How much does a holiday rental website cost?
A holiday let owner asks what a website costs on the day the platform's commission statement arrives. Measured against that statement, the site is usually the smallest number on the page.
Prices read from the plans on every load; the judgement reviewed 8 November 2026.
One of the holiday rental designs the plan price includes.
The short answer
A holiday rental website has to run on its own domain and take reservations with a live calendar. Priced three ways:
| Route | What you pay | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A builder with it built in Webkio |
$69.99 a month Growth Business at $39.99 plus $30 as 1% on $3,000 of monthly sales; $839.88 a year |
The site and the features in one plan, edited by you, live the same day. Card processing is extra on every route. |
| A freelancer | from $1,544 to $3,088 as a floor 4 to 8 days at $386 a day, derived below |
Somebody's week. Then hosting, and an invoice for every change. |
| An agency | No published figure three quotes, and the questions below |
A team and a process. Right for a group with unusual needs; rarely for one location. |
The $3,000 a month through the site is an assumption for the table; put your own number in the calculator and the plan and fee recompute. A plan's percentage on sales is what makes the cheapest plan sometimes the dearest.
Year one, on a builder
What the first twelve months come to for a holiday rental that builds it itself, at the assumption above.
| The plan (Growth Business), twelve months | $479.88 |
| The plan's 1% on $3,000 a month of online payments | $360 |
| Card processing | the processor's rate, on every route |
| Your domain name | from your registrar, typically a small yearly fee |
| Your time to set it up | an afternoon with the words and photos ready |
| Total of the lines with a figure | $839.88 |
Which route fits a holiday rental
A builder, if
You let one to a few properties and want repeat guests booking direct, with seasons and a deposit hold handled for you.
A freelancer, if
You want a bespoke look for a high-end property and accept paying for each season change afterwards.
An agency, if
You manage dozens of properties with staff and a channel manager already in place.
The same site on other builders
Published renewal prices, with the date each was read, for the cheapest plan that covers the same needs. "Not covered" means no first-party product for it.
| Builder | Cheapest plan that covers it | Per month, fee included |
|---|---|---|
| Webkio | Growth Business | $69.99 |
| WordPress.com compare | Personal (read 2026-11-04, billed monthly) | $9 fee not stated |
| Hostinger compare | Premium (read 2026-11-04, renewal rate on a 48-month term) | $10.99 fee not stated |
| IONOS compare | MyWebsite Now Starter (read 2026-11-04, renewal rate on a 1-year term) | $14 fee not stated |
| Wix compare | Light (read 2026-11-04, billed yearly) | $17 fee not stated |
| Squarespace compare | Basic (read 2026-11-04, billed monthly) | $25 fee not stated |
| Webflow compare | Basic (read 2026-11-04, billed monthly) | $25 fee not stated |
| Square Online compare | Plus (read 2026-11-04, billed monthly, per location) | $49 fee not stated |
What moves the price for a holiday rental
Taking the booking yourself
An enquiry form costs nothing and converts badly; a real booking with a synced calendar, seasonal rates and a deposit is what a direct-booking site is for, and what the plan has to cover.
Calendar sync
A calendar feed the platforms read, so a date booked on your site is blocked on Airbnb within the hour. A custom build charges for this; a rental builder includes it. Platform bookings are entered on your site by you.
Seasonal pricing and minimum stays
Peak weeks, shoulder weekends, changeover days. Rules a spreadsheet handles badly and a booking engine handles once.
The number of properties
One cottage and six apartments are different sites. Builders price by plan; a custom build prices by the extra work.
The costs that are not on the quote
- Platform commission. The reason to have a direct site at all. Every booking that moves from the platform to your site saves its commission, which is usually more than the site costs in a year.
- Channel manager subscriptions. Some owners pay a separate tool to push rates and availability to many platforms. If you list on one or two, the site's own calendar feed and five minutes a week do the job.
- Card fees and deposits. A damage deposit held, not charged, carries no fee; the booking payment does, on any system.
What a holiday rental can skip
Money commonly spent on this kind of site that does not need spending.
- A channel manager, if you list on one or two platforms: the calendar feed does the blocking.
- Professional photography before you have tried daylight and thirty careful phone photos.
- A bespoke booking engine: the rental plan already handles seasons, minimum stays and the deposit hold.
Free things worth doing first
- Count how many of last year's bookings came from repeat guests or referrals. Those are the ones your own site would have taken commission-free.
- Write the house rules, the changeover day and the check-in time once; they go on the site and in every confirmation.
- Take thirty photos in daylight, room by room. Guests count them.
If you ask an agency
Agencies do not publish prices and we will not guess one. Ask each of three what is included and what is billed after, who owns the domain and the content, what a change costs after launch, what hosting and maintenance are per year, and whether you can edit the site yourself.
Where the freelancer floor comes from. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median web developer wage at $92,650 a year (Occupational Outlook Handbook), $386 a day over 240 working days. A freelancer charges more than a salaried day, so 4 to 8 days at that rate is a floor, not an estimate.
Guides for a holiday rental deciding this
Questions
Can my own site sync with Airbnb and Booking.com?
Your site publishes a standard calendar feed the platforms read, so a date booked here is blocked there within an hour or two. It goes one way; a booking taken on a platform is entered here by you.
Will a direct site really save the commission?
On the bookings it takes, yes, by definition. The realistic first-year expectation is repeat guests and referrals booking direct; new guests still mostly arrive through the platforms.
Is one cottage worth a website?
If it has repeat guests, yes: one week booked direct typically pays for the year's plan. The table above uses an assumed monthly amount; put in your own on the calculator.
Do I need a channel manager too?
Not to keep the platforms from selling your dates; the feed does that. A channel manager earns its keep when you push rates and content to many platforms at once.
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