Do
- Check your monthly reporting in the owner portal against your payout statement
- Compare RevPAR and net income year on year, not just occupancy
- Send owner-stay dates through the portal as far ahead as possible
- Tell us promptly about anything that affects listing accuracy — furniture removed, building facilities closed, access changes
- Keep your permit-related documents and ownership details current with us so listings never have to be paused
Don’t
- Do not create or keep your own listing for the unit on any platform while it is under our management — duplicate inventory causes double bookings, permit conflicts and listing suspension
- Do not give access codes, keys or the unit address to third parties for viewings or short lets without telling us first
- Do not agree a stay directly with a guest, a broker or a tenant and ask us to service it afterwards without a booking in the system — an unregistered stay puts the permit at risk
- Do not ask a guest to book off-platform after seeing your unit on an OTA — it breaches the platform terms and can delist your property
- Do not change prices or availability with a channel directly
- Do not treat a single strong or weak month as a trend; seasonality in Dubai is pronounced
Your unit is not sold on one platform. We distribute the same inventory across several online travel agencies (OTAs), our own direct booking site, and a set of corporate and partner channels. Every channel draws a different guest profile, a different average length of stay and a different net rate after commission, so the mix — not any single platform — is what drives your monthly income.
This article explains which channels we use, why the rules differ between them, and how to read the occupancy and performance data we share with you.
Where your property is listed
All listings are created, controlled and updated by us under our DET (formerly DTCM) holiday home permit. Rates, availability, photography and property descriptions are pushed from a single system so that the same unit is never sold twice for the same night.
| Channel type | Examples | What it typically delivers |
| Global OTAs | Booking.com, Airbnb | Volume, short lead times, mixed leisure demand |
| Branded distribution | Homes & Villas by Marriott International | Loyalty-programme guests, longer stays, higher screening |
| Direct | Our own website and enquiries to our reservations team | No third-party commission on the booking |
| Corporate and partner | Corporate partners, travel agencies, concierge services, travel partners and real estate brokers | Relocation, project and repeat business, often mid-stay length |
| Other channels | Livjaza, The Blueground, and local portals such as Property Finder, Bayut and Dubizzle for monthly stays | Used where they suit the property; our Revenue Management team decides, so not every property appears on every platform |
Not every unit sits on every channel. Placement depends on the building, the unit type, licence status, photography and how each channel performs for comparable stock. If a channel is switched on or off for your unit, it is a distribution decision, not a change to your contract.
Commission and net rate
Each channel charges its own commission, and that commission is deducted before your share is calculated. This is why two bookings at the same nightly rate can produce different income for you.
- Channel commission is applied to the booking value at the rate set by that platform: it is deducted from the rental revenue separately and is not part of our management fee. The statement does not break it down by booking or by platform
- Payment card and processing fees: deducted from the booking value, in the same way as channel commission
- VAT and Tourism Dirham treatment on your statement: both are paid by the guest as part of the booking, not taken from your rental income. They do not appear as lines on your statement, because rental revenue is shown without them
- Our management fee: a percentage of the rental proceeds, at the rate in your signed management agreement. It is shown as its own deduction, "Management Fee (Operator)", on your monthly statement
Direct bookings carry no third-party commission, which is the main reason we invest in the direct channel. It does not mean we will price below the OTAs — the platforms require rate parity, and undercutting them publicly gets listings demoted or suspended, which costs you far more in lost visibility than the commission saves.
Why channel rules differ — security deposits
Deposit handling is set by the channel, not by us. It matters to you because it determines how damage is recovered.
| Channel | Security deposit | Damage recovery route |
| Booking.com | Charged as standard | Held on the guest's card, released after inspection |
| Direct and partner bookings | Charged as standard | Held on the guest's card, released after inspection |
| Airbnb | Not charged | Through the platform's own resolution process |
| Homes & Villas by Marriott International | Not charged | Through the platform's own resolution process |
Corporate, agency and broker bookings
Alongside the OTAs we work with corporate partners, travel agencies, concierge services, travel partners and real estate brokers. These channels behave differently from public OTAs:
- Stays are usually longer, which lowers turnover cost and wear per occupied night
- Rates are often contracted in advance rather than dynamic, so they may sit below peak public rates but hold up in low season
- Payment can be on invoice rather than by card at booking
- Guests are screened by the partner as well as by us
Where a booking arrives through a partner, that partner's own cancellation and refund terms govern the reservation. Bookings taken directly by us follow the Refund Policy published on our website, which may be updated from time to time.
Licensing and reporting obligations behind the listings
Every night sold is a regulated night. Your unit is listed under our DET (formerly DTCM) permit and each stay is registered as required. This is why we control the listings and the guest data end to end.
- The permit must be valid and correctly linked to the unit before any channel goes live
- Guest identity is captured and registered for every stay
- Listings must show the permit information required by DET (formerly DTCM)
- Tourism Dirham is accounted for per occupied night
How occupancy is reported to you
Performance data for your unit is published in the owner portal, alongside your statements. Your payout is made on the 15th of each month, or the next working day if the 15th is a non-working day, and covers the previous month's income and expenses. The reporting for that month lines up with the same period.
- Reporting period: calendar month, matching your statement
- Where to find it: the owner portal
- Frequency of data refresh in the portal: not live — bookings and calendar availability are updated by hand once our checks are complete, so there is no fixed schedule. The portal shows monthly occupancy, rented and available nights, average daily rate and a reservation calendar
- Format available for download: monthly financial statements download from the portal. Reservation details, including the booking-level financial breakdown, are viewed in the portal
How to read the figures
| Metric | What it means | Why it matters to you |
| Available nights | Nights the unit was in sellable inventory during the period | The denominator for occupancy — blocks reduce it or reduce occupancy, see below |
| Occupied nights | Nights actually sold and stayed | Volume of demand captured |
| Occupancy % | Occupied nights divided by available nights | Utilisation, not profitability |
| ADR (average daily rate) | Booking value divided by occupied nights | The price achieved per sold night |
| RevPAR | Booking value divided by available nights | The single best indicator of performance — it combines rate and occupancy |
| Channel mix | Share of occupied nights or revenue by channel | Shows commission exposure and guest profile |
| Average length of stay | Occupied nights divided by number of bookings | Longer stays mean fewer turnovers and lower operating cost |
| Gross vs net | Booking value before deductions vs what reaches your statement | Explains the gap between a headline nightly rate and your payout |
Nights you take out of inventory
Owner stays and maintenance blocks remove nights from sale. They will show in your reporting as blocked nights so that the occupancy figure is not distorted by dates that were never on the market.
- Owner stays: request them through the owner portal so the calendar closes across every channel at once
- A cleaning and preparation charge applies to owner stays; the current amount is shown and kept up to date in the owner portal
- Maintenance blocks: applied when work makes the unit unsafe or unpresentable to sell
- Treatment in the occupancy calculation: owner-stay and maintenance nights count as available but unsold nights, so they lower the occupancy figure
- Notice required for an owner stay: at least 48 hours. Your agreement restricts owner stays on public holidays and in peak season unless it says otherwise; in practice we accommodate requests when the unit is free and ready
What we ask of you
Questions about your data
If a figure in your reporting does not look right, tell us the unit, the month and the specific line, and we will reconcile it against the booking-level records.
- Phone and WhatsApp: +971 (4) 392-0202
- Email: info@deluxehomes.com
- In an emergency, contact the local emergency services first, then notify us