Should You Build a Direct-Booking Website for Your Golden Isles or Savannah Rental?

If you have arrived here, you are almost certainly a coastal Georgia owner doing the OTA commission arithmetic and not liking the answer. You have a property on St. Simons, Sea Island, Jekyll, Tybee, or in the Savannah Historic District, you have a few seasons of bookings on Airbnb or Vrbo behind you, and you have probably had several guests by now ask some version of the question: can we just book with you directly next year? You are sitting at the kitchen table running the numbers on what a real direct-booking channel would actually cost and whether it would actually work — not the rosy version sold by booking-platform vendors, the honest version with all the hidden costs and the unglamorous marketing work included.

This guide is the honest version. We walk through the real OTA commission math on coastal Georgia property revenues, the actual line items in the cost of going direct (the subscription, the hosting, the payment processor, the channel manager, and the marketing work most guides skip past), a worked example on a representative St. Simons sixty-thousand-dollar property and a Savannah eighty-thousand-dollar townhouse, the cons that direct-booking advocates rarely acknowledge, what it actually takes to win, the role of Google Vacation Rentals as the no-commission channel few owners properly use, and a clean worth-it-when versus skip-it-when verdict you can apply to your own situation.

The short version: direct booking is usually worth it for higher-ADR, repeat-heavy, multi-property, or distinctive Golden Isles and Savannah listings, and usually not worth it for a single low-ADR unit with thin repeat demand where OTA reach still beats the overhead. The long version is the rest of this guide.

The Real OTA Commission Math on Coastal Georgia Rates

Start with what the platforms are actually taking, because most coastal Georgia owners underestimate it. Airbnb operates two fee structures. The simplified host-only fee — required for software-connected listings (anyone using property management software, a channel manager, or multiple connected pricing tools) and increasingly common across all listings — is approximately 15% of the booking total, with the guest paying no separate service fee but seeing a higher all-in price. The older split-fee structure — three percent host fee plus a service fee of approximately fourteen percent paid by the guest — remains available for some independent listings, though Airbnb has been migrating more and more inventory toward the host-only fee. Vrbo's host fee is approximately 8% per booking, with an annual subscription tier of $600–$800 that lowers the per-booking fee for high-volume listings.

Now apply those percentages to coastal Georgia revenues. A St. Simons three-bedroom cottage grossing sixty thousand dollars per year on Airbnb under the host-only fee structure pays approximately nine thousand dollars in Airbnb fees alone — fifteen percent times sixty thousand. Add the same property's Vrbo bookings (assume 30% of total volume) at 8%, which is roughly $1,400 annually. Combined OTA fees on the property: roughly ten thousand dollars per year, before any direct-booking channel is even considered. A Savannah Historic District three-bedroom townhouse grossing eighty thousand dollars per year under the same mix pays approximately twelve thousand dollars in combined OTA fees annually. A Sea Island-adjacent four-bedroom grossing one hundred ten thousand pays approximately seventeen thousand. These are real dollars. They flow out every year, and they compound.

The intuitive response is to assume the answer is, therefore, to go directly and capture that money. The actual answer is more nuanced because the OTAs are also doing real work for that money — driving demand, vetting guests, processing payments, handling disputes, and building the review base that underpins your property's credibility. The question is not whether OTA fees are large; they are. The question is whether the work the OTAs do for those fees can be replaced by you, software, an agency, or some combination, at a lower total cost. That math is what the rest of this guide works through.

The Frozen-Supply Lever Specific to Coastal Georgia

There is a strategic argument for direct booking in coastal Georgia that does not apply equally in most other markets. The Savannah Historic District operates under a 20% cap on short-term vacation rental permits for non-owner-occupied properties in most downtown wards. The cap is binding. Existing permits cannot be displaced by new entrants in most of the most desirable neighborhoods. Tybee Island is in active litigation over a similar cap (Tybee Alliance v. City of Tybee Island, summary judgment arguments heard in January 2026, ruling pending as of this writing, with a proposed island-wide cap of roughly seven hundred seventy-five licenses).

