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Guests · 7 min read
Most holiday booking works one way: you search, you scroll, you pay the listed price. Name-your-price flips it. You say where, when and what you want to spend, and hosts who can do it send you an offer. It sounds simple — and it is — but there are a few things worth understanding before you try it, from why hosts say yes to lower prices to how to get the most out of a request. Here's the whole picture.
By Offer2Stay · Updated October 2026
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Get offers — freeThat's the whole idea. Instead of you doing the hunting, the homes that fit your plans find you. Posting is free, there are no guest booking fees on Offer2Stay, and your card is only charged when a host says yes to a price.
It's not an auction and it's not a lucky dip. You always see the home, the host and the full price before you agree to anything, and you're never committed until you accept.
There are two routes, and you can use whichever suits the trip — or both.
Spotted a place you love while browsing? Send the total you'd like to pay for your dates. Every host sets the lowest price they'll accept in advance. If your offer is at or above it, you're booked instantly — no waiting around. If it's below, you find out straight away and nothing is charged, so you can try a different figure, different dates or a different home.
Not set on one property? Post your dates and budget once and hosts who can host you send offers to a single inbox. This is the better route when you know roughly where you want to go but you're open on the exact home — a cottage, a lodge or a caravan might all do the job.
| Offer on a home | Post a request | |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | You've found the place you want | You're open on the exact home |
| What happens | Instant answer against the host's lowest price | Hosts with suitable homes send offers |
| You compare | Your offer vs. one home | Several offers side by side |
Almost every holiday home has nights that would otherwise sit empty. A midweek gap between two weekend bookings. A quiet week in November. The few days after the school holidays finish. A night with nobody in it earns the host nothing, while the costs — the mortgage, the bills, the upkeep — carry on regardless.
So a host would often rather fill that gap at a fair price than leave it empty. What they don't want to do is cut their public price for everyone, because that lowers the rate on nights that would have sold anyway and teaches guests to wait for discounts.
A private offer solves both problems. Your deal is between you and the host, nobody else sees it, and their advertised rates stay the same. That's why name-your-price can find genuinely good value without anyone having to slash prices in public.
The price you offer is the price you pay. Cleaning, fees and everything else are included upfront in one total, so you're comparing like with like rather than discovering add-ons at the final step of checkout.
That matters more than it sounds. On many booking sites the nightly rate you see first is only part of the story — cleaning fees, service fees and other charges can be added later. When every offer is a single all-in figure, the cheapest-looking option really is the cheapest.
Tip: Work out your budget as a total for the whole stay, not a nightly rate. It's the number hosts respond to, and it's the number you'll actually pay.
A good request gives hosts everything they need to say yes quickly. You don't need to write an essay — a few clear details make all the difference. Before you post, run through this list:
Checklist · 0/6
Name-your-price shines when you have a little flexibility. The more open you are on exact dates, area or property type, the more homes can fit your request — and the more likely it is that one of them has a gap that matches your plans.
It suits midweek and shoulder-season breaks especially well, along with short-notice trips where a host has a gap to fill. Longer stays and contractor bookings benefit too, because a weekly total matters more than a nightly rate. And groups who know their budget per night often find it easier to post once and let large homes compete for the booking.
It's less useful if you need one very specific property on a very busy date — say, the most popular cottage in a village on a bank holiday weekend. Homes like that tend to fill at their full price anyway. In that case, book early, and save name-your-price for the trips where you can be a bit more open.
'It means haggling.' It doesn't. There's no back-and-forth bargaining in public and no awkward phone calls. You send one figure, and the host's lowest price — which they set in advance — decides whether it's accepted. If you post a request, hosts simply send their offers and you choose.
'It's only for cheap, basic places.' Not at all. Any host can have quiet nights to fill, from a simple caravan to a large house with a hot tub. Naming your price is about matching your budget with a host's gaps, not about lowering standards.
'I'll be charged if I make an offer.' You won't. Your card is only charged when a host says yes to a price. An offer below a host's lowest price is simply not accepted, and nothing is taken.
Once you accept an offer — or your offer is accepted instantly — your booking is confirmed and payment is taken securely through the platform. You can message your host on Offer2Stay with any questions about check-in, parking or the area.
From there it's like any other holiday booking: you'll have your dates, the address and your host's check-in details. The only difference is that you set the price.
Yes. Posting is free, there are no guest booking fees, and your card is only charged when a host says yes to a price.
Hosts set the lowest price they'll take in advance. If your offer is below it you'll know straight away and nothing is charged — you can raise your offer, change your dates or post a request to other hosts.
No. Your offer and the agreed price stay private between you and the host.
No. You can compare offers and accept one, or none at all.
Yes. Offers are one all-in total that includes cleaning and fees, so the price you agree is the price you pay.
Yes. You can message hosts on Offer2Stay before you accept an offer.
Find your stay. Let hosts make the offer.
Name your price for UK stays. Guests post what they need; hosts send private offers around the calendars they already run on Airbnb and Booking.com.