Website design for Clarens accommodation

Clarens is a village of about 2,000 people that punches far above its weight in tourism. On a summer weekend, the town fills with visitors from Gauteng, KZN, and the Free State. They come for the art route, the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, the brewery, the mountains, and the village atmosphere.

The result: a dense cluster of 40+ independent guesthouses, B&Bs, and self-catering places, most operating on Booking.com and Airbnb. Most have no direct-booking website of their own.

Clarens's repeat visitor rate is high. People who love the village come back — for Christmas, Easter, long weekends, the cherry festival in Ficksburg next door. Those repeat guests, and the referrals they generate, are the bookings where the 15% commission is most painful. You already earned those bookings. A direct site sends them straight to you.

The seasonal pricing in Clarens also means the commission dollars are largest during peak periods — December, Easter, and festival weekends — when rates double or triple. The commission on a R1,500/night room is R225/night. Over a full weekend in December, that's R1,350 lost to Booking.com on a single booking that was going to come anyway.

Talk to us about your Clarens accommodation →