For guests. For hosts.
No platform commission.

I am Jens Scafarti. I have rented out my own property for years and today hold more than forty apartments. Now I am getting into short-term rentals with my first vacation home in Sardinia.

Along the way I spoke to a lot of owners who have been doing this for years. And sooner or later the conversation almost always turns to the same subject: the fees.

I am an entrepreneur and have built several companies. Doing the arithmetic comes with the job. So that is exactly what I did.

A simple calculation

Why zero per cent

0% commission for hosts. One transparent accommodation price for guests. The listing costs nothing. Nothing is deducted from the host amount: you name your figure, the guest sees it including the 3.9% cost contribution, and you receive your figure in full. Only if the guest voluntarily selects flexible cancellation is its clearly shown 5% price added.

What you charge as a host should be what reaches you.

The 3.9% is a cost contribution for Stripe payment fees and refunds. BookNoFees earns nothing from it. It is included in the displayed total and never deducted from the host's amount.

You do not have to choose

Already listing on Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo? Stay there. BookNoFees is not meant to replace those channels in order to work for you. Calendars are synced with each other so that dates booked elsewhere are blocked automatically. That sync runs at intervals, not at the moment someone books elsewhere — which is why instant booking is off by default here.

We are not something you have to choose instead. We come in addition.

And for as long as BookNoFees brings you no booking, your listing here has cost you nothing.

What I am not promising you

BookNoFees is new. So I am not going to tell you that from day one you will get as many bookings as you do on sites that have been around for years. At the start there will be few. The first booking may come quickly, or it may take a while.

That is exactly why the listing costs nothing. You can try BookNoFees alongside what you already use and decide for yourself whether it is worth anything to you.

So how do we make money?

I am not building this out of pure charity — one day it is meant to become a profitable business. But I do not want to earn from your booking.

Guests can voluntarily add flexible cancellation when a host offers it; its clearly shown 5% price is BookNoFees revenue. Later, hosts should also be able to highlight their place or buy extra visibility. Paid placements will be clearly marked as advertising. If neither option is chosen, the ordinary listing remains free and BookNoFees deducts no commission from the host amount.

Why we are starting in Sardinia

Because that is where I am starting out myself, running into the same questions, costs and problems as other hosts. It is not meant to stay limited to that — anyone, anywhere, can list here today. Sardinia, Mallorca, Florida or the North Sea, the principle is the same everywhere:

The host sets what they want to receive and gets that amount in full. The guest sees the final price including the 3.9% cost contribution for Stripe payment fees and refunds. BookNoFees earns nothing from it and takes no platform commission.

Why I am doing this

I did not learn renting from a business plan. I have rented out property myself for years, hold more than forty apartments and have built several companies. With ScaPAP I also appeared on „Die Höhle der Löwen“, the German version of Dragons’ Den.

I want to use that experience to build a site that starts with a simple question: what do hosts and guests actually need? Not everything will be perfect from day one. But we can listen, improve, and build something that becomes a real alternative over time.