Every STR booking on Airbnb costs two people money. You pay a host fee. Your guest pays a service fee on top of the rate you set. Most hosts accept this as the cost of doing business on the largest platform in the world. We did too, until we started doing the math.
Houfy is a free listing platform for STR hosts. No host fees. No guest service fees. We run it alongside Airbnb and VRBO and it has become one of the more interesting pieces of our platform stack. Here is what it is, how we set it up, and how we use it.
On a $600 booking, three nights at $200, Airbnb takes 3% from the host side. That is $18 out of what you receive. Then Airbnb adds a service fee on the guest side, typically 11 to 12% of the booking subtotal. That is another $66 to $72 your guest pays on top of your rate.
Your guest does not see $200 as the final number. They see $224 or more. You receive $582 or less. Airbnb keeps the difference.
On a $600 Houfy booking, the platform takes nothing. Your guest pays a Stripe or Square processing fee of roughly 2.9% plus $0.30, around $17.70 on a $600 transaction. That is the cost of running a card, not a platform markup. Your guest saves $50 to $55 compared to booking the same stay on Airbnb. You keep the full amount minus the processing fee.
Over a season of bookings, that math adds up quickly.
Houfy is not a replacement for Airbnb. Airbnb has the traffic. Houfy has none in the traditional sense. It does not advertise, it does not run campaigns, and it does not appear in search results the way Airbnb does.
What Houfy is: a direct booking engine that runs under your brand, at no cost, with your payment processor connected. Guests who arrive through your own marketing have a place to book without paying a platform service fee.
A family member who books group stays for up to 14 people told us about Houfy because she saves money on every booking. She is not a host. She found it because it saves guests money. That is the kind of organic adoption that keeps a platform growing without paid advertising, and it matters for where direct booking demand is heading.
Setup was faster than we expected. Your Airbnb listing imports in minutes, including photos, description, and reviews. VRBO reviews can import as well, though it may take a few additional steps to get them in. We got ours in.
Calendar sync with Airbnb and VRBO is available. We sync all three and manage availability in one place. Once your payment processor is connected through Stripe or Square, your listing is live and ready to take bookings.
Houfy also gives you a free custom URL on day one. No domain purchase needed. You have a clean, shareable link from the moment your account is set up.
This is where Houfy separates from Airbnb on more than fees.
On Houfy you can set minimum age requirements for renters, require government-issued ID from guests before check-in, collect security deposits directly and release them yourself, and keep income from host-provided extras.
That last point is significant. If you supply firewood, charge for it. If you offer tube rentals, boat access, or equipment, charge for it. If you bring in a private chef or arrange a massage at your property, keep that income. Houfy does not take a cut of extras arranged through your listing. On Airbnb, anything collected outside the platform puts you in a gray area. On Houfy, it is part of the model.
Most OTAs block the Meta pixel. Airbnb does not allow it. VRBO does not allow it. Without the pixel, running Facebook ads to your Airbnb listing means you are spending money with no ability to build a retargeting audience, track conversions, or know which ad drove a booking.
Houfy allows the Meta pixel. You can install your pixel on your Houfy listing, drive traffic from Facebook and Instagram directly to a bookable page, and build an audience from people who actually viewed your property. We covered the Meta pixel and how we use it in an earlier post. Houfy is the platform that makes that traffic strategy convert.
Running multiple platforms sounds like more work. With calendar sync turned on, the overhead is minimal. The real benefit is coverage.
We keep our Airbnb and VRBO listings active because that is where guests go to vet a property. The reviews, the host status, the platform accountability — those are the trust signals guests use before they commit. We mention our brand name and cabin names in our OTA listings. Guests are smart. They Google what they find. They land on ToccoaCurrents.com, where we display our Airbnb star rating and Superhost status. Guests can see the credibility they already found on the OTA, and then choose how they want to book. Airbnb, VRBO, or fee-free on Houfy. We built that trust with every stay and every review on the OTAs. Now we leverage that hard-earned trust on our site.
The question most hosts run into is where to send people who find them outside of Airbnb. A Facebook ad, a QR code in the cabin, a Google search. Where does that guest land? For most hosts, the answer is a listing page on one OTA or a basic website. What it should be is a single page that ties everything together and gives guests the choice of how to book. That is why we built ToccoaCurrents.com.
ToccoaCurrents.com is the working model. Each property listing on the site displays the Airbnb star rating and Superhost status so guests arrive with the trust already in place. From there they can book on Airbnb, VRBO, or fee-free on Houfy. If the host has an Amazon affiliate page for the products they stock their property with, that links from the same page. If they have a custom merchandise store, that links too. One page. Every platform. Guest chooses.
Drift Currents builds regional versions of that model. A listing on a Drift Currents regional site gives your property the same setup: OTA credibility, Houfy direct booking, and every revenue stream in one place. If you want your property on a Drift Currents regional site, reach out below.
Free to list. No platform fees. Takes about twenty minutes to set up if your Airbnb listing is already live.
Sign Up on HoufyThis post is part of STR Host Guide: Scout. Setup. Stay. Strategy. Stream. Coming soon on Amazon.