We are an independent business helping other independent hotels, BnBs and accommodation providers to reduce their reliance on large online travel agencies (OTAs).
We build and maintain your own fancy looking website with an integrated booking system and support you with your online marketing. But we don’t actually cost you any money – we only get paid, when you save money. It is win-win, and only the internet giants are losing out (but that’s okay, they can afford it).
Meet the team
Larry is a web developer, Manchester born but a real globe trotter and has since spent more years living elsewhere – New Zealand, Italy, The Netherlands and Belgium to be more specific. Shirley is a researcher from The Netherlands and works freelance broadly speaking in web design, project management, media and communication. Together we have been creating websites for over 20 combined years.
Why Tiny Bookings? As a young man many years ago, Larry helped with the family B&B – Fantail Lodge – and learnt about all the hard work that goes into running a humble B&B. Years later, as the dominance and commissions of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) grew, a solution was born – Tiny Bookings. We piloted the idea with Fantail Lodge and have seen direct bookings increase ever since. With a handful of ambitious accommodation providers we officially launched in 2021, and we now look forward to helping your business too.
The Features of Tiny Bookings
Frequently asked questions
Nope – You can stay on Booking.com, Airbnb or with any other online travel agency. We make sure all the calendars are synchronised so your online availability is always up to date. We actually encourage you to have a listing on at least one of these sites as it gives your business exposure. Most guests look for an accommodation provider’s own website before booking online, so once they see your beautiful website with an easy-to-use booking system, they will go direct!
There are no setup fees for your own Tiny Bookings website and booking platform, nor do we charge any fees for the ongoing hosting and maintenance.
We charge a reasonable 6% commission per direct booking made on the website. Travel agents generally charge anything from 10%-30%, so not only are you getting the Tiny Bookings platform for free, but you should be saving on every direct booking too.
We work with Stripe for online payments payments always come directly to your own Stripe account. Stripe offers a great payment service, with easy to use dashboard, takes a very small commission and generally pays out to your chosen bank account every few days, but this depends on country.
In a nutshell, we don’t hold on to, or handle guest payments – we leave that bit to the online payment experts.
Yes absolutely, we don’t want to force any new dependencies or obligations. That said, we do put a lot of time and costs into building each bespoke site, so we just ask you to give it a go for at least two high seasons. Remember there are no fixed costs, so you have nothing to lose by giving it a go.
If it’s still not working for you, we can can end our collaboration without any cost to you…just some sad faces.
We are all about empowering the independent businesses and offering an alternative to the online giants.
With Tiny Bookings you get your own bespoke website with built-in booking platform. Bookings, payments and guest communication come directly to you – so you have the control. We just potter away in the background to make sure it all works seamlessly!