For owners in capped or potentially capped markets, supply is not the growth lever it would be in an open market. You cannot grow the business by adding doors — the doors are frozen. The growth levers available to you are margin and channel ownership of your existing properties. That is exactly what direct booking delivers. The structural case for direct booking is therefore stronger in Savannah and (potentially) Tybee than in nearly any other Southeast market, because owners in frozen-supply markets have fewer growth options, and the dollars not paid to Airbnb compound directly into reinvestable capital.

St. Simons, Sea Island, and Jekyll have different supply dynamics — St. Simons is more open, Sea Island operates as a quasi-private community with limited inventory, and Jekyll's supply is controlled by the Jekyll Island Authority. The capped-market argument applies less strongly here, but the premium-ADR argument applies more strongly: every percentage point of commission saved at a four-hundred-forty-six-dollar St. Simons ADR is dollar-larger than the same point saved at a one-hundred-fifty-dollar value-tier ADR somewhere else. High-ADR markets reward direct-booking development in proportion to their ADR.

What Going Direct Actually Costs — The Full Line-Item Picture

Most direct-booking guides understate the cost of going direct because they only list the obvious software subscription and ignore the rest. The full picture has six categories, and a credible decision requires accounting for all of them.

First is the booking platform itself. An all-in-one property management system like OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify, or Hostaway typically costs $40 to $150 per property per month in the entry-to-mid tier, depending on features and property count. A custom-designed site on Wix Bookings or Squarespace, paired with a PMS booking engine, adds the platform cost, site build, and ongoing maintenance. A fully custom Wix Studio or Webflow build for a portfolio brand is typically $5,000–$15,000, with ongoing maintenance and content fees.

Second is domain registration and hosting. Negligible — twelve to fifty dollars per year for a domain plus hosting if your booking platform does not include it. This is the smallest line item but is worth listing for completeness.

Third is payment processing. Stripe is the standard at approximately 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction on standard cards. PayPal Braintree and Square offer comparable rates. On a sixty-thousand-dollar property, payment processing costs roughly seventeen hundred to two thousand dollars per year of direct-booked revenue. This is real and recurring — it does not go away after the first year.

Fourth is the channel manager. Non-negotiable if you continue listing on Airbnb and Vrbo alongside direct. Channel manager software is typically embedded in the PMS subscription above. If you use a standalone channel manager (Smoobu, Hostfully, or iCal-based open-source solutions), expect an additional $15–$40 per property per month.

Fifth is damage protection or security deposits. If you use a damage-waiver provider like Safely or Waivo, the per-stay fee is paid by the guest, so the cost is reflected in the guest experience, not directly to you. If you hold refundable security deposits through your payment processor, the operational cost is the time you spend managing them.

Sixth — and this is the line item most guides skip — is marketing. A direct-booking site with no demand pipeline behind it is a brochure. The actual cost of driving traffic to a direct site through SEO, content, social, email, and Google Vacation Rentals optimization is real and ongoing. For a self-managing owner doing this work themselves, the cost is time — roughly five to fifteen hours per month per property at the early-stage launch and three to seven hours per month per property at steady state. For an owner outsourcing the marketing layer to an agency, the cost is the agency retainer (typically $1,000–$1,500 per month at the premium tier, as discussed in our agency-worth-it guide). For an owner doing nothing on the marketing side, the cost is the opportunity cost of never receiving any direct bookings.

Worked Example — A St. Simons $60K Property and a Savannah $80K Townhouse

Run the numbers on two representative properties to ground the abstract framework. Assumptions: the property continues to list on Airbnb and Vrbo for OTA distribution; the goal of direct booking is to migrate twenty to thirty-five percent of bookings off-platform over twenty-four months, not to abandon the OTAs.

Property One: St. Simons Island four-bedroom cottage grossing sixty thousand dollars per year, mixed Airbnb (seventy percent) and Vrbo (thirty percent).

