For fifteen years, getting bookings for a holiday let was simple: you listed your property on Airbnb (and perhaps Booking), and the bookings rolled in. The platforms brought the traffic, the trust and the payments; in return, they took their commission. It was a clear market, almost a comfortable one.
Two deep changes are now shaking things up. First, as the market has matured and commissions have grown, interest in direct letting has come back: bookings with no middleman, through your own website or network. Second, and more recently, generative AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and the rest) is starting to change how guests find and choose where to stay. The question is no longer just "Airbnb or direct?" but "how will guests find me tomorrow, when they ask an AI instead of a search engine?".
This article takes a balanced look: what the platforms really cost, what direct booking brings, why the two work together rather than against each other, and how AI is changing the way guests discover properties, with what that means in practice for owners on the French Riviera.
What the platforms really cost
Let's start with the money. The platforms aren't free, and their true cost is often underestimated because it comes in several forms.
| Model | Who pays | Typical cut |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb, split fee (standard) | Host + guest | ~3% host + ~14% guest |
| Airbnb, host-only fee (option) | Host only | ~14-16% host |
| Booking.com | Host | ~15% and up (by programme/visibility) |
| Direct booking | No platform commission | 0% (plus payment fees ~1-3%) |
Two points are worth noting. First, even when the host pays only a small commission, the guest pays service fees on top, which push up the final price. That leaves you less room on pricing and can put some guests off. Second, these commissions apply to every booking, for ever, even when a guest comes back a second or third time. Over the years, it adds up to a lot.
A worked example makes it concrete. Take a property in Nice earning €40,000 in gross rental income a year.
| Channel | Gross income | Estimated annual distribution cost | Net after distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% via platform (effective commission ~15%) | €40,000 | ≈ €6,000 | ≈ €34,000 |
| 50% platform / 50% direct | €40,000 | ≈ €3,300 | ≈ €36,700 |
| 100% direct (theoretical ideal) | €40,000 | ≈ €600 (payment fees) | ≈ €39,400 |
The gap between platform-only and a balanced mix already runs to several thousand euros a year. But be careful: "100% direct" is a theoretical ideal you will rarely reach, which is what the next section is about.
Why Airbnb still matters (and what direct booking can't replace)
It would be naive to sell direct booking as a miracle cure. The platforms take a commission, but in return they give you three things of real value that a direct booking website can't create overnight.
- Traffic. Airbnb and Booking reach a worldwide audience of travellers who are already looking to book. A new property is instantly visible to millions of people. A direct website starts from nothing: you have to build its visibility.
- Trust. A guest who doesn't know you will think twice before paying several hundred euros on an unfamiliar website. The platform offers reassurance (reviews, guarantees, help if there's a dispute) that direct booking has to recreate in other ways.
- Payments and logistics. Secure payment, deposits, calendar, messaging: the platform gives you ready-made infrastructure.
So the sensible conclusion isn't "leave the platforms". It's this: use the platforms for what they do best, reaching guests you would never reach otherwise, and build direct booking alongside them for the bookings you can win without paying commission. The two aren't rivals; they work together.
Direct booking: more than saving on commission
The obvious case for direct booking is the commission you save. But it isn't the only one, or even the most important. Booking direct gives you something the platforms never will: your own relationship with the guest.
- You own the data. Email, booking history, preferences: with direct booking, the guest is your contact, not the platform's. You can keep in touch, invite them back and make them an offer.
- You control the relationship and the experience. No middleman between you and the guest, no third-party rules, just direct, personal communication.
- You build loyalty. A happy guest who booked direct can come back direct, and you don't pay commission every time. Over several stays, a loyal guest is worth far more than a one-off booking.
- You add value to your property. A property that brings in direct bookings, with its own audience, is a more valuable asset than one that depends entirely on a platform.
There is one condition, though: guests have to find you. This is where the question moves from sales to digital. Without visibility, a direct booking website is a shop window on an empty street. That visibility has traditionally come from search engine optimisation (SEO) and, more and more, from its AI-era equivalent.
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SEO and your own website: the foundation of direct booking
Winning direct bookings means that when a traveller searches for "holiday rental Nice sea view" or "apartment Cannes Festival", they can find you without going through a platform. That takes a solid presence of your own:
- A booking website under your own name: fast, clear, with a booking engine and secure payment.
