The short answer
When your Airbnb link gets shared, by you or by a happy guest, it sends people who already chose you into a marketplace built to show them other places to stay. Some of them will book something else. The ones who book yours cost you Airbnb's 15.5% host fee, on a guest who came from you. A website of your own gives every share a page where yours is the only place to stay.
A marketplace is built for choices
Think about buying shoes on Amazon. You search for one pair, you find it, and right below it are a dozen others like it. Plenty of people end up buying a different pair than the one they came for.
Airbnb works the same way, and it should. It's a marketplace, and its job is to help guests compare. Search results, prices, photos and wishlists all invite one more look. That's great when a guest is looking for a place they've never heard of. It works against you when they came for yours.
On your own website, yours is the only place to stay on the page.
And then there is the fee
Most hosts now pay Airbnb a 15.5% host fee on each booking, taken from the subtotal before taxes. On a $1,500 week, that's $232.50. It's a fair price for a guest Airbnb found for you. It's a harder one to accept for a guest who came from your neighbor, or from your last guest's Instagram post.
What to share instead
A link to a website of your own. It doesn't have to be big. It needs to do a few things well:
- Show the place: photos, beds, amenities and the area
- Let guests reach you with an inquiry form and your phone number
- Keep a “Book on Airbnb” button for anyone who prefers it, so nobody is turned away
- Live on a domain in your name, so the link works for years
Then put that link everywhere you control: your email signature, your social profiles, your business cards, your Google Business Profile, and every time someone asks about your place. Happy guests can share it too.
If you only have an Airbnb or Vrbo listing today, a small two-page site is enough to start. That's what a microsite is for.
Staying within Airbnb’s rules
Having your own website is fine. What Airbnb's off-platform policy doesn't allow is putting outside links in your listing or messages, taking payment outside Airbnb for an Airbnb booking, or asking Airbnb guests to rebook off the platform.
So keep the two separate. Airbnb bookings stay on Airbnb. Your website is what you share everywhere else.
Quick answers
Should I stop using Airbnb?
No. Airbnb is good at bringing you guests who have never heard of you. The point is what you share when someone already has. Those guests are yours to keep.
Can I put my website link in my Airbnb listing?
No. Airbnb's rules don't allow outside links in listings or messages, or asking Airbnb guests to book off the platform. Share your website through your own channels instead.
Isn’t Airbnb more trusted than a small website?
For a stranger, often yes. That is why your own site needs a secure checkout, real reviews, clear rules and a real person behind it. For someone who already knows you, trust is not the problem. Distraction is.
Want me to look at your site?
Send me your website. I'll tell you what I'd fix first, for free.