$4K one-time onboarding. 3% per booking after. Airbnb takes 15%. Hospitable charges $500/mo plus you still pay Airbnb. K5 costs less than either — and you own the platform.
3% per booking is not just hosting — it's the running maintenance contract that keeps a real production platform boring and reliable.
| K5 direct-book | Airbnb | Hospitable / Guesty | |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time fee | $4,000 onboarding | $0 | $0 – ~$1,500 setup |
| Recurring cost | 3% per booking (weekly Zelle) | $0 base | ~$500/mo |
| % of every booking | 3% | ~15% total (host + guest) | Still 15% Airbnb + their fee |
| Own the code | ✓ Yours from day 1 of go-live | ✗ Never | ✗ Never |
| Own the guest list | ✓ Yours | ✗ Airbnb's | ✗ Airbnb's |
| Own the brand | ✓ Your domain, your voice | ✗ Airbnb-branded | ✗ Airbnb-branded |
| Concierge affiliate revenue | ✓ You keep 100% | ✗ Not supported | ✗ Not supported |
| Support included | ✓ Text/call, <24hr biz day | Chatbot + queue | Email/ticket |
| Total cost on $250K revenue/yr | $11,500 year 1 · $7,500/yr after | $37,500/yr forever | $43,500/yr forever |
| Year-1 savings vs Airbnb | +$26,000 | — | −$6,000 (adds fee on top) |
Math: K5 = $4K + ($250K × 3%) = $11,500 year 1, then $7,500/yr. Airbnb = $250K × 15% = $37,500/yr. Hospitable = $500/mo × 12 = $6,000/yr on top of Airbnb's $37,500 = $43,500/yr. On any host doing $30K+/year in bookings, K5 pays back the $4K onboarding in under 2 months.
3% is still 80% less than Airbnb's 15%. Ten times the bookings on K5 costs you 3% each — the same rate. On Airbnb you'd pay 15% × 10 = five times the commission dollars in a year. The math only gets better as volume grows.
Yes — 30 days written notice ends the ongoing fee. The source code stays with you. We hand off hosting credentials, database export, and any documentation you need. No lock-in, no clawback.
The 3% includes 4 hours per month of feature dev. Overflow is billed at $150/hr. Most hosts use the bundled hours for seasonal tweaks — new property pages, holiday promos, small UX changes.
Hospitable and Guesty charge $500/mo (or per-property fees) AND you keep paying Airbnb 15% commission on every booking. They are channel managers on top of Airbnb — not a replacement. K5 replaces Airbnb entirely, so the 15% drops to 3%.
The $4K onboarding is 50% at kickoff / 25% at demo approval / 25% at go-live. The 3% ongoing bills weekly via Zelle against the prior week's completed bookings — you never pay ahead.
Book a demo with your own property data. We'll walk the migration timeline, the payment schedule, and what your first 12 months look like on K5 vs. staying on Airbnb.