Scott McGillivray has spent decades working alongside property owners across North America. And over that time, one frustration has come up again and again, so consistently it almost sounds like a script.

Property managers work hard to build their portfolios. They vet cleaners, coordinate maintenance, respond to guests at midnight, and invest real effort into the experience they deliver. Then a booking comes in through a major platform — and before they’ve touched a cent, a chunk disappears. Worse, the guest who just stayed doesn’t belong to them. They belong to the platform.

That’s the problem Stay was built to solve. Not just the commission. The whole model.

Two Problems Most Property Managers Don’t Talk About Enough

Property managers on commission-based platforms are well aware of the revenue loss, but many underestimate the second, more structural cost: the loss of the guest relationship.

Problem One: The Commission Drain

It starts at 3% but can be as high as 20%, and compounds quickly. For a property manager running 15–20 units, commission fees alone can add up to tens of thousands of dollars annually. That’s not a line item, that’s reinvestment capital. Profit that should be yours because you earned it.

And commission structures aren’t just costly, they’re unpredictable. Service fees charged to guests affect booking conversion. Algorithm changes affect your visibility. Policy shifts affect how you operate. You’re building your business on infrastructure you don’t control.

Problem Two: You Don’t Own Your Guests

When a guest books through a major OTA, their contact information, preferences, and loyalty belong to the platform, not you. They see the platform’s brand at every touchpoint. Your follow-up is restricted. Re-engagement is blocked. And when that guest travels again, the platform re-markets to them before you get the chance.

Property managers who have spent years building a reputation for exceptional hospitality are essentially feeding a competitor’s customer database every time they accept a booking.

Flipping the Model: What Stay Does Differently

Stay’s founding premise is simple: property managers who do the work should keep the reward. That means restructuring the economics from the ground up — not tweaking commission percentages, but eliminating the commission model entirely.

One Flat Subscription

Stay operates on a predictable annual subscription. Your cost doesn’t grow with your success. Whether bookings are up 10% or 40%, your platform fee stays the same. That predictability changes how you plan, hire, and grow.

Your Brand, Not Theirs

On Stay, guests see your brand at every stage of the booking journey. That’s not a cosmetic detail, it’s a business asset. With each booking, you’re building recognition, trust, and loyalty under your own name. Stay’s retargeting tools let you reach past guests with your logo and your listings, not the platform’s.

Full Control of Pricing, Policies, and Process

Set your own nightly rates, define your own cancellation policies, communicate with guests how you want to. As Scott puts it: if you want to own your channel (not just rent it) Stay is built for exactly that.

Who This Is Built For

Stay is especially well-suited to professional property managers who have outgrown what the major OTAs can offer. If you’ve built a strong operations foundation and a reputation for quality — and you’re tired of watching a percentage of every booking flow to a platform that had nothing to do with the experience you delivered, Stay gives you a better structure.

Own Your Channel. Keep Your Guests.

The frustration Scott describes isn’t new. Property managers have felt it for years. What’s new is that there’s now a platform built specifically to solve it, not to minimize the cost of the old model, but to replace it entirely.

Flat subscription. No commissions. Your brand front and center. Let’s get you started.