Stripe Express Connect means payments go straight to your bank account, not through a platform that holds your money for weeks.
Offering direct bookings without a professional payment system is like opening a shop with no way to accept cards. Guests expect to pay securely by card, with clear confirmation, on a trusted checkout page. Asking guests to pay by bank transfer creates friction, erodes trust, and introduces risk on both sides.
Stripe is the payment infrastructure that makes professional direct booking possible for holiday rental operators without the need for a custom payment gateway or a merchant account with a bank. And Stripe Connect is the specific Stripe product designed for platforms that facilitate payments between guests and hosts.
Stripe Connect is Stripe platform product. It allows LetPilot (the platform) to facilitate payments from guests directly to you (the host), with Stripe handling secure card processing, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance.
The money flow is direct: the guest enters card details on the booking checkout page; Stripe processes the payment; funds go directly to your connected Stripe account; you receive a payout to your bank account on your configured schedule.
LetPilot does not touch the money. There is no float, no holding of funds, and no platform commission on the booking value. The only charges are Stripe standard card processing fees — typically 1.4% plus 20p per transaction for European cards, higher for international cards.
The setup process is managed through LetPilot onboarding. In LetPilot, navigate to Integrations and select Stripe Connect. Click Connect with Stripe — you are redirected to Stripe onboarding. Create a new Stripe Express account or connect an existing one. Complete Stripe identity verification, which requires basic business information and identity documents. Return to LetPilot — your Stripe account is now connected.
From this point, any payment processed through your LetPilot direct booking site goes directly to your Stripe account.
To open a Stripe Express account, Stripe typically requires your legal name and date of birth, your home address, a UK bank account number and sort code, a photo ID such as a passport or driving licence, and basic business information if operating as a registered business. The verification process takes a few minutes online and is usually approved immediately for straightforward applications.
Stripe offers several payout schedule options to suit different cash flow needs.
Standard payouts (2 to 7 business days): Stripe default. Funds collected on Monday arrive in your bank account by Wednesday or Thursday. No additional fee.
Daily automatic payouts: Stripe moves your available balance to your bank account every business day. Available for verified accounts at no additional fee.
Instant payouts: available on demand, funds arrive in your bank account within 30 minutes. A small additional fee applies, typically 1 percent with a minimum fee. Useful for cash flow management when a large booking arrives and you need access to the funds quickly.
For most holiday rental operators, daily automatic payouts provide the right balance of speed and simplicity.
Beyond standard payment collection, LetPilot uses Stripe pre-authorisation capability for security deposits. Pre-authorisation places a hold on a guest card without taking the money — the card issuer sets aside the authorised amount, but the funds do not leave the guest account.
If the stay ends without damage, you release the hold and the guest sees no charge. If you need to make a damage claim, you capture the deposit amount or a portion of it. LetPilot automates this: the deposit pre-authorisation fires automatically at booking or a configurable number of days before check-in. Release or capture is handled through the LetPilot damage report flow.
Refunds are processed through Stripe via LetPilot cancellation flow. When you confirm a cancellation and the refund amount, LetPilot initiates the Stripe refund automatically. The guest typically sees the refund on their statement within 5 to 10 business days, depending on their card issuer.
Partial refunds — for partial deposit claims or partial stay refunds due to early departure — are fully supported. You can refund any amount up to the original charge.
If you receive bookings from international guests, Stripe handles multi-currency processing. Guests can pay in their home currency if their card allows it, and Stripe converts the amount to GBP for your payout. Exchange rates are applied at the time of the transaction. International card fees are higher than domestic rates — typically 2.5 to 3 percent compared to 1.4 percent for European cards.
Stripe card processing fees compared to OTA commissions make a stark difference at scale.
On Airbnb, the host pays a 3 percent host fee and the guest pays a service fee on top. On Booking.com, the commission is 15 to 18 percent taken from the host. On a LetPilot direct booking via Stripe, the total processing fee is approximately 1.5 to 2 percent.
For a £800 booking, the difference between a 15 percent Booking.com commission (£120) and a 1.5 percent Stripe fee (£12) is £108 — on a single booking. At scale, across a portfolio generating tens of thousands of pounds of annual bookings, the financial case for direct bookings supported by Stripe Connect is compelling.
Stripe payment infrastructure includes machine-learning fraud detection that assesses every transaction in real time. For holiday rental direct bookings, this is a significant benefit: chargeback fraud — where a guest completes a stay and then disputes the charge — is a known risk in the industry.
Stripe Radar fraud system flags suspicious patterns. LetPilot checkout collects sufficient booking data (guest details, IP address, device information) to provide strong evidence in any chargeback dispute. Combined with your internal documentation such as check-in records, damage reports, and guest communications, disputes are typically resolved in the host favour when the evidence is clear and well-organised.