• Current OTA fees annually: ~$6,300 Airbnb + ~$1,440 Vrbo = ~$7,740 total

• PMS / booking platform (OwnerRez or Lodgify mid-tier): ~$1,200/yr

• Payment processing on direct-booked share (assume 25% migrated by month 18 = $15K direct revenue): ~$450/yr

• Channel manager: included in PMS

• Marketing: $0/yr if self-managing the work (5-15 hrs/mo of owner time); $14,400/yr if outsourcing to an agency at $1,200/mo

• Year-one direct setup (site build, photography refresh if needed, brand work): $2,000–$5,000 if DIY or light agency; $4,000–$7,000 if full agency setup

• Year-one net effect (self-managed marketing): ~$15K direct revenue at ~$450 payment processing vs. ~$1,935 OTA fees that would have applied → net savings ~$1,485 (minus PMS subscription $1,200 = ~$285 net positive yr 1) plus the relationship asset and 25% channel diversification

• Year two and onward: savings compound as direct share grows and setup costs amortize

Property Two: Savannah Historic District three-bedroom townhouse grossing eighty thousand dollars per year, mixed Airbnb (seventy-five percent) and Vrbo (twenty-five percent).

• Current OTA fees annually: ~$9,000 Airbnb + ~$1,600 Vrbo = ~$10,600 total

• PMS / booking platform: ~$1,200/yr

• Payment processing on direct-booked share (assume 30% migrated by month 18 = $24K direct revenue): ~$720/yr

• Year-one net direct savings (self-managed marketing): ~$24K direct revenue at ~$720 payment processing vs. ~$3,180 OTA fees → net savings ~$2,460 minus PMS = ~$1,260 net positive yr 1, growing meaningfully yr 2+

• Capped-supply leverage: a direct booking secured today is a relationship asset on a property whose supply position cannot be displaced by new entrants — the long-term value of that asset is structurally higher than in an open-supply market

Two important caveats on these numbers. First, they assume the owner is doing the marketing work themselves or with a modest agency budget. An owner who launches a direct-booking site and does no marketing will see roughly zero direct bookings, and the entire cost will be sunk into a non-performing channel. Second, the numbers improve dramatically over a five-year horizon as the direct share grows from twenty-five percent toward forty or fifty percent of total bookings, the email list compounds, and the cost of acquisition per direct guest falls to near zero for repeat bookers. Direct booking is a compounding asset, not a year-one revenue lift.

The Cons Most Direct-Booking Advocates Skip

Direct-booking guides rarely lay out the real downsides honestly. Here are the five most-skipped cons that coastal Georgia owners need to factor into the decision.

First, chargeback and payment risk. When a guest disputes a charge with their credit card company, the chargeback goes through your Stripe or other payment processor and may result in the funds being held or reversed pending investigation. Airbnb absorbs much of this risk on its platform; on direct, you absorb it. The risk per booking is small but nonzero, and it requires you to maintain documented rental agreements, ID verification records, and clear written cancellation policies to defend against frivolous disputes.

Second, guest trust and review credibility. Airbnb and Vrbo provide guests with a verified review system that gives new guests confidence in your property. Your direct site has no comparable built-in trust system unless you have invested in displaying genuine reviews, security badges, and clearly stated policies. Trust does not transfer automatically; you build it over time through site design, content, and review migration. Until you have a conversion on direct, it will be lower than the conversion on Airbnb for comparable photos and price.

Third, the SEO grind. Ranking organically for queries like 'St. Simons Island beachfront rental or 'Savannah Historic District vacation rental' is hard. Your direct site is competing against the Airbnb and Vrbo property pages (often indexed and ranking well for the same queries), the websites of the big local managers (Southern Belle Vacation Rentals, Lucky Savannah, Golden Isles Realty, iTrip Golden Isles), the major travel publishers, and the visitor bureau pages. Reaching page one of Google for high-intent local queries typically takes 12 to 24 months of consistent content and technical SEO work — sometimes longer in capped markets where supply is constrained and existing operators dominate the search results.

