See one
Our first page, for a real place: Hideaway Chalet, by Islands' Villa, on Monroe's Pond near Lewisporte. The owner is still setting it up, so it takes bookings by phone and email for now.
Photographs © Islands' Villa, used with permission.
What owners ask us first
Tap a question to see the answer.
Who are you?
Best Kind Stays is a small business with roots in Lewisporte. Call or text 709-500-4401 and you reach a person. We are new, and we say so. You can see the page we built for Hideaway Chalet on Monroe's Pond, and your own before you decide anything. The same people run From the Airport, the free route guides for getting around the province. See the places on bestkindstays.ca →
Will this change my Airbnb listing?
No. Your listing, your reviews and your prices stay as they are. Your own page sits beside it and takes the guests who find you somewhere else: the province's tourism website, Google, Facebook, past guests.
Could the same night be booked twice?
Your page checks your Airbnb calendar, and Vrbo or Booking.com if you list there too, every five minutes and again before it confirms a booking. It refuses any night already taken. Going the other way, you paste one link of ours into Airbnb's calendar settings, once, so a night booked on your page closes there too. Airbnb reads that link on its own schedule, so for a short while the night can still show open there. If it does, we email you which nights to close, until they are closed.
Where does the guest's money go?
To your own account with Stripe, the company that takes the guest's card and pays it into your bank. The account is in your name, and you open it on Stripe's own pages, with our help. The money never passes through us. We bill our fee each time your fees reach $100, and once more every October 31 for anything left over.
Do you need my Airbnb password?
No, and we never ask for one, and we never sign in to your Airbnb. You copy one calendar link out of Airbnb and paste one of ours back in. We show you each step, or do it with you on the phone.
Will guests really book outside Airbnb?
Only the ones who find you somewhere else: the province's tourism website, Google, Facebook, and guests who stayed before. Airbnb guests carry on booking on Airbnb.
What if no one books?
You pay nothing. Our fee is only on stays booked and paid on your page. No setup fee, and nothing that locks you in.
What if a guest cancels, or damages the place?
You choose your cancellation rules, and the guest agrees to them and to your house rules before paying. A refund goes back from your own Stripe account, since that is where the money is. Your page takes no deposit, so damage is handled as it is for a booking you take by phone: your insurance and the guest's agreement. It is worth asking your insurer whether it covers stays booked direct.
What if I want to stop?
Stop whenever you like: an email to us is enough, and there is no penalty. Once your page is live, its web address is registered in your name, and if you stop, we hand it over to you to keep.
What you get
- A page for your place, on a web address in your name: photos, rates, seasons and a calendar a guest books against, run for you. Your provincial listing and a card in our directory point at it. Yours to keep if you ever leave.
- Checked before every booking. Your page keeps checking your Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com calendars, and checks again before it confirms a booking.
- Payments go into your own account, not through us. Stripe, one of the world's largest card payment companies, pays the guest's card into your bank. You set it up on your phone, on their own pages, and we walk you through it.
- Your guests stay yours: name, email and phone with every booking, so you can ask them back.
What we charge
Half of what each stay saves you against Airbnb, and never more than $35. On a $100 stay that is $5.93; the full $35 only starts at about $580 a stay. Nothing in a month without a booking on your page.
Not on Airbnb, or on Booking.com only? Your fee is worked out against Airbnb’s 15.5%, so a $100 stay is $5.93 for you too. On Airbnb at a lower rate? Your fee is worked out against your own rate.
| Each stay booked and paid on your page | half of what it saves you, up to $35 |
| A $100 stay, for example | $5.93 |
| A $700 stay | $35 |
| A month with no bookings on your page | $0 |
| Bookings made on Airbnb | $0 |
| The card fee on each card booking (the card company's, not ours) | 2.9% + 30¢ |
And never more in a month than this, however busy it gets:
| Cabins | Most in a month, all in |
|---|---|
| One | $155 |
| Two | $240 |
| Three | $310 |
| Four | $360 |
| Each one past four | +$50 |
For cabins and homes. B&Bs and inns with rooms under one roof are priced separately, and we quote after a short call: write to [email protected].
All-in, no tax on top, no setup fee, and nothing that locks you in. Bookings you take by phone or e-transfer cost nothing. We bill you each time your fees reach $100, and once more every October 31 for anything left over. Your guest's money never passes through us: it goes to your own account, and we bill you separately.
What it adds up to for you
Put in your own numbers. Your Airbnb, Booking.com and other listings stay as they are; this counts only the bookings that come to your own page. Our fee, the card fee and the months with no fees from us are all counted, this year and every year after.
Count only stays found outside Airbnb: the province's listing, Facebook, past guests. Your months with no fees from us count only months with a stay on your page, so a quiet winter does not use them up.
Want to see it with your cabin? We build you a preview, free. Why it pays, side by side: the whole idea →
See your own page first →See your own page first
We build a page with your cabin on it, so you can see it before deciding. It is free, and you decide after you have seen it.
Already booking on your own website? You do not need a page from us: list it free in our directory instead.
Got it. A person will reply as soon as we are able.
Next, we look at your cabin and email you at with your preview, or with a question if we need one. Nothing else happens until you have seen it.
Send this page to another owner you know.
When the first guest who books on their page has checked out, they get a month with no fees from us, and so do you, if you are a paying member by then.
Wrong address? . We will use the new one.
Rather talk? Call 709-500-4401 or send a text.
Not ready yet? Leave your email and we will write now and then, only when there is something worth your time. One reply stops it.
Rather write? hello@bestkindstays.ca
More we can do, when you want it
We can also help with print, Google, photos and words, a full website, or government funding, each quoted on its own. What is included, and what we quote → · How your page gets bookings → · Funding help →