(2026) The Best Direct Booking Website Option

At Lodge Social, we work with many direct booking websites.

Most of them are a hassle. Here's why:

• The beautiful website and where people book are different. And look like it.

• Building websites take painfully long.

• Most websites are custom built. Anything custom has a high risk of not working well.

Having these problems assumes you know website design 101. Which took me years to learn.

Yet, if you want to get your own bookings in 2025 and 2026, a functional website is required.

If your goal in the next 12 months is to NOT:

• Learn website design

• Figure out APIs and integrations (I bet even this sentence made your head spin)

• Scream out of frustration

• Finally build a website that accepts bookings

• Have something break (and something will)

• Scream out of frustration (again)

This is for you.

The best direct booking website option in 2026

I'm bestest friends foreva with Gil Chan. The CEO of CraftedStays. 

Every month we catch up and talk about whatever we want related to the industry.

Last month, he told me someone built a direct booking website in under 120 seconds using CraftedStays. I told him to prove it.

He did. It's true. And it looked great!

Want to do the same thing for your business? Here's how:

How to build a direct booking website in 120 seconds or less

Step 1: Go to craftedstays.co. Plans start at $69 per month (hehe). If that sounds good, create an account.

Step 2: Connect your PMS. They work with most of them. By the way - this is where CraftedStays wins. Usually connecting a PMS is a huge pain in the butt. Here you do it with two clicks.

Step 3: Import all or some of your properties. Again, usually a huge pain in the butt. Still takes two clicks.

Step 4: Tweak your branding style. Add all your beautiful colors to the site. I know you love your beautiful brand colors.

Step 5: Choose how you want your site to look with a template. There's plenty. All look great.

Step 6: Launch and accept bookings.

That's it!

Last Notes

I'm a huge believer in one golden rule.

If you can't break a process down to a 3rd grade reading level, you don't understand the process.

I can do that with most things marketing. Copy any of my articles and paste them into Hemingway app. You'll see.

Except websites. They're way too technical.

That's why I don't write about them even though it's my 3rd most requested topic.

Unless I write about CraftedStays. They make direct booking websites easy.

I like simple and effective. If you do too, I recommend working with them.

Note: If you sign up with CraftedStays through me, I do not get a kick back. I just like talking about cool products that will serve you well. Check them out at craftedstays.co

That's all for today. I'll see you in the next article.

P.S. Gil and I recorded a demo together. Click HERE to watch it.

P.P.S. Saw this “art” at the train station. I think it’s really intelligent graffiti from a group of nerdy delinquents. True or not, I like my story the best.

Before you go

I spend about 10 hours writing this newsletter each week. The rest of my time is spent running Lodge Social.

Our marketing team will help you get more guests to like, share and book.

Work with me and my team here.

Links you might like:

1. If a potato can, you can too (The Lodge Social)

2. Amenities that make guests pay 40% more (The Booked Solid Show)

3. The 11 best mountain towns in the US (Wander)

4. The $250k glamping tent mistake that cost me everything (Outdoor Hospitality Weekly)