Livvi webinar: recording and answers to hosts' questions
The recording of our first Livvi webinar, what we showed live, and answers to hosts' questions on commission, subscription, house rules, calendar and payments.
*By Lovro Tovernić, founder of Livvi.*
On Thursday, 29 October, we held our first webinar, "Upoznajte Livvi" ("Get to know Livvi"). 170 people signed up, 43 watched live, and the rest asked for the recording. The recording is in this article, and below is everything important from the webinar and the answers to your questions.
how livvi came about
Livvi didn't start as an idea out of thin air. We've run a marketing agency for more than three years, and through that work we met a host from Istria who wanted to depend less on Booking and the big platforms. We helped her build her own community of guests through social media and a website, but she always lacked something that would process the bookings themselves. That was the first bug in our ear. An EU project made it possible for us to fund the initial development. You can read more in the article How Livvi came to be.
Livvi is led by Marko Sukreški (business development and finance), Leon Kranjčević (technology) and me, and the team also includes Nika, Tomislav and Vesna. Livvi has been out in beta since 1 March. Everything we build, we build together with hosts, so we adapt to their needs.
vesna's story
Vesna Ivanišević has been a host since 2022, a Livvi user, and today also part of our team. She told us why she went looking for another channel in the first place. The 2025 season was good for her, but for the first time she clearly felt how little control she had over her own business. Communication with guests before arrival was becoming more and more limited, someone else was setting part of the rules, and when commissions went up, most hosts raised their prices. The guest pays more and gets nothing more. She also mentioned a guest who asked for a refund because a spider had drowned in the pool, and the platform asked her to approve the refund.
Direct bookings were the logical answer, but for a single property, secure card payment was too expensive and too complicated. In Livvi she found two things for herself: a secure way to take payments and the ability to set her own cancellation rules, house rules and terms of stay. Booking and Airbnb, she said, have their place and can still be used alongside Livvi. How the two work together is covered in the article Livvi doesn't replace Booking. And it doesn't need to.
what we showed live
I walked through the system from a host's perspective:
- Registration and onboarding. A wizard guides you through the property, description, photos, cover photo, unit, price and rules. If you have your photos at hand, it takes about ten minutes. The guide to adding a property shows it step by step.
- You set the cancellation and payment rules yourself. Full refund up to a set number of days before arrival, a partial refund, or no refund. Payment can be the full amount upfront, a deposit upfront and the rest later, or only a card authorization with the charge made later. See the cancellation policy and the payment policy.
- Price and seasons. When you enter a price, you immediately see what the guest pays and how much reaches your account. You set seasonal prices by period, and along the way the system shows where your price stands compared with similar properties.
- Calendar. You connect Booking and Airbnb with iCal links, and you can also block dates manually. The calendar sync guide shows how.
- Marketing. You create discount codes yourself (guide), and Livvi reads the empty dates in your calendar and prepares the text and photos for a post (Empty dates in the calendar).
- Guest database. Guests and bookings from Livvi are recorded automatically, and you can manually add any guest from your contacts, for example someone who replied to your post in a Facebook group (Guests who booked by phone). Confirmations and invoices are sent to the guest automatically.
- eVisitor. Right after booking, the guest receives an email where they enter their registration details themselves, and you simply accept them. No scanning and retyping of ID cards (how it works).
- Card payments. Cards are charged through Stripe, a global payment processing platform (in Croatia, similar services such as WSPay and Corvus Pay are better known). The guest pays and the payment is visible on your Stripe account straight away. By default, the payout to your bank account arrives 7 days after the payment reaches Stripe. The setup is described in the guide to your Stripe account.
the questions you asked
Questions from the chat and the webinar, grouped by topic.
property and calendar
Can I change check-in or check-out time for just one date?
Not yet. Livvi doesn't support a separate check-in or check-out time for an individual date. We're considering letting hosts highlight earlier check-in or later check-out for selected free dates in promotional offers, as a way to fill short gaps between bookings without lowering the price. For now that's an idea for future development, not an existing feature.
Where does the median in the price comparison come from, and can I rely on it?
We calculate the median from similar properties available online, taking into account location, dates and the size of the property. It's a benchmark against the market, not a recommended or optimal price. How reliable it is depends on the data: properties run by agencies may have closed calendars, so their prices or availability may not be well represented. Use it alongside your own knowledge of the property, the season and the local market. If you want to know which listings went into the calculation for your property, our team can check.
Do bookings sync with the calendar? What about Booking.com?
Yes, availability syncs via iCal with Booking.com, Airbnb and other platforms. Dates that are taken on other platforms show up as unavailable in the Livvi calendar, which reduces the risk of double bookings. Only availability is transferred, not guest data, so outside bookings appear with generic labels, for example external@booking.com or external@airbnb.com. If you want those guests and booking details in Livvi, you add them manually (how to add a guest from outside Livvi).
What about bookings that come in through Facebook, Instagram or by phone?
You have two options. You can send the guest a Livvi booking link, so the booking stays in the system and the guest can pay online. Or you can block those dates in the calendar manually so nobody else can book them.
guests and protecting the host
What happens if there's a double booking?
Act as soon as you can and sort it out directly with the guest, which is the fastest way. We can help too, depending on the situation. To prevent it, keep your availability up to date and make sure your iCal calendars are connected.
Can I rate guests?
Not yet, but we're considering it as part of future development, based on your experiences and needs. Suggestions are welcome.
Can I turn down a guest I don't want to host?
Right now all bookings are instant, meaning they're confirmed automatically without your approval, and cancelling a confirmed booking afterwards can have consequences under the terms of use. That's why we're planning "request to book": you review the guest's request and decide whether to accept it before the booking is confirmed.
How do I make sure guests follow my house rules?
