Holiday accommodation businesses such as campsites know that booking systems can seriously slash into your profit margins.
They are great for advertising your accommodation to a massive audience and organising everything automatically, but the amount of money they charge for the service can be huge. Now there’s a way to change this though.
Why do accommodation booking platforms take so much profit?
Historically hoteliers and accommodation owners have been left choosing between empty rooms and a huge dent in per-customer income by monopolies and lack of competition between online booking platforms.
When they started out, these platforms were the only way most smaller hotels, hostels and other accommodation businesses could reach the global market. For that reason big, wealthy chains signed up despite making very little per room in order to keep revenue coming in. Small businesses had no choice but to follow or lose out on guests. In addition to this, only a few platforms, such as booking.com and Laterooms really prospered, so these large platforms gutted much of the market and took much profit away from all but the most successful accommodation businesses.
To add to this, the platforms allegedly engaged in anti-competitive activity that was then legal, but is now in the process of being outlawed. This made it hard for accommodation businesses to make their own bookings online, switching between platforms or use more than one. On the bright side, new alternatives are becoming available.
Why accommodation businesses should be using Freetobook
Freetobook does the exact opposite of what profit-hungry booking platforms have been doing up to now. First, it’s free forever. Which is good. And yes, that means no commission at all.
Second, it allows accommodation owners to capture their own bookings online through their web pages and other online assets.
Third, it allows them to easily submit their accommodations to multiple booking platforms. This ties seamlessly into their on-site booking systems to allow them to enjoy the best of both worlds without being crushed by the booking monopolies.
Beyond this, Freetobook has a bespoke set of services that let property owners set prices, stay lengths and changeovers to suit them. This maximises income and minimises losses from awkward stay administration and overlaps.
Owners can also pay extra for premium external advertising and functionality features, in case you were wondering how they actually made money. Importantly, the platform itself treats payers and free users equally.
Integration with WordPress
What makes this even more effective is its seamless integration with WordPress websites, allowing bookings to be taken directly through your own site rather than sending customers elsewhere. We’ve implemented Freetobook across a growing number of client websites, particularly for campsites and self-catering accommodation businesses and the results have been consistent: more direct bookings, fewer fees and better margins.
The system sits neatly within the website, giving customers a smooth booking experience while automatically managing availability, payments and confirmations behind the scenes. For business owners, everything is handled in one place, saving time and reducing admin.
It also connects with external platforms when needed, so you can still advertise widely while keeping control of your pricing and availability. Combined with features like dynamic pricing, messaging and simple payment processing, it gives smaller operators the same tools larger chains use, without the costs or contracts.
The standout benefit, though, is the shift away from commission-heavy bookings to direct, profitable ones. By pairing a well-built WordPress site with Freetobook, we’ve helped clients drastically cut platform fees, improve customer relationships and build a more sustainable, independent booking model.