Loading...
Compare for travelers
Airbnb is the largest vacation-rental marketplace in the world. Haven is a direct-booking search: describe your trip in plain language, see real availability and totals, and book on the host’s own site with no guest service fee.
Airbnb’s strength is breadth: millions of listings, a mature filter-based search with flexible-date options, reviews, and a single checkout. Its search still expects you to translate a trip into a destination field, a date picker, and filters — and the guest service fee is added on top of the host’s price at checkout, based on publicly available information as of August 2026.
Book With Haven is the direct-booking platform independent hosts build their own sites on — and /stays is the traveler side of it: search every bookable Haven stay in plain language, see real availability and real totals for your dates, and book on the host’s own site. There is no guest service fee, hosts pay nothing to be found, and the catalog is curated rather than exhaustive, so this page compares honestly on both what Haven does better and where the marketplace is still the right tool.
Type the trip as you’d say it — “Florida Keys, Oct 3–11, roughly, 2 adults and a dog” or “a jungle cabin away from noise in mid-March”. Haven reads the place, the dates and how firm they are, the party, must-haves, and the vibe in one pass.
Destination, dates, and guests are separate structured fields with filters for amenities and type; the text box is a place lookup, not a description of the trip. Airbnb has experimented with AI assistance in its app, but the core search remains filter-based.
“Approximately”, “around”, “flexible”, “a week in July”, or “exact dates” change how strictly dates are applied — and results show the nearest open window (“Available Oct 4–11”) when your literal dates are closed.
“I’m flexible” and ±1/3/7-day date options exist as toggles in the date picker; you cannot write “around October 3–11” into the search box.
Results are tiered honestly: exact matches first, then close matches (nearby, or other dates), then similar stays by vibe — with a short concierge note saying what was and wasn’t found.
A destination with no availability shows “no exact matches” and nearby results; there is no note explaining what was and wasn’t found.
Availability comes from the host’s own calendar rules and totals from the host’s own prices — the same number you’ll see at checkout. Prices are never shown without dates.
Availability and nightly prices are real; totals including the guest service fee and cleaning fee appear once you open the listing or toggle total-price display.
Haven adds no guest service fee on top of the host’s price. You pay the host’s rate, their cleaning fee and taxes, and any processing fee the host chooses to pass through — shown before you book.
Most listings add a guest service fee (typically in the low-to-mid teens as a percentage of the booking subtotal; some hosts use a host-only fee model).
Every result opens the host’s own branded site. You deal with the person who runs the place, and they keep the relationship and the full rate.
You book through Airbnb; messaging and payment stay on the platform, and the host pays Airbnb a commission.
Appearing in Haven stay search costs hosts nothing and Haven takes 0% commission on bookings — which is why the host’s direct rate is usually their best rate.
Hosts pay a host service fee on every booking (roughly 3% on split-fee listings, ~15% on host-only-fee listings).
A curated catalog of independently-run stays that book direct — growing, but far smaller than a global marketplace. If a place isn’t on Haven yet, the search says so rather than stretching.
Millions of listings in nearly every country — unmatched breadth and coverage.
One versioned search API powers bookwithhaven.com/stays and Haven’s native mobile app, so the web and app understand the same plain-language searches identically.
Web and native apps with the same structured search.
Haven vs Airbnb
Configure your Haven site as long as you like — you only pay when you’re ready to publish and take bookings. No per-booking commissions.
Comparison based on publicly available information about Airbnb as of August 2026. Product features and pricing change frequently — check Airbnb’s public website for their latest details. Airbnb is a trademark of its respective owner; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Airbnb.