Ownia vs Hospitable: Pricing and Features Compared (2026)
Ownia vs Hospitable for vacation rental hosts: what each tool does, what a direct booking website really costs per year, and which one fits your rentals.
By Anthony, Founder of Ownia · · 5 min read
Hospitable is a popular tool for hosts who want to automate guest messaging across Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, and it also offers a direct booking website on its higher plans. This article compares it with Ownia, with a focus on what it costs to take direct bookings.
A disclosure first: I am the founder of Ownia, so I am not neutral. I have tried to make this comparison useful anyway, including the cases where Hospitable is the better choice. All Hospitable prices below come from its public pricing page in October 2026, for one property, in euros, excluding VAT.
The Short Answer
- Hospitable is an automation platform for short-term rental hosts: multi-platform sync, a unified inbox, AI-drafted replies, dynamic pricing and smart lock automations. A direct booking website is included from the Professional plan, at €59/month (€51.92/month billed yearly).
- Ownia is a direct booking website builder. It focuses on getting guests to book with you directly, and it syncs your Airbnb and Booking.com calendars through iCal. There is no monthly fee for your first property: you pay 3.7% per booking, card fees included.
If your main problem is answering guests and running operations across several platforms, Hospitable is built for that. If you mainly want your own booking website and to pay only when a guest books, Ownia is built for that.
Hospitable's Plans in 2026
| Plan (1 property) | Monthly billing | Yearly billing | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | Free | Free | Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Agoda sync, unified inbox and calendar, scheduled guest messages. No booking website. |
| Host | €29/month | €25.52/month | Automated guest messaging, dynamic pricing, automatic seasonal discounts, API access |
| Professional | €59/month | €51.92/month | Direct booking website with chargeback and damage protection, smart lock automations, Google Vacation Rentals listing, installment payments |
| Mogul | €99/month | €87.12/month | Fully automated messaging with AI, owner statements and payouts, accounting, AI copilot |
There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Additional properties cost extra on paid plans.
Pricing Side by Side
| Hospitable | Ownia | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, but without a booking website | Yes, 1 property with a booking website, no time limit |
| Cheapest plan with a booking website | Professional: €59/month, or €51.92/month billed yearly | Free |
| Additional properties | Extra cost per property on paid plans | Advanced: €19/month for up to 5 properties. Business: €49/month, unlimited |
| Card processing fees | On top of the subscription | Included in the 3.7% |
| Cost with no bookings | Your monthly subscription | €0 |
The difference is the model. To take direct bookings on Hospitable, you need its Professional plan, a fixed subscription whether or not your website brings in bookings. Ownia charges nothing until a guest books, and the 3.7% already covers card processing.
What It Really Costs Per Year
Here is the yearly cost of taking direct bookings on a single property, assuming €1,000 bookings paid with standard European cards:
| Direct bookings per year | Hospitable Professional (monthly) | Hospitable Professional (yearly) | Ownia (Free plan) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €5,000 | ~€785 | ~€700 | €185 |
| €10,000 | ~€860 | ~€775 | €370 |
| €15,000 | ~€935 | ~€850 | €555 |
| €25,000 | ~€1,090 | ~€1,005 | €925 |
| €40,000 | ~€1,320 | ~€1,235 | €1,480 |
Hospitable figures include the subscription and assume standard Stripe card fees (about 1.5% + €0.25 per booking). Check Hospitable's own payment terms before signing up, as processing on its direct booking site may cost more.
What the numbers say:
- Below about €28,600 of direct bookings per year, Ownia is cheaper than Hospitable's cheapest plan with a booking website, billed yearly. Paying monthly, the threshold rises to about €32,500.
- Above that, Hospitable's flat subscription wins on pure cost, as any fixed fee does at high volume.
- The comparison is not only about price. Hospitable's Professional plan also includes messaging automation, dynamic pricing and smart lock features. If you would pay for those anyway, part of the subscription is not a direct booking cost.
Features: Where Each Tool Is Stronger
Where Hospitable is stronger
- Guest communication automation. AI-drafted replies, automated messages and a unified inbox across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Agoda. This is Hospitable's core strength.
- Direct platform connections. Hospitable syncs with the major platforms directly. Ownia uses iCal, which is free and reliable but updates every couple of hours.
- Operations features. Dynamic pricing, smart lock and thermostat automations, and on Mogul, owner statements and accounting.
- Protection on direct bookings. Its direct booking website includes chargeback and damage protection.
Where Ownia is stronger
- A booking website without a subscription. Your first property is free with no time limit. On Hospitable, the booking website starts at €51.92/month.
- Card fees included and predictable. 3.7% per booking, whatever card your guest uses.
- Built around direct bookings. Your booking website is automatically translated into more than 80 languages for your guests, with AI-assisted property descriptions, automated guest emails, review collection, SEO settings for Google and your own custom domain.
- Security deposits under your control. You choose the deposit amount and decide whether to hold or release it.
- You can keep everything else. Ownia works next to your existing listings and tools, including Hospitable's free plan for messaging.
Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Hospitable if:
- guest messaging and automation across several platforms is your biggest time sink
- you would use its dynamic pricing, smart lock or owner tools anyway
- you already take more than about €29,000 a year in direct bookings per property
Choose Ownia if:
- you want your own direct booking website without a monthly fee
- you are starting to move guests off Airbnb and do not want to pay a subscription before the bookings come in
- many of your guests come from outside Europe, where fixed, all-in card fees protect your margin
Or combine them: Hospitable's free Essentials plan handles your inbox and platform sync, and Ownia handles your direct bookings, with no subscription on either side.
Key Takeaways
- Hospitable is an automation platform for hosts. Its free plan does not include a booking website: that starts with Professional, at €59/month or €51.92/month billed yearly.
- Ownia includes a direct booking website on its free plan and charges 3.7% per booking, card fees included.
- For a single property, Ownia costs less up to about €28,600 of direct bookings a year. Above that, Hospitable's subscription is cheaper.
- Hospitable is stronger on messaging automation, platform connections and operations tools.
- Hospitable's free plan and Ownia can work together: one for your inbox, the other for direct bookings.
Want a direct booking website without a subscription? Create your free site with Ownia and go live today.