Notes from the independent house.
A working journal for independent hoteliers, written by people who have stood at the desk, set the rates, and balanced the books. Read, share, argue with us.
Results for “Pricing”.
MCP for hotels: how AI assistants will find, sell and help run your property
ChatGPT, Claude and Google can now read live hotel prices, and some can take a booking. The standard behind it is called MCP. Here is what it is, what it changes for a small hotel's visibility and daily work, and what to do about it now.
Tribii
Hotels using Tribii: three real setups for direct bookings
A canal house in Amsterdam, a village guest house in the Douro and two apartments in Kampen all take commission-free bookings with Tribii. Each one set it up differently. Here is what they did, and how to choose the setup that fits your property.
Tribii
The real cost of an OTA booking: commission is only the first line
Most hoteliers know their commission rate. Few know their effective rate. Here are the other lines on every OTA booking, and how to work out what a room really costs you to sell in 2027.
Tribii
What's new in Tribii: September 2026
A team that sets up Tribii for you, guest messages that send themselves, and iCal calendar sync on Pro as a lighter, more affordable alternative to the channel manager. Here is everything new this month.
Tribii
Rate parity is gone in Europe. How to price your direct rate for 2027
Booking.com can no longer make you match its price on your own website. Most small hotels still do. Here is what the law allows, what the algorithm might not, and how to set a direct rate for 2027 that pays.
Tribii
Own your guests
An OTA booking doesn't hand you a guest. It hands you a stay, and the OTA keeps the name, the email and the right to ever talk to that person again. Here's what that costs an independent hotel, and how Tribii is built on the opposite assumption.
Tribii
The street outside is part of your hotel
How guest messaging, local experiences and a traveller board turn a stay into three connections, and why one of them lands as a real line on the folio.
Daniel Vidal
Free booking engine with a payment gateway: what a small hotel should actually look for
Three business models hide behind the word "free", and only one of them leaves your direct bookings alone. Plus the payment question most vendors would rather you didn't ask.
Tribii
What is a hotel PMS? A plain-language guide for independent hoteliers
Not a definition from a brochure. What the software actually does between 7am and midnight at a twenty-room property, and which words mean what.
Tribii
Open-source hotel software vs free SaaS: the real cost of self-hosting
The licence costs nothing. The server, the updates, the backups and the person who fixes it during check-in are not included.
Tribii
How to move your small hotel off spreadsheets
The spreadsheet got you here, and it is not stupid. But there are four specific places it fails, and each one costs you money quietly.
Tribii
Is there a truly free hotel PMS? What "free" covers in 2026
Three different things get called free hotel software, and only one of them is free in the way you mean. Here is how to tell them apart.
Tribii
How much does a hotel booking engine cost in 2026?
Published prices, hidden tiers, and per-booking fees. What the market actually charges a small property, with every figure sourced and dated.
Tribii
Commission-free booking engine: what it really means
Every booking engine calls itself commission-free. The phrase is doing different work in each case, and only one version means what you think.
Tribii
Cloudbeds pricing for small hotels: what you will actually pay in 2026
Cloudbeds does not publish a price. Here is what is known, what is estimated, what to ask on the sales call, and when a small property is overpaying.
Tribii
Channel manager vs booking engine: what a small hotel actually needs
The two tools get sold together and confused constantly. One sells rooms on other people's websites. The other sells rooms on yours.
Tribii
The Second Tab: Why Guests Find You on Booking.com and Book Somewhere Else
Most guests who book you directly found you on an OTA first. Here is what that second tab is worth, and why, after the EU killed rate parity, independent hotels can finally win it.
Daniel Vidal
Rebalancing Tourism
How Infrastructure Models Like Tribii Can Reshape Europe's Tourism Economy
Nicola Villa
Welcome to Tribii: a fairer deal for independent hotels
Who we are, where the idea came from, and why we're building a commission-free way for independent hotels to win direct bookings. A hello from the Tribii team.
Daniel VidalRead it first, in your inbox.
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