Why Coastly takes 15 percent, not 30

If you run a business in a surf town, you already know the math. The big delivery and booking apps take 15 to 30 percent of every order, every booking, every stay, and they take it forever. The work is yours. The risk is yours. The margin goes to a data company on another continent.

We think that is backwards. So we built Coastly the other way around.

The one line

Coastly takes 15 percent on the business it actually brings a vendor, and 8.5 percent on food ordered for pickup, keeps the money local, and gets there first. That is about half of what the giants charge, and it only applies to business we drive to you.

How a vendor is actually charged

Here is the whole model, in plain terms.

• Listing is free. You list your products, services, charters, classes, homes or events, take orders and bookings, collect reviews, and you are always paid directly by the customer.
• The platform fee is 15 percent of driven business, and 8.5 percent on food ordered for pickup, billed to you, on the orders and bookings Coastly brings you. It is waived while we are launching your town, so you owe nothing while we prove we move volume.
• A few categories work differently: stays are a 5 percent referral because we just link out to your booking page, and real estate is 15 percent of the selling agent's commission, only at closing.
• QR event tickets are a flat 1 dollar per ticket, far below the usual ticketing platforms.

That is it. No upfront fee. No monthly SaaS fee to start. No cut of a sale we had nothing to do with.

You are paid directly, always

This is the part that matters most, and it is easy to miss. Coastly does not process the payment between you and your customer. Your customer pays you directly, your way: cash, bank transfer, Yappy or SINPE, or your own card terminal.

Coastly records the transaction and invoices you a small fee on the business it drove. You keep your payment relationship, your cash flow, and your customer. We are a software platform that brings you business, not a middleman sitting on your money.

You keep 85 percent of the business we drive. On Uber Eats, a vendor often keeps closer to 70.

Why a fair fee is also the smart fee

Taking less is not charity, it is strategy. A surf town is small, and trust travels fast. The giants win cities by spending their way in. They lose towns like ours by being extractive in a place where everyone knows everyone.

So we do three things they cannot:

1. We take about half their rate, only on business we bring you, so the numbers actually work for a small local vendor.
2. We keep the money in town, paid directly to fishermen, farmers, cooks, guides, captains and hosts.
3. We get there first, launching in surf towns before the super-apps arrive, so the fair, local option is the one people are already using.

Founding vendors get in first

The first cohort of vendors in each town starts while the platform fee is still waived for launch. When a delivery giant eventually shows up at 30 percent, founding vendors already have the reviews, the habit, and a platform that pays them fairly. That is the reason to start now.

If that sounds like the kind of deal a surf town business should have had all along, that is the point.

See exactly how pricing works, or list your business and keep getting paid directly.