Start here: how Haven gets you booking direct

This is the orientation for new hosts, whether you manage a single property or a large portfolio. It covers what Haven does, how it works alongside Airbnb and Vrbo, and the path from a new account to your first direct booking.

What Haven does

Haven gives you three things in one place: a booking website that you own, a way to take payments through Stripe, and a home base for managing your reservations. Everything lives in your dashboard at /host, organized into tabs across the top: Home, Calendar, your listings, Messages, and Settings.

What you're building

Haven works the same way whether you have one property or fifty. The difference is only in how you think about it.

If you have a single property, your Single Property Site is your direct booking page. That is the link you will share with guests, and it is what this beginner series focuses on.

If you manage several properties, such as a portfolio, hotel, or resort, your Multi-Unit Site is your direct booking website, and each property is a listing within it. You will set up each listing using the same steps covered here, so none of this is wasted on you. Once your listings are ready, we will point you to the Collections side.

Either way, it comes down to one task: get a single property set up and bookable. Do that once and the rest is repetition. If any term is unclear, the sites & listings glossary covers it.

How Haven fits with Airbnb and Vrbo

Keep your Airbnb and Vrbo listings as they are. Haven is not a replacement for your other channels. It is the one channel you own outright, with your brand on the page, a direct relationship with the guest, and no separate Haven service fee added to bookings. It is where you send repeat guests, referrals, and anyone who finds you outside the major platforms, so you keep more of what each booking is worth.

The path to your first booking

Five steps, each with its own guide.

Add your property. Import it from a connected PMS, or build it in a short wizard.
Make it bookable. Fill in the essentials: photos, title, description, location, and pricing.
Choose a plan and connect Stripe. This is what allows the site to take payments.
Share your link. In your bio, a message to past guests, or a QR code.
Take your first booking. It will appear in your Calendar.

There is no "Publish" button

This is the most important thing to understand, because it confuses nearly every new host. Haven has no publish button. A property becomes public and bookable automatically, the moment all four of these are true:

The required fields are filled in: photos, title, description, location, and pricing.
You are on an active paid plan. On the Free plan, your site stays private.
Your Stripe account is connected and verified.
The property is not archived.

If your site is not live yet, you have not missed a step or a button. One of those four conditions simply is not met yet. The get your listing ready to go live guide walks through each one.

Your setup checklist

After signup, a setup checklist stays with you as you move through the dashboard. It tracks five tasks: create your property, choose a plan, connect Stripe, set up damage protection, and make your property bookable. Complete those and your site is live. The dashboard tour & setup checklist explains each one.

You're done when…

You can explain Haven in a sentence ("my own booking site, with payments and reservations built in"), you know the five steps ahead of you, and you understand that going live means meeting four conditions, not pressing a publish button.