#BookDirect Movement
Skip Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO.
The 40% markup is yours to keep.
Our manifesto
directbooking.direct is run by property owners, for travellers who understand that Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com take a cut from the owner and another cut from you. Add them together and the markup approaches 40% — money that funds their platforms, their algorithms, and their shareholders. None of it reaches your holiday.
By booking direct you pay what the property is actually worth. And our hope as owners is this: that by paying less, you might stay a little longer — long enough to truly savour a place, its people, its rhythm. We are proud members of the global #BookDirect movement.
Market research 2023–2025
Seven structural fractures are reshaping the relationship between platforms and property owners. Every owner who books direct withdraws from this system.
For years Airbnb and Booking.com imposed price parity clauses: owners could not offer lower prices on their own website. The EU Court of Justice declared them anticompetitive in 2024. A hotel alliance (HOTREC, coordinated by the Netherlands) is now seeking damages for the two decades this clause was in force. Booking.com is the main target.
In force from May 2026 across all 27 EU member states: platforms must transmit each host's data to local authorities in real time (identity, revenue, nights booked). In Italy the CIN (National Identification Code) has been mandatory since January 2025 and those without one are delisted. Many small owners have found themselves blocked by the platform without notice — with bookings already paid and guests on their way.
June 2024, Wisconsin: six people die in a fire at an Airbnb. The family sued Airbnb claiming the platform does not verify fire safety certifications for properties. It is the most dangerous legal thread for Airbnb: if courts establish that the platform is co-liable for safety, the entire model changes.
January 2025: an American jury awards $45 million against a host for covert recordings in a bedroom. Vrbo was dragged into the lawsuit for failing to prevent the incident. Airbnb has introduced stricter policies but the platform's liability remains legally murky.
Scott+Scott has opened an investigation into an alleged agreement between hosts and dynamic pricing software (e.g. AirDNA, PriceLabs) to artificially inflate rates in a coordinated way. It is a potential antitrust class action that could affect tens of thousands of hosts.
Florence: from 31 May 2025 all new tourist rentals in the historic centre are banned. Property owners have already filed administrative appeals. The same dynamic is underway in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Venice, and to a lesser extent in Cinque Terre. Platforms do not defend hosts before administrative bodies — every owner faces local councils alone.
Owners who hand their flat to a company that runs it on Airbnb, Booking or Vrbo almost always sign a commercial lease. When it expires, some of those companies invoke art. 34 of Italian Law 392/1978 and claim a goodwill indemnity of up to eighteen months' rent: a 1978 rule written for the corner shop, applied to an operator managing remotely with self check-in and a keybox. Art. 27 brings the second claim — a six-year minimum term, which would void the shorter term the parties freely agreed. A defence does exist, since art. 35 rules out the indemnity for activities with no direct contact with the public on the premises, but it has to be built into the contract before signing, not once the lawyer's letter arrives.
Join the #BookDirect movement. List your property for free and connect directly with travellers who value authentic hospitality.
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