Founding Hosts
Your guests. Your income. Your business.
Mooch is where independent hosts rebuild confidence, reclaim their voice, and own what matters most. No commission – just a fixed membership, and a share in what we build together.
Founding Host membership: from £180 a year or £22.50 a month + VAT, until our first 2,500 hosts join.
2,499 of 2,500 founder places left
For years, independent hosts have been told that high commissions, changing rules, and loss of control are just part of the job.
That’s just how hospitality works now.
But quietly, something else has been happening.
It isn’t just the money being extracted.
It’s the psychological grip on you.
When decisions are made without you…
when fees only ever go up…
when your income becomes unpredictable…
Your confidence erodes.
You stop trusting yourself instead of questioning the system. The independence you wanted begins to feel impossible. And the business you built with care and pride starts to feel like something you’re merely surviving.
But this didn’t become normal because it was right. It became normal because independent hosts like you were left isolated, negotiating alone, absorbing the pressure, and told there was no alternative.
We believe that’s the real problem.
And it’s one worth correcting.
What booking sites really take
Commission, paid visibility, and the discounts you fund yourself. Add up last year’s statements – then compare it with one flat Mooch fee.
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£1.1bn
earned by Booking.com in 2024 from UK accommodation – by its own accounts
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£885m
of that leaves the UK. Only about £215m is spent back here
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£2bn
a year, estimated, paid by UK hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets to overseas booking platforms
From Booking.com Limited’s 2024 accounts at Companies House, and Mooch estimates. See how we worked it out →
Welcome to Mooch
Where independent hosts rebuild confidence, reclaim their voice, and own what matters most.
- Your guest relationships
- Your income
- Your business
- Your freedom
How it works – and why it’s different
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There is no commission
Not on any booking, ever.
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Just a fixed fee
One simple membership. You know exactly what Mooch costs.
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A member, not inventory
Every host is a member of Mooch – not a listing on somebody else’s website.
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First option to buy
If Mooch is ever sold, our hosts get the first option to buy it at a fair market price.
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Profits shared each year
A percentage of profits is shared back with the people who make the platform possible – you.
Founding Host membership
from £180 a year or £22.50 a month + VAT
until our first 2,500 hosts join
- No commission on your Mooch bookings
- Keep your guest relationships and data
- Set your own prices and availability
- A share in Mooch’s profits each year
One good direct booking could potentially cover your entire annual membership.
Join Mooch as a Founding HostThis isn’t about fighting platforms.
It’s about restoring balance.
About choosing independence over dependency. About remembering that independent hospitality was never meant to feel powerless.
And together, it doesn’t have to be.
We’re offering you an alternative
Become part of it now – and help build a booking network that works for the hosts who make it possible.
Frequently asked questions
I’m already listed on so many platforms. Why do I need another one?
Mooch isn’t designed to be another platform taking a slice of every booking you receive.
As a Mooch host, you’re part of what we’re building. You’re not simply inventory on somebody else’s website.
Mooch doesn’t extract commission from every booking. Our purpose is to connect travellers directly with independent accommodation providers, allowing more of the money generated by tourism to stay with the businesses and communities that actually create the experience.
When Mooch succeeds, our hosts share in that success too.
How will Mooch bring me bookings?
We’re not expecting hosts to list their property and simply hope somebody finds them.
Mooch is being built as a movement involving hosts, guests and local communities.
We actively market Mooch to travellers while giving our hosts tools and reasons to introduce their own guests to Mooch too.
Every new host brings guests. Every guest discovers new independent places to stay. And every time someone recommends Mooch, the network becomes more valuable for everyone in it.
Our ambition is simple: when travellers want to book somewhere independent, we want them to think Mooch first.
Isn’t this just another OTA?
No, and that’s really the point.
Traditional OTAs make more money when they take more commission from accommodation providers.
Mooch is built on a fundamentally different model.
We want hosts to receive direct bookings, build relationships with their guests and retain more of the value those bookings create.
We’re not trying to build a better extraction machine.
We’re building an alternative to one.