Fourth, the operational layer expands. Direct-booking owners take on tax remittance responsibilities that the OTAs were handling, agreement signing, ID verification, payment dispute response, and a higher rate of pre-booking inquiry questions because the guest cannot see the platform's standardized cancellation policy and review base. Each booking takes more of the owner's time than an OTA booking meaningfully. For owners already at the limit of operational availability, this is a real constraint.

Fifth, the marketing work is recurring and demanding. A direct-booking site is not a build-once-then-forget asset. It requires ongoing content (blog posts, neighborhood guides, seasonal updates), email marketing to the list, social media presence, Google Business Profile management, regular SEO maintenance, and a consistent voice and brand presence. The owner who launches a site and walks away ends up with a non-performing channel. Many do.

What It Actually Takes to Win in Direct Booking

The owners who succeed in coastal Georgia direct booking do specific things consistently. The pattern across successful operators is clear.

First, they build the site with the visual ceiling required by the market. Premium coastal Georgia ADRs require editorial-grade photography, restrained design, clear value propositions, and trust signals visible above the fold. The booking experience must feel comparable to the OTA experience in trust and friction; better in design and editorial.

Second, they capture emails from every OTA stay. Pre-arrival message, welcome book at the property, post-stay message — each touch invites the guest to join the host's email list. Over twelve months, a disciplined list-capture program converts ten to twenty percent of OTA arrivals into list subscribers, and three to seven percent of those become repeat direct bookers within two years. The compounding starts here.

Third, they invest in local SEO. Targeted landing pages for high-intent queries: 'St. Simons Island beachfront rental, 'Savannah Historic District vacation home,' 'Jekyll Island cottage,' 'Tybee Island pet-friendly rental.' Each landing page is 600 to 1,200 words, includes the named places guests search for, uses schema markup, and links to the property availability calendar. This is twelve to twenty-four months of content work that compounds steadily.

Fourth, they connect Google Vacation Rentals. Google Vacation Rentals (formerly Google Travel for vacation rentals) is the no-commission distribution channel most coastal Georgia owners do not use properly. Once your direct-booking site is configured correctly, Google can send qualified travelers directly to your booking page from Google Search and Google Maps without taking a commission. The connection requires structured data, accurate availability and pricing feeds, and adherence to Google's content standards, but the channel is free distribution and is growing fast. Set this up early.

Fifth, they invest in Google Business Profile. A claimed and maintained Google Business Profile puts your property on Google Maps, surfaces it in local pack search results, and provides a direct review channel. Encourage every direct guest to leave a Google review — this builds the trust layer that compensates for the absence of an OTA review base.

Sixth, they migrate social proof off the platforms. Curate the best Airbnb and Vrbo reviews onto your direct site (with attribution to the source platform — most review policies allow this when properly attributed). Build testimonial sections, photo galleries from past guest stays (with permission), and a small number of named-guest case studies. Trust transfers when you do the work to transfer it.

Google Vacation Rentals — The No-Commission Channel Most Owners Miss

Google Vacation Rentals deserves its own section because most owners in coastal Georgia do not understand how it works. Google indexes vacation rental properties from connected booking platforms (Vrbo, Booking.com, some PMS integrations) and from direct-booking sites that publish structured data Google can read. The traveler searches Google or Google Maps, sees a list of properties with prices, dates, and photos, and clicks through to their chosen booking site. Google takes no commission — the property owner or PMS pays nothing per booking.

The catch is that Google's listing quality bar is real. You need accurate availability and pricing data feeds, schema markup on your direct site, professional photography, complete property details, and adherence to Google's vacation rental policies. Most all-in-one PMS platforms (OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify) now have built-in Google Vacation Rentals connections that handle the feed setup. Custom Wix or Webflow sites typically require additional integration work but are equally eligible once set up correctly.

