How to take card payments for a holiday let: a UK host’s guide (2026)

Your three options for taking card payments

Most UK holiday-let owners who start taking direct bookings consider three routes. Here is the honest picture on each.

1. Bank transfer

The simplest option on paper: you share your sort code and account number, guests transfer the money before arrival.

The problems in practice are real. There is no automated confirmation that payment has cleared before the booking is locked in. Guests have to log into their banking app, copy details, wait for the transfer to arrive — and research shows that any extra step at checkout costs bookings. Deposits and partial payments are hard to manage cleanly. And if a dispute arises, you have no chargeback protection and no payment trail that a card processor would give you.

Bank transfer works for hosts who know every guest personally. For new direct bookings it is a friction-heavy option that hurts conversion.

2. PayPal

PayPal is consumer-grade and widely known, but it is not purpose-built for accommodation payments. Disputes go through PayPal’s own resolution process rather than a chargeback, and PayPal’s seller protection does not cover “services not rendered” claims well — which is exactly the risk you face with accommodation. Fees are also higher than dedicated payment processors for UK transactions, and guests without a PayPal account face an extra signup step.

Fine for the odd payment. Not the right tool for running a direct booking channel.

3. A dedicated payment processor (Stripe)

Stripe is the standard choice for holiday-let direct booking sites, for good reason. It handles Strong Customer Authentication automatically, is PCI Level 1 certified (the highest level), puts the card form on your site without card data ever touching your server, and pays out to your UK bank account in around two business days. Guests pay by card the same way they would on any professional booking site.

The rest of this guide focuses on Stripe, because it is what the direct-booking tools that UK hosts actually use are built on.

What Stripe costs for UK holiday-let card payments

Stripe’s standard UK pricing for card payments is around 1.5% + 20p per successful transaction for domestic UK Visa and Mastercard cards. (Stripe UK pricing)

A few things worth knowing around that headline number:

• European cards (EU-issued Visa/Mastercard) carry a slightly higher rate because of interchange rules post-Brexit. American Express and other premium cards are higher still. Stripe shows the rate breakdown in your dashboard.
• New Stripe accountshave an initial payout delay while Stripe verifies your identity and business. Once cleared, the standard payout speed applies (around two business days). Factor this in if you are expecting to receive a guest’s payment within days of going live.
• There are no monthly feeson Stripe’s standard plan. You pay per transaction. If a booking is refunded in full, Stripe returns the processing fee.

What this costs in practice (an illustrative example)

To make the number concrete, here is a worked example with stated assumptions — not a measured average, just a clear illustration of the maths:

• Booking value: £600 (for a four-night stay at £150/night)
• Stripe fee: 1.5% + 20p = (£600 × 0.015) + £0.20 = £9.00 + £0.20 = £9.20
• You receive: £590.80

For comparison, the same £600 booking through Airbnb at the current 15.5% host-only fee would cost you £93 in Airbnb fees (plus VAT if you are not VAT-registered, taking it to roughly £111.60). The Stripe processing fee on that same booking is a different order of magnitude.

How deposits work on a direct booking site

Most holiday-let owners taking direct bookings want to collect a deposit at the time of booking, then the balance closer to arrival — exactly as the platforms do. Stripe supports this in two ways:

Option 1: Split payments (charge now, charge later)

Take the deposit as a card charge at the time of booking. Take the balance as a second charge at a set number of days before arrival. Most direct booking tools automate this schedule so you do not have to remember to charge manually.

Option 2: Card authorisation (hold, then capture)

Stripe can authorise a card for a given amount without immediately charging it, holding the funds for up to seven days before the authorisation expires. This is less common in holiday lets (the hold period is short relative to booking lead times) but useful for damage deposits where you want to capture only if there is a claim.

Security deposits

Handling a security deposit online is genuinely tricky. The options are: (a) take it as a separate charge and refund manually after check-out; (b) note a card “on file” and charge only if needed; (c) use a damage waiver add-on through a third party. Each has trade-offs. Most small UK hosts start with option (a) for simplicity, but check what your direct booking tool supports.

