Journal
Plain answers to the questions owners ask.
About commission, photographs, booking websites and the season. Written for the owner, not for other agencies.
14 October 2026 · 3 min read
What Booking.com’s commission really costs
The percentage is small. The year is not. A worked example for a villa with eight rooms, and the part of the bill that is paid on guests who were always going to find you.
Read the article
3 min read
Why your own photographs are losing you bookings
Most properties look worse in their listing than they do in person. It is rarely the camera. It is the hour, the height, the order and the frames that are missing.
3 min read
What a direct booking website can and cannot do
A website will not empty the booking sites and it will not find guests on its own. Here is what it does do, and why that is still worth more than most owners expect.
3 min read
How a channel manager works
One calendar, many places to book. What happens in the minutes after a guest books, why rooms get sold twice without one, and how to tell whether your property needs it yet.
3 min read
What to photograph before the season
The season is decided in October and November, when guests are choosing. Twelve frames every property should have before then, and the hour to take each one.
3 min read
How to price direct against the OTA rate
Undercutting the booking sites on your own website is the obvious move, and often the wrong one. What your contract may say, and three ways to make the direct booking the better deal without it.
Wherever the property is, we come to you.
Send a photograph of your property and a line about it. We are in Colombo, we answer the same day, and if we are not the right people for the job we will say so.