The Direct Booking Movement
Airbnb is
the middleman.
We’re the exit.
Browse Airbnb. Find the host. Book direct.
Save up to 20%. Hosts keep 100%. Nobody pays the platform tax.
OTA fees per booking
BypassStay host fee
Revenue you keep
The part nobody says out loud.
Airbnb started with a mission: connect people directly.
Then they became the middleman they promised to replace.
Now they charge guests 14–17% and hosts 3% — for an app that owns nothing.
The host built the property. Cleaned it. Photographed it. Hosted it.
The guest found it, packed their bags, and flew there.
Airbnb sent some emails. And kept $750 of a $5,000 booking.
That’s not a service fee. That’s a relationship tax.
BypassStay is the exit ramp.
The Math
Same villa. Same week. Very different bill.
Via Airbnb
base rate
Via BypassStay
10% direct discount
Host earns $350 more
How It Works
Four weapons against the platform tax.
We’re not building another marketplace. We’re building the tools to make Airbnb irrelevant.
The Registry
A searchable directory of hosts who accept direct bookings. Free to list. Free to search. No fees. No algorithm. Just you and the host.
● Building Now
Chrome Extension
Browse Airbnb normally. When a property exists in our registry, a teal badge appears. One click to see the direct price. Keep the difference.
● Coming Soon
Guest → Host Matching
Post your trip. Hosts respond with direct rates. No scrolling. No algorithm. Real humans connecting to fill real dates.
● Planned
Verified Direct Badge
Hosts who guarantee direct discounts earn a Verified badge. Guests know they’ll save. Hosts get traffic. Everybody wins except the platform.
● Coming Soon
This is for the fed-up ones.
🏡 You built it.
You host it.
Stop paying a platform 3–18% to email your own guests.
- List your property free — forever
- Keep 100% of every direct booking
- Own the relationship with your guests
- No cancellation policy dictated by an app
- Get found by the Chrome extension
- Join the #BookDirect movement
✈️ You found it
on Airbnb.
But you don’t have to book it there.
- Search for the same property in our registry
- Install Chrome extension — find direct links automatically
- Contact the host directly
- Pay 10–20% less for the exact same stay
- Build a real relationship with your host
- Never pay a service fee again
Why We Built This
“I own luxury villas in Playa del Carmen. Condé Nast wrote about them.
On a $5,000 booking, Airbnb kept $900. For sending some emails.
I built BypassStay because I was done handing my guests to a platform
that adds no value, owns nothing, and extracts everything.”
— Kim Caldwell, Founder · Villas of Playa del Carmen
Early Access
Join the movement
before we launch.
Hosts and travelers both welcome. Help us build this right.
No spam. No fees. Just a heads-up when we’re ready.