How Maverick STR Built Cortado Stays a Custom Direct Booking Engine with Hospitable. Powered by inkSTR

About Maverick STR

Maverick STR designs high-end direct booking websites for short-term rental operators and drives traffic to them through SEO and AI search. We pair custom-built websites with Hospitable's booking technology, giving operators full control over their brand, their content, and their organic growth, without giving up the reliability of a proven booking system.

The Challenge

Hospitable gives operators a strong foundation for taking direct bookings. But a lot of operators also want a website that looks and feels like their brand, not a generic template, and one that's built to actually rank on Google and get found in AI search results. That combination is where the real growth happens: Hospitable handles the booking and payments, and a custom website handles getting guests there in the first place.

Cortado Stays wanted exactly that. A branded site built for long-term organic growth, with a smooth, real-time search and booking experience powered by their Hospitable property data.

One thing stood in the way: Wix’s embedded environment created limitations for the standard Hospitable search widget. We needed a search experience that worked properly for guests while still pulling live availability straight from Hospitable leading to more conversions.

The Solution

We built CortadoStays.com on Wix Studio as a custom direct booking site, with the operator keeping full ownership of the content and SEO:

A site built to rank, not just to look good

Every page was built around what travelers are actually searching for, whether that's a specific destination, a type of trip, or a common question about staying in Austin or Dripping Springs. The content is generated and kept up to date using inkSTR.co, our AI SEO content platform tool, which pulls in real Google Search & AI Search data to find and fill ranking gaps over time and generates content around it. Pages are also structured to perform well in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI Overviews, not just traditional search.

A search bar that actually works, with real-time availability

Instead of relying on the standard Hospitable widget that doesn't function properly inside Wix, we built a custom search bar using Wix's own tools that connects directly to Hospitable's live calendar availability through their API. Guests only see dates that are actually available; booked nights are automatically grayed out. Once a guest picks their dates, they're taken straight to the right property page with those dates already carried over, so they never have to enter them twice.

Seamless handoff to Hospitable for booking

Each property page includes Hospitable's booking widget, pre-filled with the guest's search, so the actual booking, payment, and confirmation all happen securely through Hospitable's system. The guest experience feels like one continuous flow from search to confirmation.

What This Means for Hosts and Property Managers

• Better direct-booking performance. A search experience that actually works on your website, instead of a broken widget, means fewer guests bouncing off and going back to Airbnb or VRBO.

• A smoother connection to Hospitable. Your calendar, pricing, and booking flow all stay accurate in real time, without any manual double-entry.

• Stronger SEO, without the manual work. Content is generated and updated automatically based on real search demand, so the site keeps improving without you writing a single blog post.

• A site that's actually yours. Full ownership of your brand, content, and search rankings, not locked into someone else's template.

The Outcome

CortadoStays.com now runs as a complete direct booking engine: a custom, branded website connected in real time to Hospitable, built for search visibility and designed to convert. The site showcases two properties, Cortado Villa in East Austin (sleeps 12) and Moulin Rose in Dripping Springs (sleeps 16), each with a booking experience that feels fully native to the brand.

We also built this as a repeatable system for building direct booking websites for clients. It can be deployed for new clients, whether they have one property or a whole portfolio, by swapping in their own property details and Hospitable connection. It gives operators a search experience that works with Hospitable out of the box, accurate real-time availability, and a direct booking path, all while keeping their website, content, and SEO strategy fully in their own hands.

Want to try out Hospitable for your PMS? Get 25% off your first 3 months. Try it here