Website for a hotel or guesthouse

Most guests find you on Booking.com, Airbnb or Google Maps and then look up the property by name to see whether booking direct is cheaper. That is the moment the website either wins the booking or hands it back to the intermediary. The guest compares the rate, the cancellation terms and what comes extra with a direct booking: breakfast, late check-out, a sauna session.

Domestic travellers search differently: 'spa hotel Pärnu', 'holiday house with sauna Saaremaa', 'accommodation Otepää'. Finnish guests prefer to read Finnish, while visitors from Latvia and further away rely on English.

Each room type gets its own page: photos, size, beds, view, amenities and the rate by season. The booking button stays on screen while scrolling. A separate block explains why booking direct is worth it. Package pages (spa, weekend, seminar) catch searches the booking portals do not cover. An area page answers what there is to do: beaches, hiking trails, places to eat, and the distance from the port and the airport.

Room photos on the site are older or fewer than on Booking.com. The direct rate is shown without breakfast or fees, looks cheaper at first and grows at checkout. The booking flow opens in a new window with a different design, and the guest doubts it is the same property. And cancellation terms are nowhere to be found, while the portal states them on every room.

For direct bookings we connect a booking engine linked to your channel manager, so availability is the same on the site and the portals and double bookings do not happen. Foreign guests pay by card through Stripe, Estonian guests by bank link. A small guesthouse often does fine with an inquiry form and an availability calendar.