Hostaway website design for managers who have outgrown the builder.
Hostaway runs the operation properly and publishes an Open API to prove it. We use that API to build the front end its own website builder was never going to give you — real search, real property pages, checkout that stays on your domain.
The situation
A great platform with a website problem it is honest about.
Hostaway is built for managers running ten units and upwards, and it shows: open API, deep channel coverage, a proper marketplace. On the website side it offers a free one-page Standard site that redirects guests to a Hostaway-hosted page to complete the booking, and a paid Booking Website Pro tier with an editor, AI SEO tools and marketing features7.
That is a reasonable product for most of the market. It is not a reasonable product for an operator whose properties are the brand. Once you need search across a portfolio, property pages built for local intent, or a checkout the guest never notices, the honest route is a custom front end on the Open API8 — which Hostaway explicitly supports.
Reservation fee Hostaway takes on direct bookings through Booking Website Pro. Low, but not nothing.
Source 8Page and one layout on the free Standard booking website, with the guest redirected off your domain to complete the booking.
Source 7Channel commission on a booking taken through a custom site built on the Hostaway Open API.
Integration
Three ways in. We build on the last two.
Standard booking website
The free one-pager
One layout, one page, and the reservation is completed on a Hostaway-hosted page rather than yours7. Genuinely useful for getting live. Not something to build a brand on.
Embedded widgets
Hostaway inside a site we design
Search forms, featured properties and category filters embedded into pages we design and control8. Quick, robust, and the right answer for most managers under about ten properties.
Open API
Fully custom, on your domain
Property, availability and pricing data pulled through the Open API and rendered by us. Custom search and filtering, map views, static-fast pages, and a checkout the guest never leaves.
Questions people actually ask
Straight answers about Hostaway and direct bookings.
Including the fee nobody mentions in the marketing copy.
What direct booking website does Hostaway provide for managers trying to reduce OTA dependency and fees?
Two things. A free Standard booking website — one page, one layout, and the guest is redirected to a Hostaway-hosted page to complete the reservation7. And Booking Website Pro, a paid add-on with a full editor, AI SEO tooling and marketing features7.
Both are genuinely useful, and both are built to be adequate for everyone rather than excellent for you. If your properties compete on brand, or you manage enough of them that search and filtering matter, neither will get you where you want to go.
Is the Hostaway website builder good enough on its own?
For a manager with a handful of units who needs to be live next month, yes. For anyone competing on brand or trying to build organic traffic, the ceiling arrives quickly.
The limits show up in the same three places every time: property page structure you cannot control, search and filtering that cannot express how guests actually narrow a choice, and no realistic home for the location and guide content that earns organic visits. Booking Website Pro softens the first, not the other two.
Can I connect my own custom website to Hostaway?
Yes. Hostaway publishes an Open API and states that sites built elsewhere can be connected to it8. That is the route we build on for anything beyond a few properties.
It means availability, pricing, property data and reservations all flow through Hostaway exactly as they do now, while the entire front end — design, structure, speed, content, checkout — is yours. Your channel connections are untouched.
Are Hostaway direct bookings really commission-free?
Almost, but not quite, and it is worth knowing before you plan around it. Hostaway charges a 0.5% reservation fee on direct bookings taken through Booking Website Pro, plus a 1.8% guest-facing fee in the US8.
Set against 14–16% to Airbnb3 or around 15% to Booking.com3, half a per cent is a rounding error. But ‘commission-free’ is marketing language, and you should model the real number.
Does the guest stay on my own domain when they book?
On the free Standard website, no — they are redirected to a Hostaway-hosted booking page to finish7. With embedded widgets or a full API build, yes.
This matters more than it sounds. The redirect lands at the exact moment the guest is deciding whether to trust you with a card. A domain change there is the single most avoidable drop-off in the whole journey.
Can I use Hostaway with WordPress?
You can, and plenty of managers do — but we would usually steer you away from it. Hostaway’s widgets can be embedded in a WordPress page, which works.
The problem is what WordPress brings with it: plugin weight, slow mobile loads and ongoing maintenance, on a site whose entire job is to load fast and take a booking. We build static-first front ends against the API instead, and the speed difference is not subtle.
We are not Hostaway, and we are not trying to replace it.
Hostaway is property management software, and a good one. We do not resell it, compete with it, or want you to leave it — several of our builds exist precisely because a client wanted to keep it. We design and build the website that sits in front of it. If you came here looking for the platform, Hostaway’s own site is where to go.
Go deeper
More on Hostaway.
Hostaway API integration
What the Open API exposes, and what a custom front end on top of it actually involves.
ReadAn alternative to Booking Website Pro
Where the $49-a-month add-on runs out of road, and what replacing it looks like.
ReadSEO for a Hostaway website
Property pages, location content and the technical work the builder will not do for you.
ReadGuesty vs Hostaway for direct bookings
An honest comparison from the point of view of the website, not the back office.
ReadNot on Hostaway? We also build for:
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