How does the profit share work?
Mooch has been structured so that member hosts share in the success of the platform rather than simply being customers of it.
Each year, a share of Mooch’s profits is paid back to our member hosts. That means we’re building value together.
As Mooch grows, the people who helped create that growth should benefit from it.
Full details of eligibility and how the profit share is paid are explained in our membership terms.
What if Mooch gets taken over by one of the big online platforms?
We’ve deliberately structured Mooch to protect against exactly that.
We don’t want to spend years building an alternative to the traditional OTA model only for it to be swallowed up by one.
If Mooch is ever sold, our hosts get the first option to buy it at a fair market price – before anyone else.
In other words, the people who helped build Mooch have the first chance to keep it independent.
How much does it cost to get started?
Our Founding Hosts can join Mooch from £180 a year or £22.50 a month + VAT until our first 2,500 hosts join. There are three packages – one, two or three listings – and the price stays the same for as long as you stay a member.
There is no commission deducted from your Mooch bookings.
Memberships are a 12-month contract, paid yearly or monthly by Direct Debit, or month by month if you prefer (15% more). One good direct booking could potentially cover your entire year’s membership, and every additional booking is yours without Mooch taking a percentage from it.
Are there any booking commissions or hidden charges?
No booking commission.
We believe you should know exactly what Mooch costs rather than discovering how much you’ve paid us at the end of the year.
Your membership fee supports the platform, its development and the marketing required to grow the Mooch network.
We don’t believe our success should depend upon taking an ever-increasing percentage of your revenue.
Do I need to leave Booking.com, Airbnb or the other platforms I already use?
No.
We’re not asking you to switch everything off tomorrow.
Mooch can sit alongside the channels you already use while you gradually build another source of bookings, one that doesn’t take commission and allows you to develop a direct relationship with your guests.
Over time, we’d love Mooch to become the channel you prefer to receive bookings through.
Can I still set my own prices?
Absolutely.
It’s your property.
You decide your prices, availability and how you run your business.
Mooch exists to connect independent hosts with travellers, not to tell independent businesses how they should operate.
Will guests pay more to book through Mooch?
No. Our philosophy is that booking independently shouldn’t mean somebody else has to lose.
We want travellers to discover wonderful independent places to stay while allowing more of their money to reach the accommodation provider and the community they’re visiting.
It’s a healthier relationship between traveller, host and destination.
Why did you create Mooch?
We believe the current model has gone too far.
Every year, enormous amounts of money generated by independent accommodation businesses leave those businesses through booking commissions.
That’s money that could have stayed with the host.
Money that could have paid local cleaners, tradespeople, food producers, restaurants and suppliers.
Money that could have circulated through local communities.
Instead, the dominant model increasingly extracts value from the very people creating the guest experience.
We believe there’s another way.
Why should I join now rather than wait and see?
The people who join at the beginning aren’t just joining a platform.
They’re helping shape it.
Founding Hosts will be the accommodation businesses that helped establish the Mooch network, introduced it to travellers and proved that a different booking model can work.
There’s always an easy moment to join something after everybody else has made it successful.
We’re looking for the people who want to help make it successful in the first place.
What kind of accommodation can join Mooch?
Mooch is for independent accommodation businesses that care about their guests, their communities and the future of independent hospitality.
That includes B&Bs, guest houses, inns, independent hotels, boutique hotels, holiday accommodation and other independently operated places to stay.
If independence matters to you, you’ll probably feel at home here.
So what is Mooch really trying to achieve?
Something much bigger than another place to list your rooms.
Imagine millions of travellers deliberately choosing independent accommodation.
Imagine hosts keeping the money they currently lose in commission.
Imagine more of that money circulating through local economies.
And imagine the people who helped build the booking network sharing in the value that network creates.
That’s what we’re building.
Mooch isn’t asking independent hospitality to fight the existing system.
We’re simply building a better one.
Still have questions?
Email support@moochhotels.com and we’ll be happy to answer them.
Or, if you’re ready to help us build a different future for independent hospitality:
Join Mooch as a Founding Host