A booking website of your own for apartments, villas and farmhouses in Malta and Gozo. Guests book and pay you directly, your calendar stays in step with Airbnb and Booking.com, and the commission stays with you.
Nobody is asking you to leave the platforms. They are good at finding first-time guests, and the calendar sync means you can stay on them without risk. The website is where the share of direct bookings grows, season after season.
One rule matters: Airbnb does not allow you to send guests off the platform in its messages. So the direct channel is built where you are free to talk to people.
A farmhouse with a pool is one of the reasons people come to Gozo, and on Malta the old stone houses in the villages are just as sought after. Guests book them for the whole place: the courtyard, the pool, the quiet, the view at sunset.
They are usually families and groups who decide together and book well in advance, which is exactly the kind of guest who comes back. A farmhouse site has to sell the atmosphere first and answer the practical questions straight after.
Airbnb and Booking.com are good at bringing you a first guest. They are expensive at bringing back the second, third and tenth. A website of your own is where returning guests, friends of guests and people who find you on Google book without anyone taking a cut.
Worked example on a €1,000 stay. Airbnb charges most hosts a 15.5% host-only service fee, and VAT may apply on top. Card fee at Stripe’s standard rate for EEA cards in Malta. Booking.com commission is set in each property’s contract.
Less commission is the obvious part. Owning the relationship with your guests is the part that pays for years.
A direct booking costs you the card fee and nothing else. On a busy summer, the difference covers the website many times over.
Every direct guest leaves a name, an email and a phone number. You can thank them, invite them back and offer them a better rate next year.
Deposits, cancellation policy, minimum stays, check-in times and house rules decided by you, not by a platform’s default settings.
Guests who loved the place search for it by name. They should land on your site, not on a listing that suggests ten other homes nearby.
Large photos, video, the view from the roof, the walk to the beach. Far more than a listing grid allows, and in your own words.
Pages written for what travellers type, like a farmhouse in Gozo with a pool or an apartment by the sea in Sliema, plus your Google Maps profile.
Fees change, algorithms change, listings get paused. With bookings coming from your own site, one decision in a head office cannot empty your calendar.
A deposit when the guest books and the balance before arrival, straight to your account, instead of waiting for a platform payout after check-in.
You run the house. The website takes the booking, the payment and the emails, and keeps every calendar up to date.
Availability synced with Airbnb, Booking.com and the other platforms you use. A night booked anywhere closes everywhere.
Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay or bank transfer. Deposit at booking, balance before arrival, damage deposit if you want one.
High and low season, weekly and monthly rates, minimum stays and a code for returning guests, all set by you.
Confirmation, a pre-arrival email with directions and check-in details, and a thank-you after the stay that asks for a review.
Check-in, Wi-Fi, house rules, the Gozo ferry, the closest beach and your favourite restaurants, on one page guests open on their phone.
English plus Italian, German, French or whatever your guests speak, booking form and emails included.
Your MTA licence number shown where it must be, and the eco-contribution listed as its own line on every booking.
Apartments, a villa and a farmhouse under one name, each with its own gallery, calendar and prices.
Different businesses, the same approach: a site that shows the real thing, explains it plainly and makes the next step obvious.
Company formation, explained without the jargon.
A lead-generation site for a corporate services firm: incorporation, registered address, tax and residence laid out in plain language, in English and Italian, with one obvious next step on every page.
Visit ltdmalta.com ↗
A consultancy that had to look the part.
A company site for an international spa consulting and training business, including its executive master course — built so a serious buyer takes it seriously within a few seconds.
Visit lifexcellence.it ↗
Showreel first, words second.
A video-first portfolio for a Malta-based filmmaker: the reel plays before anything else, then the brands he has worked with, then a direct line to book a shoot.
Visit jurgens.film ↗
There is no account manager in between: you talk to Andrea, who designs and builds the site and looks after it afterwards. More about how we work on our web design in Malta page.
How many homes, where, for whom, which platforms you use today and how you would like guests to pay.
Scope, timing and cost in writing before anything starts, including what is not included.
The site is built on a private address you can open any time, with photos, prices and calendars filled in as we go.
Real test bookings with every payment method, and calendar sync checked against each platform, before any guest sees it.
Training so you can change prices and photos yourself, your Google profile set up, and maintenance if you want it.
The team at AMweb has been instrumental in the expansion of our business. They have provided both website design and development as well as SEO services. They are professional, honest, efficient and a pleasure to work with.
AMweb has helped me every step of the way through my website updates and redesign. I really appreciated the advice from Andrea and his team as they helped me work to ensure that my site was competitive in terms of traffic.
AM WebLab helped us with our website, with clear goals on SEO and ranking.