For coastal Georgia properties competing in capped-supply markets, Google Vacation Rentals is one of the highest-leverage distribution channels available. The travelers Google sends are typically high-intent (they are searching for a specific destination and dates), pre-qualified (they have seen the price before clicking), and arrive without an OTA commission attached. Every booking through this channel is a margin win comparable to a list-based direct booking. Set it up early and maintain it.

Worth It When / Skip It When — The Verdict Framework

Here is the clean decision framework. Direct booking in coastal Georgia is usually worth it when most of the following are true:

• Annual gross revenue per property is above approximately $60,000 (the OTA commission savings comfortably exceed the cost of going direct)

• ADR is at the premium tier ($300+/night) where commission percentages translate into large dollar amounts

• The property has a meaningful repeat-guest base or strong potential to develop one (golf groups, St. Patrick's regulars, annual summer families, snowbirds)

• The owner is in a capped or potentially-capped supply market (Savannah Historic District, possibly Tybee depending on litigation) where supply growth is not an alternative growth lever

• The owner has 1+ properties to amortize the site build across, or a strong single-property brand identity worth developing

• The owner is committed to either doing the marketing work themselves or paying an agency to do it — not launching and walking away

• The owner has a 3+ year horizon on the property and can wait 12–24 months for compounding to deliver real volume

• The owner wants to own the guest relationship and the brand long-term, not just maximize next year's revenue

Direct booking in coastal Georgia is usually the wrong call when most of the following are true:

• Annual gross revenue per property is below $40,000 — OTA fees are small enough that direct savings are immaterial relative to the cost

• The property is a single, generic, low-ADR unit (a value-tier condo, a smaller Brunswick unit) where OTA reach drives almost all bookings

• The owner has no time, interest, or budget to do ongoing marketing work, and would launch a site that promptly goes stale

• The owner expects to sell the property within 12–18 months, and the setup investment will not amortize

• The owner has effectively no repeat-guest base and no pipeline to develop one (transient short-stay tourist segments dominate)

• The owner already has an established full-service property manager who handles all marketing and is performing well — adding a direct channel duplicates effort with marginal benefit

• The owner cannot afford the upfront site build or the marketing labor in either time or dollars

Common Misconceptions That Trap Coastal Georgia Owners

Three misconceptions recur across coastal Georgia owners weighing this decision. First, launching a direct-booking site automatically drives direct bookings. It does not. A site without marketing behind it is a brochure. The bookings come from the email list, the SEO content, the Google Vacation Rentals feed, the social presence, and the post-stay follow-up loop — not from having a site. Many owners launch and walk away. They get nothing.

Second, direct booking will rapidly replace OTA bookings. It will not. The realistic path is twenty to thirty-five percent of bookings migrated off-platform within twenty-four months, growing to forty to fifty percent over three to five years for owners who run the channel consistently. The OTAs remain a large share of the booking mix throughout. Direct booking is a complement, not a replacement, at least for the first several years.

Third, going direct means cutting OTA distribution entirely to avoid double-bookings. It does not. Modern channel manager software instantly syncs calendars across Airbnb, Vrbo, and your direct site. The double-booking risk is real only if you are managing calendars manually. Channel sync solves the operational problem; the strategic question is whether to add direct as an additional channel, not whether to subtract OTAs.

How to Decide If You Are Genuinely on the Fence

Many coastal Georgia owners reading this guide are on the genuine fence between direct and OTA-only. If you are, the practical framework is to run a structured twelve-month pilot. Launch a minimum viable direct site on an all-in-one platform (OwnerRez or Lodgify) for the lower-friction monthly cost. Spend three to four hours per week for the first six months on email list capture, post-stay outreach to past OTA guests, basic SEO content (two landing pages per quarter), and Google Vacation Rentals connection. Track direct bookings, cost incurred, time invested, and revenue lift versus the baseline at month twelve.