No platform can guarantee that every guest will follow the rules, but clearly written house rules and timely communication reduce misunderstandings a lot. In Livvi you can write your own house rules (pets, smoking, parties, number of guests), show them before booking and send them to the guest again before arrival.
How can I communicate with guests more easily?
Bookings are recorded automatically in the guest database, so all contacts are in one place and you can send them messages, promotional ones or while they're staying with you. Guest chat is still in development and not mature enough to show yet.
payments, commission and taxes
If I set a price of €100, how much do I get?
€97.50. The commission is 2%, and 25% VAT is added on top of it.
- nightly price: €100.00
- Livvi commission (2%): €2.00
- VAT on the commission (25%): €0.50
- paid out to you: €97.50
The total fee in this example is €2.50, or 2.5% of the nightly price, with no other costs. More in the article Why Livvi takes only 2%.
Does the commission stay at 2% for a higher price, say €500?
Yes. The percentage is the same for an apartment, a holiday house and a luxury villa. For €500: commission €10.00, VAT on the commission €2.50, you receive €487.50.
Can I ask for a deposit and choose when guests get a refund if they cancel?
Yes. You choose how you're paid: the full amount upfront, a deposit in an amount you set (the rest later), or just a card authorisation with payment later. You also set your own cancellation rules: until when the guest gets a full or partial refund and when there's no refund. Guests see these rules before they confirm the booking.
How does card payment work and when do I get my money?
Card payments are processed through Stripe, an online payment platform, and they go through immediately. After a successful transaction the payment is visible on your Stripe account, where you can follow all the payments you've received.
By default, the payout to your linked bank account is scheduled 7 days after the payment reaches Stripe. The first payout can take a bit longer because of the initial checks and verification of your Stripe account.
In the "Payments" section you can view your transactions, follow the status of your funds and manage your payout options, according to your Stripe account settings.
The moment a card payment arrives and the moment the money reaches your bank account are not the same. As a host you're required to honour the cancellation and refund terms you defined for your property, including refunding the guest when they're entitled to it.
How does Livvi handle VAT on the commission?
Livvi charges a 2% commission on the booking value, and 25% VAT is added to it. Because Livvi operates through a Croatian legal entity, the VAT on the commission is calculated within Livvi's payment system, so a private host doesn't have to calculate and pay it separately, provided the service provider is a Croatian VAT payer.
For a €100 booking: commission (2%) €2.00, VAT on the commission (25%) €0.50, total fee €2.50, so you keep €97.50, before any other costs. For hosts outside Croatia the tax treatment may be different, depending on the country and their tax status.
subscription
How much will Livvi cost, and are there perks for early users?
We're still preparing the final subscription model and the official price list, and we'll publish them in good time. Our goal is a fair, transparent and affordable model suited to private hosts. Early users get a clear perk: if you register and fully activate your listing by 31 December 2026, you use the platform free for 12 months. If you join after New Year, the first month is free.
If I only rent seasonally, do I have to pay for the whole year?
The final terms aren't ready yet. We're working on an annual subscription with monthly instalments with seasonal hosts in mind, and the details will be in the official price list. It's worth knowing that bookings for the season often start arriving much earlier, so it helps to be visible all year. You can use the marketing module for Early Bird offers, season announcements and filling gaps all year round.
Can I cancel the subscription? Will my card be charged automatically after the free period?
Good news for everyone who registers and fully activates their listing by 31 December 2026: you get 12 months of free use of Livvi, so you don't have to think about subscription costs until 2028. You don't enter card details at registration, and Livvi currently doesn't use automatic card charging for the subscription, so your card won't be charged automatically after the free period. We're still defining the cancellation terms, payment methods and flexible use, and we'll present them clearly before billing starts, so you can decide in time whether to continue.
promotion, visibility and occupancy
How can I improve my occupancy?
The marketing module spots empty dates in your calendar and prepares texts and visuals for campaigns: filling gaps between bookings, last minute offers, Early Bird, Black Friday and special promotions, holiday and seasonal campaigns, and general invitations to past guests. You publish the content yourself, from your own profiles, or send it to guests, for example over WhatsApp. Livvi shortens the preparation, and you decide what, when and to whom. Publishing and sending are manual for now.
Can Livvi post directly to my Facebook page?
Not yet. Automatic posting and connecting Livvi to your social networks isn't available at the moment. Livvi prepares the text and visual, and you post them yourself.
How will you bring in guests and make sure properties are visible?
Openly: we don't have a budget like Booking or Airbnb and we're not stealing their guests. The strategy is a mix of paid social advertising, PR, influencer collaborations and partnerships, but we don't promise instant results. Trust and visibility are built gradually. Hosts have already started building their own channels, like Facebook groups and WhatsApp communities, and Livvi wants to step into that parallel channel: share your direct booking link where your guests are. It happens that someone in a group gets thirty or forty enquiries and sends everyone a Booking link, even though they've just built a direct channel.
Will you increase visibility for properties in Zagreb and other cities? What about digital nomads?
Zagreb is a focus. We want to push it harder when demand is highest, for example around Advent and Easter, and develop activities for other cities and regions that fit their own peak periods. One participant suggested digital nomads as a segment. Guest segmentation (digital nomads, women travelling alone, families) is still to come, and we hope to launch it at the start of the year, once we have enough supply.
what's coming
Coming soon: guest chat, request to book and guest segments. The second webinar is coming soon, and we will announce the date as soon as it is confirmed. We are also announcing new workshops on how to open a listing, how to work with Stripe and how to use marketing.
how to join
The easiest start is registration: sign up for Livvi, and the first steps are in the guide to adding a property. If you get stuck anywhere, write to us at hello@livvi.io.
Thank you to everyone who was with us live. Without you, there would be no us.