Guests who come back can book with you, not the platform.
A site of your own, where the guests who already know you book with you. zuoshi is Steve Jarvis's web studio in Oswestry. Marrowby Hollow is made up. The prices are ours, and they're real.
Or ring Steve: 07429 750656
£2,450
A site like this one, with the booking software you rent set into it. £2,990 in the first year with care.
£5,450
With its own bookings, as the example shows. £5,990 in the first year with care.
Care is hosting and upkeep, £45 a month. No VAT to add.
What it does for you
This is the example's own booking system, the £5,450 build. In the £2,450 build the software you rent does these jobs, inside your pages.
- Guests see which nights are free at each of your places, and the price for their dates, before they ask.
- They pay a deposit by card to hold the dates. The balance is asked for six weeks before, with a link to pay and a reminder.
- Every booking on one page you sign in to on your phone, with what's paid and what's still due. We call it the admin.
- Phone bookings, and the weeks you keep for yourself, typed into the same list.
- A changeover list for whoever cleans: who's out, who's in, dogs, cots and the hot tub.
- The emails guests get, in your name: the confirmation, the balance reminder, how to find you, and a thank-you.
- While we host it, it reads your Airbnb and Booking.com calendars about every 15 minutes, so nights sold there close on your site.
What it won't do: bring strangers to your door the way Airbnb does. It's for the guests who already know your name.
What it costs
The site with your booking software in it
£2,450
- A site like the example, up to six pages, written and designed for your places.
- The calendar and the Book button are the booking software you already rent, set into your own pages.
- If it connects directly to Airbnb and Booking.com, it keeps them in step. You go on paying its subscription yourself.
- What that costs: on the six UK price lists we read on 12th November 2026, software with its own connection to the platforms started at £189 a year for one place and £369 for four, before VAT. Others cost more, or take 1% or 2% of your platform bookings on top.
- On the platforms only, with no software yet? This is the build for you: we go through the choices and their prices with you on the first call.
Paid in three stages: £1,250 on signing, £600 when the preview works on your phone and £600 at launch. Year one with care £2,990, year two £540. With an enquiry form and no online booking, the site is £1,950.
The site with its own bookingsWhat you've just seen
£5,450
- The site you just saw and everything in the admin behind it, for up to four places.
- The calendar, deposits and balances, refunds, phone bookings, the changeover list and the guest emails.
- Calendar links to Airbnb and Booking.com, with the limit explained below.
- No booking software to rent.
Paid in three stages: £2,750 on signing, £1,350 when the preview works on your phone and £1,350 at launch. Year one with care £5,990, year two £540.
A holding page
£395
- One page on your own web address with your places, your photos and a way to ask about dates, while you decide.
The whole £395 comes off a full site signed within six months. Without one, it stays up on a care plan from £45 a month for the hosting. Pay by bank transfer, or by card through Square.
Which one? One or two places, or software you already like: the site with your software in it. Three or four places and guests who come back: the site with its own bookings. Put your own figures in below and see.
Care, £45 a month: hosting, updates, backups, a watch that the site is up, and a monthly security and search check. 12 months minimum, then a month's notice. Year one is the build plus 12 months of care; year two is care only.
Card fees: with the site's own bookings, Stripe's, on each payment, in your name: £6.28 on a £405 stay at its rate for standard UK cards. Premium and overseas cards cost more.
Extras, if you want them: each page over six, £195.
No VAT to add.
What did the platforms take last year?
Made-up example numbers. Put in yours, from last year's statements.
In this made-up example the platforms kept £6,000: about 15p in every pound.
If some of those guests had booked with you instead:
| Direct | Kept a year | £2,450 site | £5,450 site |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in 10 | £540 | Never | Never |
| 2 in 10 | £1,080 | 14.4 years | 10.1 years |
| 3 in 10 | £1,620 | 3.5 years | 5.1 years |
| 5 in 10 | £2,700 | 1.4 years | 2.6 years |
The last two columns are how long each site would take to pay for itself.
Kept a year is after card fees. The years are each site's price divided by that, rounded up, once a year's care (£540) has come off. For the £2,450 site your software's £369 comes off too. Card fees are taken at 1.5% of what moves across, Stripe's rate for standard UK cards; premium and overseas cards cost more, and its 20p a payment isn't counted. Only you can say which row is yours: count last year's guests who had stayed before, or who rang or emailed first.
Where the figures come from:
- Airbnb: service fees (most hosts on its single fee pay 15.5%; read November 2026)
- Stripe: pricing for UK cards
- Booking software: the £369 is the lowest four-place price, before VAT, on six UK providers' own price lists, read 12th November 2026.
Double bookings, the straight answer
A calendar link makes a double booking rare. It can't make one impossible.
A calendar link is a web address a platform reads your booked nights from, and you read theirs the same way.
- What the site's own bookings do. While we host your site, they read each platform's calendar about every 15 minutes, and once more just before taking a booking. They're built not to sell a night a platform's calendar shows as sold.
- What they can't do. Airbnb says an imported calendar “automatically updates every 3 hours”. So a night booked with you can still look free on Airbnb until it next reads your calendar. Booking.com reads it on its own timetable too, and only some listings can use its calendar link. We check yours before you sign.
- What happens if it goes wrong. The admin shows both bookings side by side and emails you when it next reads that platform's calendar, usually within 15 minutes. You move one guest or cancel the later booking. Moving the guest, and any refund, are yours to sort out, and the agreement says so before you sign.
