A direct booking website for a holiday let

A marketplace listing is still a good way for a new guest to find you. It is an expensive way for last year's guest to come back. They already trust the place, and the platform still takes a cut if they book there again.

A direct booking website is the link you send instead. It lives on an address like villasol.mystay.direct. The guest sees photos, house rules, dates and a way to pay or enquire. You keep the other listings for people who are still searching.

MyStay is built for one listing. It is not a channel manager and it does not replace the marketplace. If you run several properties, use the form on the pricing page and say how many.

Paste an Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo link, or describe the place in a few lines if it is not online yet. A link can bring the name, the description, the amenities and the photos. A description drafts the words, and you add the pictures. Most drafts are ready in under 60 seconds. Looking at the draft does not ask for a card.

Read it the way a guest would. Fix a clumsy sentence, drop an amenity you no longer offer, and add the tourist licence or registration number if you need it on the page. The number you type is shown. MyStay does not file it with an authority or check that it is valid.

Publishing is a separate step. Paddle collects the card, and that starts the 7-day trial. Cancel before the trial ends and you do not pay the subscription. The preview itself stays free.

• A mystay.direct address you can send the same day
• Your own domain later, if you want it
• iCal sync so the same night is much less likely to sell twice
• WhatsApp enquiries with the dates already filled in

Card checkout uses your own Stripe account. A successful card payment confirms the stay. You can charge the full amount or a deposit percentage, and you can set a security deposit separately, taken with the booking or at arrival.

Bizum and bank transfer do not confirm themselves. The booking stays pending, the dates are held, and you confirm when the money arrives or reject the booking and release the dates. With every payment method off, guests can only enquire.

WhatsApp is optional. Add your number and the enquiry can open with the dates the guest already chose. It works whether or not the guest is in Spain. Bizum is the Spanish option, for guests whose bank offers it.

The subscription is £14.99 a month for one listing. MyStay does not take a percentage of the stay. Stripe's card fee, if you turn cards on, is Stripe's. A Bizum payment goes to the mobile number you entered.

Do not use the direct page to pull a guest off a booking they have just started on Airbnb or Booking.com. That can breach those platforms' rules. After a stay has finished, many hosts send their own link for next time. Read the current terms of each platform you use.

iCal keeps the calendars closer together. It is not a promise that every portal updates in the same second, so a quick check in high season is still sensible.