Direct bookings — guests who book outside Airbnb and Booking.com — go on the same calendar as your OTA reservations, with no commission and full control over the payment.
TL;DR: Direct bookings are reservations you take outside an OTA — repeat guests, your direct booking website, walk-ins, WhatsApp enquiries. To add one, open Properties → Calendar, click an empty cell on the listing’s row, choose Direct Booking as the booking platform, fill in guest and date details, and save. The reservation appears on the calendar instantly, blocks the dates across your synced OTAs (so no double-booking), and you can send the guest a Stripe payment link from inside SympleHost. No commission, no OTA cut — but you handle the cancellation policy and payment yourself.
What Counts as a Direct Booking?
Anything that didn’t come through an OTA. Common sources:
- A repeat guest who messages or emails you to rebook.
- A booking taken on your direct booking website.
- A walk-in or phone enquiry.
- A WhatsApp / Instagram / Messenger conversation that ends in a confirmed stay.
- A guest who heard about you from a friend.
Direct bookings sit on the same calendar as Airbnb and Booking.com reservations — they’re tagged as Direct Booking so you can tell them apart at a glance, but they share the same availability calendar, so SympleHost auto-blocks the dates on your connected OTAs to prevent double-bookings.
Yes — Direct Bookings Appear on the Calendar
Every reservation in SympleHost — direct bookings, Airbnb, Booking.com, manual entries — lives in one calendar at Properties → Calendar. Direct bookings show as color-coded bars on the listing row, just like OTA bookings. The colour-code lets you see at a glance which channel each booking came from.
[Screenshot: Property Calendar Overview with a mix of Airbnb, Booking.com, and Direct Booking bars showing the colour-coding]
How to Add a Direct Booking from the Calendar
This is the fastest way — useful when a guest messages you and you want to lock in the dates immediately.
Step 1: Open the Calendar
- Click Properties in the sidebar to expand it.
- Click Calendar.
You’ll land on the Property Calendar Overview with all your listings down the left and dates across the top.
Step 2: Click on the listing row where you want to add the booking
Click on an empty cell on the listing’s row, for the date range the guest wants.
The Add New Booking panel slides in from the right. The Property is pre-selected based on the row you clicked.
[Screenshot: Add New Booking side panel with Property pre-selected at the top]
Step 3: Choose “Direct Booking” as the Booking Platform
In the Booking Platform dropdown, select Direct Booking.
💡 Tip: If you collected the booking off a specific channel that isn’t an OTA — e.g., your own website, a phone call, WhatsApp — you can still log it as Direct Booking. Add detail in the Booking Notes later if you want to track which off-platform source it came from.
Step 4: Add the guest
In the Guest field:
- Search for an existing customer by name or email — useful for repeat guests, so their stay history stays linked to one profile.
- Or type a new name in the Search or create a customer field to create a fresh guest record.
You’ll be able to add or edit their email and phone after the booking is saved.
Step 5: Set check-in, check-out, and guest count
- Pick Check-in and Check-out dates. SympleHost shows the night count automatically (e.g. “3 nights”).
- Enter Adults and Kids. The maximum is shown next to each based on the listing’s capacity.
Step 6: Save
Click Save. The new booking immediately appears as a bar on the calendar, in the colour-code reserved for direct bookings.
[Screenshot: Calendar after saving a new direct booking — the new bar visible on the listing row]
After You Save: Confirming and Taking Payment
A new direct booking lands in Pending status. From the Reservation Details page (click the bar on the calendar), you have two follow-on actions:
Confirm the booking
Click Confirm Booking in the top right. The status changes to Confirmed (green badge) — the dates are locked and synced out to your connected OTAs as blocked.
Send a payment link
Direct bookings don’t go through an OTA, so there’s no automatic charge — you collect payment yourself. SympleHost integrates with Stripe (see Setting Up Payments with Stripe if you haven’t connected Stripe yet) so you can send a hosted payment link straight from the reservation:
- On the Reservation Details page, open the dropdown next to Confirm Booking.
- Click Send a payment link.
- SympleHost generates a Stripe-hosted checkout URL and sends it to the guest’s email (and copies it to your clipboard so you can paste it into WhatsApp / Messenger / wherever you’re talking to the guest).
- When the guest pays, the reservation auto-updates to Mark as Paid.
If you’ve already taken payment by another method (bank transfer, cash on arrival, etc.), pick Mark as Paid from the same dropdown to record it manually.
[Screenshot: Reservation Details page showing the “Confirm Booking” button with the dropdown open — “Mark as Paid” and “Send a payment link” visible]
Editing or Cancelling a Direct Booking
Same flow as any other reservation:
- Edit: Click the booking on the calendar → Edit Reservation (purple button, top right) → update dates / guest count / listing → Save. SympleHost shows a price-comparison preview if you change dates or guest count.
- Cancel: Click the booking → Cancel Reservation (red, top right) → review the cancellation policy and refund calculation → Cancel Booking to confirm.
Because direct bookings aren’t held by an OTA, you decide the cancellation policy. The default is whatever you set on the listing — see How to Set Up Your Pricing & Rate Rules for changing per-listing policies.
Direct Bookings vs OTA Bookings — at a Glance
| Direct Booking | Airbnb / Booking.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | None | 15–20% |
| Payment | You collect (Stripe link or off-platform) | OTA collects, payouts to you |
| Cancellation policy | Yours | OTA’s |
| Guest contact details | Full email + phone right away | Often masked or delayed |
| Calendar sync | Yes — blocks OTA availability | Yes — blocks SympleHost availability |
| Shows on calendar | Yes (own colour-code) | Yes (own colour-code) |
| Appears in Reports | Yes — counted in revenue | Yes — net of OTA commission |
Troubleshooting
I can’t see the ”+ Add Booking” or the side panel won’t open
The + Add Booking button is only available to roles that can manage bookings — Account Owner, Account Admin, Account Manager, or Booking Coordinator. If your role is Staff, ask your account admin to update your role in Settings → Team → Members.
I picked the wrong listing
Click the booking → Edit Reservation → change the Property dropdown → Save. SympleHost will move the booking to the correct listing’s row.
My direct booking website pushed a reservation but it’s not on the calendar
Direct booking website reservations should land on the calendar within seconds. If one’s missing, check Reservations in the sidebar (full list view) — it may already be there but outside the calendar’s current date window. Use the +1M / +3M / +6M shortcuts to jump forward.
Stripe payment link option is greyed out
You haven’t connected Stripe yet, or the Stripe connection has lapsed. Go to Settings → Integrations → Payments and connect/reconnect Stripe. See Setting Up Payments with Stripe.
Key Takeaways
- Direct bookings are any reservation that didn’t come from an OTA — repeat guests, walk-ins, your website, social DMs.
- Add them straight from Properties → Calendar by clicking the listing row and selecting Direct Booking as the platform.
- They appear on the same unified calendar with their own colour-code, and they auto-block availability on your connected OTAs.
- Use Send a payment link to collect payment via Stripe, or Mark as Paid if you took payment off-platform.
- No OTA commission — you keep 100% of the rate.
Related Articles
- How to Manage Bookings & Your Calendar
- Setting Up Payments with Stripe
- How to Get More Direct Bookings for Your Vacation Rental (strategy guide)
- How to Set Up Your Pricing & Rate Rules