Many guests find our web site after first searching for “accommodation” or “holiday stay” in Mapua or Tasman – either via a search engine like Google or through one of the larger booking accommodation sites: AirBnB, Homeaway, Booking.com, etc.
You may or may not be aware that these sites typically charge service fee commissions between 8% to 10% to you, the guest, and between 5%-15% for us the host. On a 3 night booking worth around $600 those commission fees will be around $50- $60 from you and between $30-$90 for us. For longer stays those commissions increase proportionately
You (and we) can avoid those commissions if you book directly with us. Our Little Hotelier payment gateway is secure and the booking experience is easy to navigate and use from a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop . not quite “1-click” but not more than 2 or 3!!
Note – the major online booking sites provide an excellent service in helping smaller accommodation providers like us to be discovered on the wordl wdie Web . To a limited extent they also provide a form of “insurance” to you as first time buyers of unknown accommodation providers: eg by screening hosts and enabling user ratings. I definitely don’t begrudge paying for that service as it allows me to signal my high quality . At least Air BNB and Homeaway “split” their service fees between hosts and guests. Booking.com and Expedia don’t – they expect hosts to fully absorb their 15% service fee charges. I question the extent (or lack) of competition in price levels and fee structures for those services. 15%-18% gross commission applied to gross dollar value is a lot, for travellers and for small providers like ourselves, and completely unrelated to the limited “quality” protections being provided. So…we offer you a cheaper book direct alternative. Please give it a try.