If the pilot delivers 10 or more direct bookings in the first 12 months, with a net revenue lift after costs, the channel is working; the next decision is whether to scale investment. If the pilot results in fewer than 5 direct bookings and the time investment was painful, the answer for your specific situation is probably to stay OTA-only and stop the experiment. The pilot framework removes the binary go-or-don't-go decision and replaces it with a learning experiment scaled to your time and budget.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Ready to put this strategy to work in Coastal Georgia?

Crest & Cove Creative partners with a select group of independent hosts in the Southeast each quarter — focused on listing quality, organic search visibility, and direct booking growth. If your property isn't reaching the guests it should be, that's exactly the kind of problem we solve. Reach out directly at crestcove.co — we'll take an honest look at where your listing stands and tell you plainly whether we can help.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to build a direct-booking site for a coastal Georgia vacation rental?

Three tiers. All-in-one platforms (OwnerRez, Lodgify, Hostfully) cost $40–$150 per property per month, with a serviceable template included. Custom Wix or Squarespace sites paired with a PMS booking engine typically run $2,000–$7,000 to build, with $150–$300 per month to operate. Fully custom Wix Studio or Webflow brand builds are $5,000–$15,000 to build, with ongoing maintenance. The payback at coastal Georgia ADRs is typically under 12 months in the lower tiers and 18–24 months in the premium custom tier.

What percentage of Airbnb commission does the host actually pay in 2026?

Approximately fifteen percent of the booking total under the host-only fee structure (required for software-connected listings and many property managers, increasingly common for owners), or about three percent host fee plus a guest-paid service fee of approximately fourteen percent under the older split structure. Vrbo's host fee is approximately 8% per booking, with annual subscription tiers available for higher-volume properties. Verify current rates with the platforms — they shift periodically.

Will I lose Airbnb ranking if I drive direct bookings?

No. Airbnb's ranking algorithm does not penalize hosts for having a direct-booking channel. The platform cannot see whether you also book direct; it can only see your Airbnb-specific metrics (response rate, acceptance rate, review velocity, cancellation history, calendar density). Maintain strong Airbnb-specific operations, and your ranking is unaffected by your off-platform activity. The widespread fear that Airbnb 'punishes' direct booking is misplaced.

Is Google Vacation Rentals really commission-free for hosts?

Yes. Google indexes vacation rentals and sends qualified travelers directly to the booking page of your choice — your direct site, OwnerRez, Lodgify, or wherever your booking flow lives — without taking a commission. The catch is the setup requirements: structured data, accurate availability and pricing feeds, professional photography, and adherence to Google's content standards. Most all-in-one PMS platforms now have built-in Google Vacation Rentals integrations that handle the technical setup.

How long does it take to see meaningful direct bookings after launching a site?

First direct bookings typically arrive within 60–90 days of launch, almost always from existing OTA guests joining the email list. Meaningful Google organic search traffic takes 6–12 months of consistent content and SEO work. The 20–35% direct-booking share typically materializes between months 12 and 24 for owners who run the post-stay loop, send the email list, and update site content consistently. Owners who launch and walk away usually see fewer than 5 direct bookings ever.

What is the single highest-leverage move for a coastal Georgia owner just launching direct booking?

Email list capture from every OTA stay. Every other tactic is secondary to the email list because the list becomes the conversion engine for repeat bookings, the audience for content marketing, and the trust base for new product launches. A coastal Georgia property running a disciplined list-capture program for twelve months has a list of 100–200 engaged past guests by month twelve, and 3–7% of them will book direct in the second annual cycle. That single channel pays for the entire direct-booking stack.

Do I need to keep using Airbnb and Vrbo if I have my own website?

Almost always yes. OTAs are an efficient guest-acquisition channel — the goal of direct is not to abandon them but to convert OTA arrivals into repeat direct relationships. A balanced 50–70% OTA / 30–50% direct mix over two to three years is the realistic target. Channel manager software keeps calendars synced, so there is no operational downside to running both.

How does direct booking interact with the Savannah 20% STVR cap?

