About The Direct Studio
It started with a small website for my parents' Kauai condo, and the realization that every short-term rental host deserves the same thing: bookings that go straight to them, not through a 15% middleman.
The Direct Studio started with my parents' condo in Kauai.
They'd been renting it out on VRBO and Airbnb for years. The condo was almost always booked, every month, all year round. But every booking came with a 15% fee, a guest who never really belonged to them, and a platform that could change the rules at any moment. I built them a small direct booking website so their repeat guests had somewhere to book without going through the middlemen.
Two things surprised me. First, how quickly the savings added up. Fees that used to disappear into Airbnb were now staying in their pockets. Second, how much more confident guests were booking directly once the site looked legitimate. A real website, a real brand, and a real calendar gave people the trust they needed to hit "book" without a 5-star platform reviewing every transaction.
That's the whole idea behind The Direct Studio. Most short-term rental hosts are in the same spot my parents were: great property, loyal guests, no good way to escape the platform tax. So we built a studio that does for any host what I did for my parents. A custom-designed direct booking site, live in 7 days, with calendars that stay in sync and payments that go straight to your bank account.
The model is intentionally simple: one plan, one price, sites live in 7 days. We handle the design, the build, the hosting, the calendar sync, and the payments wiring through Stripe. You handle the property. Your Airbnb listing keeps working in the background; the goal isn't to replace it, it's to give your repeat guests a fee-free place to book. Every site is custom-designed around your photos and your location, and runs on the iCal sync engine we built ourselves so calendars never go out of step.
Who's behind the work
Meet Cole and Caitie
We're Cole and Caitie. We started The Direct Studio together after seeing what direct bookings did for Cole's parents in Kauai: fewer fees, better repeat guests, and a real sense of ownership over their rental business.
Cole runs development and the booking system, including the iCal sync engine that keeps your calendars in step across Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com. Caitie runs everything else: design direction, client onboarding, photos and content, and the part of the work that makes a site feel like your property and not a template.
We're a small team on purpose. Every site we ship, we both touch. If you have a question, you'll hear from one of us, not a support queue.
How we work
The principles that shape every site we ship.
One plan, no upsells
We don't do tiers, setup fees, or sales calls. The same $59/mo plan works for a one-property host or a multi-suite cabin. If you outgrow it, we'll tell you.
Your data is always yours
Your domain, your photos and content, your guest list, your Stripe account. The website itself is a subscription, like Squarespace or Lodgify, so it goes offline if you cancel. But everything you've put into it leaves with you.
Our own sync engine
We built our own iCal sync engine because the off-the-shelf ones weren't good enough. It quietly keeps your calendar accurate across Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com on every site we ship.