Getting bookings
How a small homestay gets direct bookings without commission
Quick answer
Guests book you directly when they can find you on Google Maps, see your rooms, prices and free dates without asking, reach you on WhatsApp, and pay a small advance by UPI. Keep the booking sites for reach, but bring every guest back to your own page.
1. Put your website on your Google Maps listing
Many guests find a homestay on Google Maps. If your listing has no website, or the wrong one, they go to a booking site instead. Claim your listing and add your website: our step-by-step guide shows how on a phone.
2. Show rooms, prices and free dates
A guest who has to message just to learn the price often books somewhere else. A booking page that shows each room, its price for their dates and whether it is free saves that message. Holidays and weekends can carry their own prices.
3. Answer on WhatsApp, fast
Keep a few ready replies: the price, how to reach you, what is included, the advance. Answer within minutes during the day. A guest who has to wait asks someone else.
4. Take a small advance by UPI
An advance stops no-shows. Take it to your own UPI ID, and confirm only when the money is in your account. Why UPI pay buttons fail, and what works.
5. Keep the booking sites, without double bookings
Booking.com, Airbnb and the others bring guests who do not know you yet. You can stay on them and still sell direct: link their calendars with your website's (most give a calendar link, called iCal), so a room sold in one place closes everywhere.
6. Bring guests back
Save every guest's number. After the stay, send a thank-you with a link to book again. A guest who returns, or sends a friend, costs you no commission at all.
What a Homlystay website does
A Homlystay website is your own booking site at yourname.homlystay.com: rooms, prices and free dates, a booking form, the advance to your own UPI ID, WhatsApp to you, calendar sync with the booking sites, and ₹0 commission on every booking. See what you get.
This is a plain guide, not legal or tax advice. Rules change: check with the office named here before you act.