fee
- Haven's Hostaway integration and comparison pages, linked above, with facts as of October 2026
