How can OpenStays.AI be free?
No payment layer means no booking cut, no payout machinery and no reason to charge owners for listing.
The economics are simple
01
Most of the cost of running a booking intermediary comes from taking payments. Competitors need to control checkout so they can collect their cut of every booking.
We do not take a cut, so we do not need to take payments. That means we avoid payment processing, payouts, chargebacks and the costly machinery around them altogether.
02
We use AI to do the majority of our work, from structuring property information to checking data quality and creating agent-readable formats.
Our aim is to run at the lowest possible operating cost in the market, without building the large manual operation required by a traditional booking platform.
03
How we plan to make money
Over time, we plan to make money by offering optional value-added services to property owners and agencies. Those services will be designed to help them win more direct bookings and get more value from their Property Passports.
Paying for extra help will always be a choice. Listing a property and keeping its Property Passport on OpenStays.AI will stay free, with no commission on bookings.
Free means free
We keep the service lean and use AI to do most of the structuring work. We hope to fund the network through optional paid services for owners and agencies who want extra help, not through listing fees or a cut of their bookings.
No listing fees. No booking commissions. No OpenStays.AI checkout. Optional services only if you want them.