Casa da Avó
A direct-booking website for a villa in Praia da Luz, with staged 30/70 Stripe payments and a running cost of €2.80 a month.
The Challenge
Casa da Avó is a private villa in Praia da Luz — three bedrooms, a pool, panoramic Atlantic views and room for six. A single property, run by a family, not a hotel chain.
Booking portals take a commission on every stay. And a CMS site with a booking plugin swaps that commission for a different bill: hosting, licences, updates and a monthly fee that keeps running in the months the house sits empty.
For a single house with a defined season, neither of those adds up.
The Solution
We built the site with nothing in it that demands paid upkeep. No CMS, no database billing by the month, no plugins to renew. Booking management and payments live inside the site itself, and Stripe only charges when a booking comes in.
The domain. That's it.
No hosting bill, no CMS, no plugins, no licences to renew. Stripe only charges when a booking comes in.
Staged 30/70 Payments
A week-long stay shouldn't be charged like a pair of shoes. The guest pays 30% at the moment of booking to lock in the dates, and the remaining 70% is charged 14 days before arrival.
The deposit cuts cancellation risk without asking a guest to front the whole stay months before they travel — and the balance is collected automatically, with no reminders to send and no bank transfers to chase.
Direct Bookings, Direct Relationship
Every booking made on the site is a booking without a middleman: no commission, and guest details that belong to the person who owns the house. A site that works through high season and charges nothing through the low one.