Listing on Crew HQ: Fees, Calendars and Payments, Explained Plainly
Since Crew HQ started showing crew accommodation, hosts have asked the same handful of questions before signing up. Here are the answers.
Is listing on Crew HQ free?
Yes, and there are two ways to do it.
A Crew HQ directory listing is free, with no subscription and no commission. Crew find your page and contact you directly. You take the booking however you like.
The first company listing on a Crew HQ account is free, and you can upgrade it to a paid Business Listing. Additional listings each need a paid place, which also makes them Business Listings.
An Airflow listing is free to list on Airflow’s Free plan, with no monthly fee. It shows on Crew HQ above every directory listing, with live availability and prices, and crew can book online. In exchange, Airflow takes a marketplace commission on bookings that come that way: 15% on the Free plan, 12% on paid plans.
Where will my place appear?
Crew HQ shows places in four tiers. Within each tier, the nearest places come first.
- Featured: a paid Airflow plan plus a Crew HQ Business Listing. Shown above everything, with a Featured badge.
- Airflow listings: bookable online, shown above every directory listing.
- Crew HQ Business Listings: the paid directory listing, with gallery and video, shown above free directory listings.
- Free directory listings.
Do I need a paid Airflow plan?
No. The Free plan covers one listing. A paid plan, together with a Crew HQ Business Listing, makes your place Featured at the top of Crew HQ. A paid plan also lowers the marketplace commission to 12%, cuts the rate on your own booking page, and includes more listings:
| Free | Starter | Growth | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $0 | from $8 | from $28 | from $69 |
| Listings included | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Bookings via Crew HQ / Airflow Stay | 15% | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| Bookings on your own booking page | 5% | 3% | 2% | 2% |
| Bookings you add yourself, already paid | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Current prices are on the pricing page. Paid plans come with a 7-day trial.
Two things to know about the Free plan:
- You add a card before publishing. There is no monthly fee, so the card is how Airflow collects commission on bookings. Nothing is charged until you take one.
- Each room you list separately counts as a listing. A house with three bookable rooms is four listings, so it needs extra listings ($10/month each) or a bigger plan.
Organisations and listings: how Airflow groups your places
On Airflow, an organisation is a group of bookable places that share one set of payments and one accounting connection. A listing (Airflow also calls it a resource) is one thing a guest can book: a house, an apartment or a room. One organisation can have many listings, and one login can hold several organisations and switch between them.
That gives you two ways to list more than one place:
- One organisation on a paid plan. Growth includes 3 listings, Pro 10. This is the simplest way to run several places together.
- Several organisations, each on the Free plan. Each one gets its own free listing, but each needs its own card and runs its own payments, accounting and commission. It works for places that really are separate (different owners, different books), but it gets complicated to manage.
Crew HQ Featured is decided per organisation: only places in an organisation on a paid plan, whose team also has a Crew HQ Business Listing, are Featured.
If a crew member contacts me and books directly, is there a fee?
It depends on how they book:
- They found you through a Crew HQ directory listing: no fees at all. Crew HQ isn’t involved in the booking.
- They book online through your Airflow listing on Crew HQ: marketplace commission, 15% on Free or 12% on paid plans.
- They book on your own Airflow booking page or website: 5% on Free, 2–3% on paid plans.
- They pay you another way and you add the booking to Airflow as already paid: no commission. You’re only recording it.
Card processing is charged separately by Stripe, on your own Stripe account, as with any card payment.
Every listing has its own Airflow booking page from day one. Airflow can also build you a full booking website on your own domain with the Website + Hosting add-on, and bookings made there carry the same booking-page rate.
Does Airflow need access to my Airbnb or Booking.com account?
No. Airflow never asks for your Airbnb or Booking.com login.
- Calendar links (iCal): paste the calendar link Airbnb or Booking.com gives you into Airflow. Airflow checks it every hour and blocks those dates. Airflow gives you a calendar link of its own to paste back the other way. Calendar sync is free on every plan.
- Booking confirmation emails (optional): to get the guest’s name, price and details into Airflow, not just blocked dates, forward booking confirmation emails to your Airflow inbox, or let Airflow read them from your Gmail or Outlook. Each booking read this way uses one task. Paid plans include a monthly allowance of tasks; on Free each one costs $2.
Calendar links sync hourly, not instantly, so two bookings on different channels within the same hour can still clash, as with any calendar-link setup.
Does Airflow update my accounting?
Yes, if you want it to. Connect Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreshBooks, and each booking becomes a draft invoice for you to check and approve. Nothing is filed for you. This works on every plan, including Free.
Importing a booking email and preparing an accounting draft are both automations (Airflow calls them tasks). Paid plans include a monthly allowance shared across your listings: 20 on Starter, 100 on Growth, 300 on Pro. The Free plan includes none, and each one costs $2. Calendar sync never uses one.
How do guests pay?
On an Airflow listing, you choose per listing:
- In full or by deposit when they book, with the balance later. For long stays you can also split the cost into instalments or monthly payments.
- On arrival. No online payment; you collect it yourself.
- Enquiry only. The guest sends a request and you confirm it before anything is paid.
Card payments go straight into your own Stripe account. Airflow never holds the money. On paid plans you can also take bank transfers and other manual payments.
Is there anything else I could be charged?
Only if you choose it:
- Extra listings beyond your plan.
- Optional add-ons on Airflow, such as a custom website or reviews management. Each can be tried free for 30 days.
- Tasks on the Free plan, such as reading a booking email, at $2 each.
- A Business Listing on Crew HQ, if you want your directory page shown ahead of the basic ones.
The short version
A Crew HQ directory listing is free and takes no commission, and crew contact you. An Airflow listing is free to put up and lets crew book online, with 15% commission on those bookings on the Free plan or 12% on a paid plan. Your Airbnb and Booking.com logins stay yours.