Every property manager running a direct booking site knows the moment.
A guest lands on your property page. The dates look right, the photos look great. They’re close. Then they open another tab and search the same property on Airbnb not because they want to book there, but because they want to make sure they’re not leaving money on the table.
What they can’t see from your page: OTAs add 15–22% in guest service fees on top of your nightly rate. That money is already paid by the guest, it just doesn’t reach you. Your direct rate is the better deal. The guest has no way to know that until they leave your site to check.
Sometimes they come back. Often they don’t. That second-tab moment is the most expensive moment in vacation rental marketing.
We built the Price Comparison tool to close that gap.
What it does
The Price Comparison tool lives right under your booking widget, on the property page itself. The moment a guest picks their dates, it lays three rates side by side: your direct total, the same stay on Airbnb, and the same stay on Vrbo.
There’s no ambiguity about which one wins. The direct rate carries a “Best Price” badge, and a savings callout above the comparison spells out the exact math: the percentage and the dollar amount saved by booking direct. In the example above, that’s 13%, or $288, on a single stay.
No pop-ups. No separate landing page. No mental math for the guest. It’s built into the property page, right where the booking decision actually happens, and the numbers update automatically as dates and guest count change.
Every comparison includes a taxes-and-fees note and the required trademark disclaimer for Airbnb and Vrbo, so it stays accurate and above board.
How the math works (and why it’s honest)
Your direct rate is the real number: the actual tax-inclusive quote total synced from your PMS for the dates the guest picked. The Airbnb and Vrbo rates come from a markup percentage you set, one that mirrors what your listing actually costs on each channel after their guest service fees. Most operators land between 14 and 22% on Airbnb and 10 and 16% on Vrbo.
Why not scrape live OTA prices? Scraping is fragile, gets blocked, and carries terms-of-service risk. A markup you control is reliable and verifiable. Set it to match what your listing really costs on Airbnb this week, and any guest could confirm the comparison themselves.
The point is worth repeating: we’re not inventing a markup. The OTAs add those fees on top of your nightly rate, and guests already pay them. The card just makes the gap visible on your page instead of theirs.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Direct booking sites have always had a conversion problem that most tools don’t address: the trust gap.
Guests who aren’t familiar with your brand don’t yet know whether booking direct is safe, seamless, or worth the effort. OTAs have spent billions building that trust on their side. The Price Comparison tool flips the dynamic, it lets your site make the case for itself with the one signal guests trust most: price.
When a guest can see that booking direct saves them $40 or $80 per night, you’re not asking them to take your word for it. You’re showing them the math.
OTAs have run price comparison on their own surfaces for a decade. Booking.com shows Vrbo’s rate. Hotels.com shows competing providers. Direct booking sites finally get the same surface, except this time the cheapest line is on your page.
That’s the kind of conversion lift that compounds. Guests who book direct once and have a good experience come back direct. They refer. They don’t need the OTA to find you next time.
Who it’s built for
The Price Comparison tool is most powerful for property managers who are actively driving traffic to their direct booking site through email, paid ads, referrals, or returning guests.
If you’re sending someone to your site, the last thing you want is for them to bounce to an OTA at the finish line. Price Comparison turns your site into the closer.
It’s also a strong trust signal for guests who arrive organically. For a guest who found you through Google or a recommendation, seeing a transparent price comparison communicates that you have nothing to hide and that booking direct is the smarter move.
How to enable it
Price Comparison is available now on CraftedStays. Go to Admin → Site → Brand & Settings, toggle on Direct-booking price comparison, set your Airbnb and Vrbo markup percentages, and save. Set a channel to 0 to hide it from the comparison.
Not sure what percentages to use? Open Airbnb in a private tab, search your own property and dates, and compare the total against your direct site. The difference is your markup. Most operators start around 15% if they have no data.
Your direct rate syncs automatically from your PMS, so the comparison stays current as dates and pricing change. No manual updates.
If you have questions about setup or want to see how it looks on your site, Book a Demo and we’ll walk you through it.
The bigger picture
You can have a website that degrades over time, or one that evolves and matures over time.
Price Comparison is part of a broader set of tools CraftedStays is building to turn your direct booking site into a genuine sales engine not just a digital brochure. Every feature we ship is designed to do one thing: close more bookings at the moment a guest is ready to decide.
This one removes the last reason to check Airbnb first.
Ready to see Price Comparison on your site? Book a Demo → HERE: https://craftedstays.co/book-a-demo/