one link, nine nights and over €2,600: the first larger booking on Livvi
Vesna, a host from Istria and a member of the Livvi team, sent her Livvi link to guests who keep coming back. One of them booked nine nights in July 2027 and paid the full amount right away. Here is what happened and which tools she used.
Yesterday the first larger booking went through on Livvi: nine nights in July 2027, four guests and over €2,600 paid at once, online. No back-and-forth about bank details, no deposit to wait for, and no 15 to 20% commission.
Behind the booking is Vesna Ivanišević, a host from Istria. For those following us: Vesna has been a host since 2022, a Livvi user, and is now part of our team. We say that up front, because a story is only worth telling if it is told honestly.
a returning guest doesn't need a portal, just your link
A guest who has already stayed with you knows what they are getting. They don't have to find you among thousands of listings, they just need a way to reach you directly. Vesna sent her Livvi link to returning guests, and one of them opened it, picked the dates and paid the full amount.
She explained why she went down this road at our first webinar (recording and answers). 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 getting more limited, part of the rules were set by someone else, and when commissions went up, prices went up too, so the guest pays more and gets nothing more. Direct bookings were the logical answer, but taking card payments for a single property was too expensive and too complicated for her. Livvi solved exactly that.
Booking and Airbnb haven't disappeared from the picture. They have their place and can be used alongside Livvi (how they work together). Livvi is for the guests who already know where they want to stay.
which livvi tools she used
- Stripe. The guest paid the full amount online, and the payment goes through Stripe connected to her Livvi account. How to set it up is in the Stripe guide.
- Guest CRM. Guests are in one place, so you know who is coming back and who it makes sense to send the link to.
- Discount code. In Livvi a code can be limited, for example to returning guests only, to specific dates or to a minimum number of nights. How to create a code.
- Marketing module. Posts and promotion of free dates are made from the same system, so you don't need separate tools for that. How to promote your property.
The guest immediately received a confirmation with the stay details, payment status and payment and cancellation terms, along with a receipt, and Vesna received a notification about the new booking. For the July arrival, eVisitor comes into play too: once the integration is connected, guest registration runs automatically, with no manual entry in the portal (how to connect eVisitor).
the math
On an amount of about €2,660, Livvi's 2% commission comes to about €53, plus 25% VAT on the commission, so about €13. A platform that takes 15 to 20% would take between €400 and €530. The difference, about €330 to €460, stays with the host. We only count the platform commission, not payment processing costs.
what you can do too
Returning guests are the cheapest channel there is, and most hosts don't use it. All it takes is a connected Stripe account, payment and cancellation rules set up in advance (payment policy) and a link to your property that you can send to guests you know.
If your property isn't on Livvi yet, list your property. If it is, tell us how it is going, we would love to hear your story too.