Zero commission. Zero risk.

Bookably Pays for Itself, Many Times Over

Before we talk features, look at the maths. Bookably is designed to cost less than the alternatives you are already weighing: one small annual Plan per listing, instead of a percentage taken from every booking.

Beyond the small annual Plan, you keep your booking revenue. Bookably adds no commission and no markup. The only deduction is the standard card processing cost, charged by Stripe to accept card payments and passed through at cost.

Host Studio alone is worth more than your annual Plan

New guests find you. Old guests come back.

Guests search Bookably directly, and our Concierge helps them find somewhere by where they are headed, what is nearby, or what is on that weekend. That is how new guests find you here. And when a guest first found you somewhere else, the big platforms are an expensive place to host that same guest a second, third and fourth time. So bring them back to Bookably, where no booking pays commission.

Plus the new bookings we send your way. Our audience grows every week, in New Zealand and overseas.

Why Bookably

The economics is the headline. Here’s how we deliver it, and why hosts trust us with the bookings other platforms keep skimming.

Getting Started in 3 Steps

01

Register free

Create your account in a couple of minutes. No card, no commitment.

02

Let the AI Host Assistant do the heavy lifting

It walks you through your listing details, photos and pricing. Most hosts are done in under an hour.

03

Publish, free

Your listing goes live straight away and is open for bookings. Nothing to pay to go live.

You don’t need payment details to sign up or to publish. Payouts are set up later, any time that suits you once your listing is up.

Already manage your properties in Hostaway? Connect your account and Bookably imports your listings and keeps calendars and bookings in sync both ways. See our integration partners.

Want more detail? See our step-by-step listing guide or the Host FAQ.

📢 Our Host Service Agreement and Listing Terms apply.

From Our Hosts

Hear what hosts across New Zealand say about working with Bookably.

Got Questions? We’ve Got Answers!

Will Bookably actually save me money compared to Airbnb?

Yes, almost always. On a single $1,000 booking through Airbnb, roughly $150 of it goes to the platform in fees, depending on how your listing is set up. With Bookably that is zero. The small annual Plan, from $99 a listing, is a fraction of what that one booking alone would have cost you, and Bookably never takes a cut of what you earn.

What do I get that I’d otherwise pay extra for?

Digital guidebook, welcome booklet, Wi-Fi cards, house-rules cards, check-out cards, loyalty cards, AI Host Assistant, two-way reviews, and identity verification. All included. Most hosts stitch these together from three or four separate subscriptions; Bookably brings them together in one small annual Plan.

Is Bookably a New Zealand company?

Yes. NZ-owned and NZ-supported. Phone, email, WhatsApp, all answered by Kiwis who know the market.

Are guests identity-verified?

Yes. Every guest completes an ID check before their first booking, and hosts are verified too. That cuts out the chancers and makes Bookably one of the safest marketplaces out there.

Can I review my guests?

Yes. Reviews work both ways. After every stay you can rate the guest and leave a private note for other hosts.

What does the AI Host Assistant actually do?

It drafts most of your listing from your photos, your existing description and your location, drafts guest replies for your approval, helps you price, and manages your bookings and calendar. Guest questions from travellers are answered around the clock by our guest concierge. You stay in control. It’s an assistant, not autopilot.

Does it cost anything to list my property?

Listing is free. Bookably charges 0% booking commission and adds nothing for your guests. Your only cost is one small flat annual Plan per listing, from $99 a year. It comes out just once a year, automatically from a single payout, never a slice of each booking, so there is nothing to pay upfront. The only other deduction is the standard card processing cost, charged by Stripe at cost.

Is the Plan charged per booking or per year?

Per year, per listing. It is never a cut of your bookings. The only thing that connects it to a booking is how it is collected: there is nothing to pay up front, and the Plan comes out of a payout on your first booking of the year. A listing that never books never pays.

Can I add properties later and still get the cheaper rate?