Direct booking is more valuable in a capped-supply market than in an open one. The cap means supply growth is not an alternative growth lever — your existing permits are the assets you are growing the business on. Capturing margin and the guest relationship through direct booking on your existing properties is one of the few growth levers available to capped-market owners. The long-term return on direct-booking investment in Savannah's capped wards is structurally higher than in any open-supply market.

What is the difference between this decision and the related agency-versus-DIY decision?

The direct-booking decision is whether to build a direct channel at all; the agency-versus-DIY decision is who does the marketing work behind it. Both decisions interact: an owner who decides to go direct and chooses DIY for the marketing layer is investing primarily in time; an owner who decides to go direct and outsources marketing to an agency is investing primarily in dollars. Both paths can produce a working direct channel; the right combination depends on the owner's availability of time, revenue tier, and capital budget.

Should I expect lower or higher conversion rates on my direct site versus Airbnb?

Lower in year one, comparable in year two, often higher in year three and beyond for repeat-direct bookers. Airbnb has a built-in trust system, a payment flow guests are familiar with, and a review base that translates into conversion at well-understood rates. Your direct site is building trust through design, copy, reviews, and brand presence. Until that trust is built, conversion will be modestly lower. As trust accumulates and repeat guests return, direct-site conversion can meaningfully exceed OTA conversion for the loyal segment.

About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a visual-first marketing agency for short-term rental operators across the Southeast. We work with hosts in Savannah, the Golden Isles, Tybee, the Lowcountry, North Georgia, Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, and the Florida Gulf Coast. Our work blends photography direction, branding, listing optimization, direct booking, pricing strategy, and content strategy into an integrated marketing system designed to lift ADR, occupancy, and direct-booking share.

Related Reading

Explore more Coastal Georgia short-term rental insights and host guides:

• Coastal Georgia Vacation Rentals: The Complete Guide to the Golden Isles, Savannah, Barrier Islands & STR Strategy

• Coastal Georgia STR Market Report: Golden Isles, Savannah & Tybee Performance

• How to Market a Short-Term Rental in Darien, GA

• How to Market a Beach Short-Term Rental on Tybee Island, GA

• How to Market a Short-Term Rental in Savannah's Historic District

• How to Market a Short-Term Rental in Brunswick, GA

• How to Market a Short-Term Rental on Jekyll Island, GA

• How to Market a Luxury Short-Term Rental on Sea Island, GA

• How to Market a Short-Term Rental on St. Simons Island, GA

• Tybee Island STR Ordinance 2026: Where the Rules Stand (and What Hosts Should Do)

• Savannah STVR Rules Explained: The 20% Ward Cap, Rentalscape & the Waitlist

• How to Choose a Vacation Rental Photographer in the Golden Isles & Savannah

• Is a Short-Term Rental Marketing Agency Worth It for Golden Isles & Savannah Owners?

• What Guests Search When Booking a Golden Isles or Savannah Getaway

• Pricing Your Coastal Georgia Rental Through the Seasons: St. Patrick's, Summer & the Fall Golf Shoulder

• STR Photography That Sells the Golden Isles: Marsh, Oaks & Coastal Light

• St. Simons & Golden Isles STR Investment Outlook for 2026

• The Southeast STR Market Report 2026–2027: A 10-State Guide to Short-Term Rental Investment, Performance & Marketing

Sources

Airbnb host service fee documentation and Resource Center material on fee structures. Vrbo host fee documentation and subscription tier information. Google Vacation Rentals platform documentation and structured data requirements. Stripe payment processing rate documentation. OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify, and Hostaway published pricing and feature documentation. Georgia Department of Revenue lodging tax and hotel-motel fee guidance. City of Savannah short-term vacation rental ordinance and ward-level cap documentation. City of Tybee Island short-term rental registration framework. AirDNA market data for coastal Georgia sub-markets. Crest & Cove Creative internal benchmarks on direct-booking development 2024–2026.