Strong Customer Authentication: what UK hosts need to know

Since 2021, UK and European card payments must comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)— a regulation requiring guests to verify their identity at checkout using two factors (typically their card plus a one-time code sent by their bank). You will have seen this as the 3D Secure step when you buy something online yourself.

For you as a host, the practical implication is straightforward: use a payment processor that handles SCA automatically. Stripe does this by default for UK transactions. When a guest pays via a Stripe-powered checkout, the 3D Secure step fires where required, and Stripe handles the exemption logic (most hotel-style lodging payments qualify for an exemption that lets the card charge through without an additional step, but Stripe manages that invisibly).

If you build a payment flow yourself without SCA support, your payments will be declined by UK card issuers. This is a strong practical reason to use a purpose-built direct booking site rather than a homemade solution.

Card payments vs platform commission: the full comparison

Sources: Stripe UK pricing; PayPal UK merchant fees; Airbnb and Vrbo figures from each platform’s own published guidance; the Booking.com estimate is from third-party trackers, as Booking.com does not publish its rate (see our Booking.com commission guide for detail).

The takeaway is not “avoid all platforms” — Airbnb and Booking.com earn their commission on bookings they bring you, and that discovery is genuinely valuable. The case for direct booking is specifically the guests who already know you: repeat guests, referrals, guests from your own social channels. On those bookings, paying 15%-plus is paying introduction prices on a relationship you already own.

Our wider guide covers the direct booking strategy in full: How to take direct bookings for your holiday let.

PCI compliance: do you need to worry about it?

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is the set of rules card networks impose on businesses that handle cardholder data. Non-compliance can result in fines and loss of the ability to accept card payments.

The simple answer for holiday-let owners: if you use Stripe (or any hosted payment processor), PCI compliance is handled for you. Stripe is certified at PCI Level 1, the highest standard. Card data is entered into Stripe’s own hosted fields and never touches your website or server. You fill in a brief self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ A) annually — Stripe provides this in your dashboard and it takes minutes.

If you were to build a payment form yourself and store card numbers, PCI becomes a serious, expensive obligation. Another strong argument for using a purpose-built booking tool.

Where Hostcation fits

Hostcation is a direct booking site for UK holiday-let owners, built on Stripe. When a guest books through your Hostcation site, Stripe handles the payment — including SCA, PCI compliance, and payouts to your UK bank account — automatically.

• A flat £10 per property per month on the annual plan (£15 monthly), with 0% booking commission. Stripe’s standard card processing fees still apply (around 1.5% + 20p per domestic UK card transaction) — those go to Stripe, not to us.
• Guests pay you directly via Stripe, straight into your own bank account. No platform sits between you and your money.
• Two-way iCal calendar sync, refreshed hourly, with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Sykes — so a direct payment and a booking blocks the dates everywhere and prevents double-bookings.
• A 14-day free trial— a card is needed to start, and you can cancel any time before it ends, so you won’t be charged.

Use the savings calculator to put your own numbers in and see what the difference looks like for your property. Or see it running on a real one in our Stirling Riverview case study — around 20 direct bookings and an estimated £2,800 kept in commission this year.

The bottom line

• Stripe is the standard for UK holiday-let card payments: purpose-built, SCA-compliant, PCI Level 1, and straightforward to set up via a direct booking site.
• The processing cost is around 1.5% + 20p per domestic UK card transaction— a fraction of the commission any platform charges.
• Deposits can be taken as an upfront charge and balance later, or managed via card-on-file for security deposits.
• SCA is mandatory for UK card payments since 2021. Any payment tool you use must handle it; Stripe does so automatically.
• PCI compliance is handled for you if you use a hosted processor like Stripe. You do not store card data yourself.
• The real value of direct card payments is on repeat and referral bookings— guests who already know you and would have booked anyway. On those bookings, a 1.5% Stripe fee is a very different proposition from a 15.5% platform commission.