- If you can't live with that. Rent booking software that connects directly to the platforms. A direct connection updates in seconds, not hours, and it's why the £2,450 site exists. We check yours has one before you sign.
How it goes
- 1A first callYour places, how bookings reach you now, and what the platforms took last year. We say which of the two builds suits you.
- 2Your rates and rulesPrices by season, shortest stays, changeover days and your cancellation terms, from what you use now.
- 3The previewYou try it on your phone and put a test booking through. The second payment is due when it works.
- 4LaunchOn your own web address, in your name, with the calendar links set up on each platform. The last payment.
- 5HandoverWe show you the admin: bookings, balances, the changeover list and changing your prices.
Your start date and launch date go in writing on the quote, before you pay anything.
Our own product for holiday lets
Questions people ask
Will guests find my site, or only Airbnb?
Airbnb finds you guests who have never heard of you, and your own site won't replace that. Your site is for the ones who have: guests who've stayed before, their friends, and anyone who looks you up by name after seeing you on a platform. Keep the platforms for strangers.
Can it double-book me?
It can, rarely, and we won't say otherwise. Your site reads the platforms' calendars about every 15 minutes and again just before it takes a booking, and it's built not to sell a night their calendar shows as sold. But Airbnb reads your calendar only every 3 hours (its own help page), so a night booked with you can look free there for a while. The straight answer is below.
Why not just rent booking software?
For some owners that is the right answer, and we'll say so. Some rented software connects directly to the platforms, with no three-hour wait. That's why the £2,450 site exists: yours, with that software set into it. The site's own bookings suit an owner with three or four places and plenty of returning guests, who would sooner have one system built for them than rent one.
If I rent the software, why do I need a site from you?
The software gives you a calendar and a Book button. We write about your places, choose and crop your photos, and put it all on your own web address, in your name. If the page your software gives you already does that job, keep it, and we'll say so.
How long does it take?
Usually four to six weeks from the first call for the £2,450 site. The site with its own bookings takes longer, and the quote says how long. Either way we agree the dates together and put them in writing on the quote, before you pay anything. If you need it sooner, or it suits you to go slower, say so. Your part is a first call, your photos and a look at the preview on your phone.
What do card payments cost?
With the site's own bookings, payments go through Stripe. Its standard fee for UK cards is 1.5% plus 20p a payment, so £6.28 on a £405 stay paid in one go (Stripe's published rate, November 2026). Premium and overseas cards cost more. It comes off each payment and goes to Stripe, not to us. The money lands in your own Stripe account, in your name. With rented software, its own card service sets the fee.
Do I have to leave Airbnb and Booking.com?
No. Keep them. Nothing about your listings changes, and the calendar links mean a booking in one place closes the nights in the others: on your site usually within minutes, on theirs when they next read your calendar.
What about a damage deposit?
Not in this price. A hold on a guest's card lapses after about a week, so it doesn't suit a booking made months ahead. If you take one now, tell us how on the first call and we'll price it before you agree to anything.
Who changes the prices and the rules?
You do. With the site's own bookings it's in the admin: the nightly price for each season, the shortest stay, the changeover days, the deposit and when the balance is due. With rented software, you change them there.
What's mine, and what's yours?
Your web address, your accounts, your guest list and your Stripe account are in your name from day one. The code stays ours, and once the build is paid you have a licence to use it for good: you get a copy, so the site keeps running even if you leave us and host it somewhere else.
What does the care plan tie me to?
12 months at £45, so £540 in all, then a month's notice whenever you like. Without a care plan we hand the site over with its code, and you host it and keep it up to date yourself, at your own cost.
Are there any other costs?
The web address itself, which you pay for in your own name, the card fees above, and your booking software's subscription if you keep one. Changes outside a care plan are £50 an hour. More than four places is quoted separately. Anything else that would cost money, we price before you agree to it.
What if I want to stop halfway?
Under our standard agreement you can stop the build at any time by telling us in writing. You pay for the work done up to then, and never less than the stage payments already due.
What if a guest cancels?
You set the terms, and they show on the booking page before anyone pays. The usual 14-day right to cancel an online order doesn't apply to accommodation booked for set dates (regulation 28), so your own terms decide it, and they have to be fair. With the site's own bookings, refunding is one button in the admin.
What about the Welsh register and the visitor levy?
In Wales you must be on the Welsh Revenue Authority's register by 31st March 2027, whether or not your council charges a visitor levy, and registering costs nothing (gov.wales). Powys has said it isn't proposing a levy yet, and that 2028 is the earliest one could start there (Powys County Council, August 2026). Registering is yours to do. If a levy arrives, adding it to your booking page is priced then.
Who writes the words and takes the photos?
We write every word, from the first call, at no extra cost. Photos are yours: your own, or a photographer's if you have them. We choose the best and crop them.
Already got a website?
Start with a £295 review: a written report on the site you have, with what to fix in order, and the £295 comes off the build if you go ahead. Read a sample, for a made-up cider maker.
What if zuoshi stops trading?
The address and the accounts are yours already, and at launch you get a copy of the site's code to hand to another developer.
What if Steve is ill?
He keeps working. zuoshi is one person, so it's Steve either way. And the bookings don't need him day to day: the calendar, the payments, the reminders and the emails run on their own, and you change your prices yourself.
Who will I deal with?
Steve, every time. The studio does every build itself, from the first call to the care plan, and never subcontracts.
07429 750656Want one for your place?
Ring Steve on 07429 750656, or answer five quick questions here and we'll reply within a working day. Or book a call, or email hello@zuoshi.co.uk.
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