What drives the cost of a B&B or farm-stay booking website

Updated Oct 2026

The two kinds of cost

A cheap setup with high running costs can cost more over three years than the other way round. When you compare, always add up setup + 3 years of every monthly and yearly fee (website plan, domain renewals, booking software) + the per-booking fees (card fees, any booking commission) on the bookings you expect.

The six things that drive the price

1. Booking request or real booking?

• Request form: the guest asks for dates, and you reply by email and take payment however you like. It's the cheapest to set up, but every booking costs you back-and-forth time, and guests may book somewhere faster while they wait.
• Instant booking: the guest sees free dates, picks them, pays and gets a confirmation straight away. It takes more to set up (calendar, rules, payment, emails), but guests used to booking sites like Airbnb may find it easier.

2. Calendar sync with Airbnb and other sites

If you also list on Airbnb or VRBO, your site's calendar must know about those bookings, or you'll double-book. Airbnb gives you a calendar link (.ics) to share your bookings with other sites, and it can import another site's link the same way (Airbnb Help Center, "Sync your home host calendar to other websites", checked Oct 12, 2026). The sync isn't instant, so a good setup leaves a buffer or alerts you about new bookings. Two-way sync takes more to set up than a site with only its own calendar.

3. How you take payment

• Card payments through a processor like Stripe cost about 2.9% + 30¢ per successful payment with a domestic US card. That's Stripe's standard rate; international and manually entered cards cost more (Stripe's published US pricing, checked Oct 11, 2026).
• Deposits, balances and refunds add setup work. Examples: 30% now and the rest 14 days before arrival, or a refund only up to a certain date. Write your cancellation policy down before the site is built. It decides how the payment part works.
• Website plan fees on top: some website builders add their own fee. On Squarespace, for example, the cheapest plan (Basic) charges a 2% transaction fee on sales of products and services, and the higher plans charge 0% (Squarespace pricing page, checked Oct 12, 2026).

4. How many kinds of things guests can book

One room type is simple. A farm stay with rooms + a cabin + a farm tour + u-pick slots is really several booking systems in one: nights for the rooms, time slots and group sizes for the tour. Each extra kind of booking adds setup work. List everything you want guests to book, including add-ons like breakfast baskets or late checkout.

5. Ready-made tool or built for you

Option A: Website builder + booking add-on. Low setup cost, and you fit your business to the tool. The running cost is a monthly plan plus, often, a separate booking-software subscription. Some booking tools charge per room, and some take a percentage of each booking. Read the pricing page for both.

Option B: A site built around your booking flow. Higher setup cost, and the site does exactly what your business does (your seasons, your packages, your rules). Running costs are hosting and upkeep, plus card fees and any connected tools. If the site doesn't use booking software that charges a commission, there's no booking commission on top.

Neither is "right". The more unusual your bookings (farm activities, seasonal calendars, packages), the more time you may spend working around a ready-made tool. If your bookings are simple, a ready-made tool may be all you need.

6. Who looks after it

Something always needs changing: winter hours, a new price, a broken link after a tool update, a calendar that stopped syncing. Either you do it, or someone does it for you on a monthly plan. Count your own time honestly: an hour a week is about 50 hours a year.

What the running costs look like (examples, as of October 2026)

Option A example: website builder

Option B example: custom-built site

You can buy your domain from a registrar with either option. Then it's yours, whoever builds the site. The hosts above are examples. Whoever builds your site may use others, so ask them for their list and its prices.

Sources at the bottom. Prices change. Check each one before you decide.

Questions to ask before you pay anyone

1. What does it cost in total over 3 years: setup, plus every monthly and yearly fee (including domain renewals), plus the per-booking fees (card fees and any booking commission)?
2. Is there a cut of every booking? From the booking tool, the website plan, or both, on top of card fees?
3. Does it sync both ways with Airbnb and VRBO, and how quickly?
4. Can guests pay a deposit and the balance later, and can I refund from the same place?
5. Can I change my own prices, dates and photos without calling someone?
6. Who owns the domain and the site? If you stop paying, can you take your web address and your guest list with you?
7. What happens when something breaks in peak season, and how fast does someone fix it?

A simple way to decide

1. Write down your bookings: what guests book, how many per year, and how you take payment today.
2. Count your time: how many hours a week go into emails, calendars and payment chasing?
3. Get two or three quotes and add up each one the same way: setup + 3 years of every monthly and yearly fee + the per-booking fees on the bookings you expect.
4. Pick the simplest option that covers your real bookings. You can add features later. Removing a monthly fee is harder.

Sources

1. Airbnb Help Center, "Sync your home host calendar to other websites": https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/99 (calendar link to export your Airbnb calendar, import of other sites' .ics links; checked Oct 12, 2026).
2. Stripe, "Pricing" (US): https://stripe.com/us/pricing (2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction, the standard rate; extra charges for international and manually entered cards; checked Oct 11, 2026).
3. Squarespace, "Pricing": https://www.squarespace.com/pricing (Basic $19/mo yearly or $25 monthly with 2% transaction fee; Core $29/$39; Plus $49/$65; Advanced $99/$139; 0% transaction fee on Core and up; checked Oct 12, 2026).
4. Squarespace Domains: https://domains.squarespace.com/ (one eligible domain free for its first year with an annual website plan; checked Oct 12, 2026).
5. Netlify, "Pricing": https://www.netlify.com/pricing/ (Free $0, Personal $9/month, Pro $20/month with unlimited members; checked Oct 17, 2026).
6. Supabase, "Pricing": https://supabase.com/pricing (Free $0, "Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity"; Pro from $25/month, "Projects on paid plans aren't paused for inactivity"; checked Oct 17, 2026).
7. Porkbun, "Domain pricing": https://porkbun.com/products/domains (.com $11.08 a year to register and to renew, "All prices include ICANN and any other fees"; checked Oct 17, 2026).

Fees change. Check the sources above for today's numbers before you decide.