Yes. The rate follows how many listings you have published, so as you add more they all move down the ladder together. The only catch is timing: if one listing has already been charged for its year before you add the others, that year stays at the rate it was charged, and it picks up the lower rate at its next yearly charge.

How do I get paid?

You set up payouts when there is money to collect, not when you sign up. You can do it any time once your listing is up, or leave it until your first booking comes in and let the Host Assistant walk you through it in the chat. If a payment lands before you have finished, it is held safely and released automatically the moment your setup is done.

Payouts are processed securely through Stripe Connect. Funds land directly in your bank, less the standard card processing cost. Bookably also handles GST as the marketplace operator: if your listing isn’t GST-registered we collect 15% GST and credit 8.5% back to you on your payout; if it is GST-registered, the full 15% is remitted to Inland Revenue. We send you a monthly GST statement for your records.

What happens after I publish my listing?

It goes live immediately and is available for bookings. There is no review queue and nothing to wait for. We may ask you to update photos or details that do not meet our standards, and we can remove listings that breach the Host Service Agreement.

Can I edit my listing later?

Yes. Update your listing details, pricing, and availability anytime, either through the Host Assistant or your account dashboard.

Can I leave if it’s not for me?

Yes, anytime. There is nothing to pay upfront and no contract to exit, so you can unpublish or remove your listing whenever you like.

Do you provide insurance cover?

No. Bookably does not provide insurance cover, and hosts keep their own policy. Your protection here is the security deposit you set on your listing, plus identity-checked guests, the option to approve bookings yourself, and reviews that run both ways. Worth knowing: cover offered by the big platforms is not free either, it comes out of the commission they take from every booking. We take 0%, so that money stays with you and can go toward a policy that is yours no matter where you list.

Can I take a security deposit?

Yes. You set the amount on your listing, the guest pays it with the booking, and it is refunded after the stay. If there is damage or a breach of your house rules, tell us before that refund runs and we will deal with it.

How does GST work?

Under IRD’s listed-services rules Bookably is the marketplace operator, so we handle the GST on the booking. If you are not GST registered, which is most hosts, we collect the 15% and pass 8.5% of it back to you in your payout, with the remaining 6.5% going to IRD. If you are registered, we remit the full 15% and no credit is added. Every payout comes with a breakdown showing what was collected and what came through to you. What it means for your own return is a question for your accountant rather than us.

About the numbers on this page

We source our figures so you can check our workings. Competitor fees checked August 2026 against each platform’s published fee schedules; market figures calculated July 2026 from AirROI short-term rental market data (tracked listings on the largest booking platform, converted to NZD). Market totals cover one major platform only, so true all-platform figures are higher. We round down and quote conservative floors.

• “They take 15-20% of every booking”: Airbnb’s published host service fee is a single 15.5% deducted from payouts (rolling out from October 2025; every remaining host outside the EU moves onto it by 15 September 2026). Booking.com’s published commission for New Zealand properties is typically about 15%, plus payment charges where applicable. Combined host and guest charges have historically reached about 20%.
• “~$3,000 saved per $20k of bookings”: $20,000 of bookings at a 15% platform fee is $3,000. On Bookably the equivalent cost is the flat annual Plan plus card processing at cost.
• Figures used in our advertising: “more than $190 million a year” is total tracked New Zealand listing revenue multiplied by the 15.5% host service fee (our calculation: $190.4 million). “$50 million+ in Queenstown Lakes” is the same calculation for Queenstown Lakes District (about $57 million; quoted conservatively). “About $16,000 a year for the average Queenstown listing” is average tracked Queenstown listing revenue of about $106,000 a year multiplied by 15.5%.

Bookably charges hosts 0% booking commission and guests a 0% service fee. Hosts pay a flat annual Plan per listing ($129 a year for one listing, less per listing at volume), collected once a year from a payout, plus card processing at cost. Questions about the numbers? Email hello@bookably.nz.