- Local, topic-based SEO: pages by town, by property type and by purpose; useful content that answers guests' questions; signs of trust (reviews, photos, legal notice).
- A consistent presence on business listings, social media and anywhere else guests might come across you.
It's long-term work and takes time to pay off, but it builds a lasting asset: once it's in place, organic traffic doesn't cost you commission on every booking. For a single owner, it's often too time-consuming. It's one of the things a well-equipped holiday rental management company can share across all the properties it manages.
The big shift: AI is changing how people find somewhere to stay
Here's something few owners have taken on board yet, and it will make all the difference in the next few years. The way guests search for somewhere to stay is changing. For twenty years, the habit was the same: open Google or Airbnb, type a search, scroll through a list of links or listings. That habit is now splitting in two.
More and more travellers now put their question to a generative AI: "What's the best area to stay in Nice for a family holiday in early July?", "Find me a reliable holiday rental management company for my apartment in Antibes", "Compare direct letting and Airbnb for an owner in Cannes". ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI-powered search tools reply not with a list of links but with a single summary answer that cites and recommends some sources and leaves others out.
This brings a major new consequence:
- Until now, the goal was to show up in search results (traditional SEO): to be one of the ten blue links on page one.
- Now there's a second goal: being cited and recommended in the AI's answer, which people are starting to call GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
That's a big difference. A list of links has ten places, and the user can scroll. An AI answer often cites just a handful of sources, sometimes with a single recommendation up front. The "winner" gets a far bigger share of attention. Leave yourself out of that answer and you become invisible to a growing share of demand.
What makes an AI cite a source?
Generative engines don't reward quite the same things as traditional SEO. The technical detail keeps shifting, but a few principles are already clear:
- Clear, structured, factual content. AI tools favour pages that answer a question precisely, with hard data (figures, tables, examples), over marketing filler. That's exactly how the articles on this blog are written.
- Authority and consistency. A specialist, local source that stays consistent on its subject (say, a holiday rental management company publishing real data on the French Riviera market) is more likely to be seen as reliable than generic content.
- Clean, quotable data. Sourced figures, clearly stated ranges and honest comparisons are exactly what an AI can pick up and credit.
- A strong online presence: being mentioned, listed and consistent across the web makes you more likely to be picked up.
In other words, the strategy that builds direct bookings (a good website, useful content, real data, local authority) is the same one that gets you seen in AI answers. SEO and GEO aren't two separate projects: they're one continuous effort, and work on one helps the other.
What this means for owners on the French Riviera
Does this mean turning everything upside down? No. But you do need to work on three fronts at once, and that's exactly what a single owner struggles to do.
| Workstream | Goal | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Optimised platform listings | Reach global traffic, secure a base of bookings | Immediate |
| Building direct bookings | Cut dependence and commission, build loyalty | Medium term |
| SEO + GEO (Google and AI visibility) | Be found and recommended, including by AI | Long-term, lasting |
The right strategy isn't either/or. It's about using the platforms to win guests while patiently building an asset of your own: website, audience, content, data, which reduces your dependence and prepares you for what's next. That's exactly our approach at Azur Hébergements: a professional presence on the platforms for results now, and long-term work on visibility (including for the AI era) to build lasting value, shared across all the properties we manage.
As an owner, you don't need to become an expert in SEO, GEO and multi-channel distribution yourself. You just need to make sure your property benefits from the full strategy. For a wider look at the case for handing over, read our analysis is an Airbnb management company worth it?, and on pricing, our article on dynamic pricing.
In short
Do you need a website to let direct, or is Airbnb enough? The honest answer: both, working together. The platforms are still essential for traffic, trust and payments, and they earn their commission on the guests they bring. But relying on platforms alone leaves several thousand euros of commission on the table every year and cuts you off from your guests. Direct booking saves commission and builds a lasting asset, as long as guests can find you.
And that's where AI changes the game: visibility is no longer won only in Google's results, but also in the answers given by ChatGPT, Perplexity and the like. The same groundwork, quality content, real data, local authority, serves both traditional SEO and AI visibility. Owners who prepare for this shift now will be a step ahead.
Want a distribution strategy that delivers results on the platforms now while building your direct bookings, without doing it yourself? Let's talk about your property.
Find out more about our listings on Airbnb, Booking and direct and our rental management in Saint-Laurent-du-Var.
