Costs and fees
Hipcamp is free to list on, but it takes a cut of every booking. Here is what that cut actually is, who pays it, and what it adds up to.
Hipcamp charges hosts a service fee of roughly 12.5 percent of the booking subtotal, taken out of your payout, and adds a separate service fee that the guest pays on top. Counting both sides, the effective take on a booking is commonly put in the 12.5 to 20 percent range. There is no monthly or listing fee: the whole cost is the per-booking cut. Fees can change, so confirm the current numbers in Hipcamp's host terms.
| What | Hipcamp | Campdirect |
|---|---|---|
| Host service fee | Roughly 12.5% of the booking subtotal | None |
| Guest-side service fee | Added on top, paid by the guest | None from us |
| Payment processing | Included in the fees | Billed by the processor at cost |
| Monthly or listing fee | None (free to list) | Flat monthly, from 29 |
| Who owns the guest | Hipcamp | You |
Figures are Hipcamp's publicly described host fees and can change. Always check their current terms for the exact percentages.
Say a guest books two nights at 60 a night, a 120 booking. At a 12.5 percent host service fee, Hipcamp keeps 15 and you receive 105, before the guest-side fee they also charge on top. Do ten of those bookings in a busy month and that is 150 gone, every month, for as long as you list.
A flat monthly tool changes the maths. Campdirect is from 29 a month with no commission, so on the same ten bookings you keep the full 1,200 minus only your payment processor's standard rate. Past a handful of bookings a month, the flat fee costs less than the cut, and you also keep the guest's email to bring them back.
A marketplace is a paid discovery channel. If you are brand new and nobody knows your site yet, the exposure can be worth the fee while you build up. The mistake is staying there forever and paying a cut on guests who would happily book you direct. The common playbook is to keep a Hipcamp listing for discovery and send repeat and direct guests to your own booking site to avoid the commission.
Hipcamp charges hosts a service fee of roughly 12.5 percent of the booking subtotal, deducted from the host's payout, and adds a separate service fee on top that the guest pays. Combined, the effective take on a booking is commonly cited in the 12.5 to 20 percent range depending on how you count the guest-side fee. Hipcamp can change its fees, so check its current host terms for the exact figure.
Hipcamp is free to list on: there is no monthly or listing fee. It makes money by taking a percentage of each booking instead, roughly 12.5 percent from the host plus a guest-side fee. So it is free to join but not free to use: the cost is a cut of every booking, for as long as you use it.
On a marketplace like Hipcamp, the platform owns the guest relationship, including the guest's email, so you cannot easily remarket to past guests or drive repeat bookings direct. With your own booking site, that relationship and the guest's contact details are yours.
For hosts who already have some demand, a flat-fee direct-booking tool is usually cheaper than paying a percentage forever. Campdirect is a flat monthly fee from 29 (GBP, USD, or CAD) with no commission and no per-booking fee, so past a handful of bookings a month it costs less than Hipcamp's cut, and you keep the guest. Many hosts keep a Hipcamp listing for discovery and move repeat and direct guests to their own site.
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