Knowledge
What direct booking actually costs, how a channel manager fits in, and what an AI concierge can and cannot do.
- Which guest questions to answer on WhatsApp and which not to
Which guest questions work well on WhatsApp and which belong in email, phone calls, or the front desk: with a reference table, four templates following Meta's rules, and a calculation for a 30-room property.
- Google Hotels: free booking links for your own website
Google shows the price of your own website next to your hotel, with no click fees. Here is what you need, what Google expects from price data and what applies to holiday rentals.
- Deposit, damage deposit, cancellation: rules guests accept
Payment rules help decide whether a booking is made. This article shows when a deposit makes sense, how cancellation deadlines become understandable, how damage deposits work, and where the rules appear in the booking flow.
- Guest enquiries after reception closes: what goes unanswered overnight
A large share of guest enquiries arrives in the evening, at night and at weekends. This article shows which questions those are, what a late reply means and which answers can safely be prepared.
- Rate Parity: What Hotels May Offer on Their Own Website
Rate parity has long determined what properties may show on their own website. This article places the situation under the Digital Markets Act and shows added value that works without a price difference.
- Recognising repeat guests who book through portals
Portal guests often arrive with a forwarded email address and end up twice in the system. How to still recognise repeat guests, which fields are enough, and what you may do with a recognised guest by email.
- Before Switching to Smoobu: Fees, Calendars and Double Maintenance
What changes when hosts with several holiday apartments switch to Smoobu: one calendar for all channels, a different fee model on Airbnb, what stays duplicated, and a switch that does not put existing bookings at risk.
- EU AI Act Article 50: Chatbot Disclosure Rules for Hotels
The transparency obligations of the EU AI Act have applied since 2 August 2026. Here is what they mean for chatbots, automated replies and AI images at your hotel or holiday apartment: deadlines, the responsible authorities in Austria and a checklist.
- Airbnb Host Fees: 3 or 15.5 Percent?
Airbnb has two fee models. Which one applies to you depends on whether you use management software such as a channel manager. Here is what that means for your bill.
- EU Short-Term Rental Regulation: What Changed From May 2026
Since 20 May 2026, Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 has applied. Learn about registration numbers, data sharing between platforms and authorities, and what it means for hosts and aparthotels.
- What Booking.com really costs: working out the commission
The commission in your contract is only half the story. Here is how to work out the real share of your net revenue, what direct bookings cost, and why price parity clauses no longer apply to Booking.com.
- Loading speed and direct bookings: why seconds cost bookings
Guests who have to wait on their phone book where it is faster. Here are the values Google rates as good, what a study measured for travel websites, and how you can check your own site.
- How your hotel shows up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI
Guests now ask AI assistants which property to choose. Here is what these systems read, what role structured data and llms.txt play, and what you can improve without an agency right away.
- Direct booking website costs: builder, software or custom site
There are three ways to get your own booking page, and each costs differently: a website builder, a website from your rental software, or a custom-built site. Here is what the booking fee adds up to, when a builder is enough, and what to check before you sign.
- What an AI concierge takes off your hands in hotels
An AI concierge answers the same recurring questions about arrival, parking, breakfast and pets. Anything involving money, goodwill or health belongs at the front desk. This article shows that boundary and the handover in between.
- Keeping your channel manager and own website in sync
Availability and prices only stay the same everywhere when one system holds the truth and all others read from it. Here is how the connection works, where overbookings happen and what to do in an outage.
- Lodgify and your own website: what works and what does not
Lodgify handles channel sync, the booking engine and payments. The embedded booking flow can only be adapted to your property to a limited extent. Here is what that means for your website and which fees apply.
- Which guest questions to answer on WhatsApp, and which not
Which guest questions suit WhatsApp and which belong with email, phone or the front desk: a sorting table, four templates under Meta's rules and a calculation for 30 rooms.
- Hotel website relaunch: what to secure beforehand
Before moving a hotel website, secure four things: the complete list of addresses, content and original images, the booking connection and the links from outside. Plus the order of the switch-over.
- Direct bookings a year: an honest sum for 24 rooms
Commission saved against HOHEIT's actual price over three years, calculated for a property with 24 rooms. With open assumptions and the threshold below which your own booking flow does not pay off.
- Six places where hotel websites lose direct bookings
Six points regularly cost hotel websites bookings: loading time, mobile display, a hidden booking entry point, missing markup, portal links and outdated information. Each has a check and a fix.
- Booking flow without drop-offs: steps, fields and payment
Three steps, six required fields and one clear payment rule: a booking flow loses guests through detours, not through design. This article shows what has to stay and what should go.
- Which data a hotel needs for accurate AI answers
Google and chatbots repeat what they find machine-readable on your site. This article covers which markup comes first, how to check what is read, and what llms.txt actually does.
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