Stop OTA Tyranny · Pamphlet No. 1 · Free. Pass it on.
You own the house. Airbnb owns the guest.
How the hell did we let that happen?
- Service fee
- Host fee
- Algorithm
- Superhost
- Policy update
- Account review
- Search ranking
You built the business.
They built the tollbooth.
Someone is getting paid for standing between you.
List the house at $400 a night. Airbnb keeps 15.5% before the money reaches you. That is sixty-two dollars a night, every night, for making the introduction.*
Rendered unto the platform
The Lord’s Tithe
- Property
- Yours
- Mortgage
- Yours
- Maintenance
- Yours
- Staff
- Yours
- Risk
- Yours
- Guest experience
- Yours
- Distribution
- Theirs
Payable on every booking, in perpetuity.
Why?
And the tithe only goes up.
Airbnb now takes 15.5% from the host. On October 29, Vrbo’s commission goes to 12%. For managers connected through software, it was 5%. Nobody asked you. Nobody had to.†
Where else were you going to go?
“Just book direct.”
Great idea.
How does the guest find you?
Exactly.
You could always build a website. A thousand companies will sell you one. But a website nobody sees isn’t freedom. It’s a billboard in the desert.
Direct booking was never the missing piece.
Direct discovery was.
They don’t own your house.
Airbnb owns almost none of the homes it lists.
They own access to the guest.
That is the entire empire.
Until now.
Travelers stopped searching.
They started asking.
Three villas in Uvita with pools. Each one books straight with the owner.
Casa Morpho$400 nightBook direct
Villa Cola de Ballena$620 nightBook direct
Casa Heliconia$310 nightBook direct
Illustration. Example properties.
Nobody opens ten tabs anymore. They ask one question, and whatever answers it has become the front door to travel.
Airbnb never owned the houses.
They owned the road.
We’re building another one.
When a traveler asks an AI where to stay, your house should be one of the answers: your rates, your calendar, and a booking that lands with you. No gatekeeper. No tollbooth. Host and guest, direct.
The platforms spent fifteen years owning the search box. They do not own the question. We got to that field before they did.
Distribution: Yours.
The film · 50 seconds · Sound on
Stop OTA tyranny
Join the revolt.
We are assembling a network of houses that travelers can find by asking and book without a middleman. Founding hosts go first.
Organized by Chucho
Chucho puts your house in front of travelers who ask an AI where to stay, and sends the booking straight to you.
Join the revolt See how it works first