Marketplace listing vs your own booking website
Should you list your workshops on an event marketplace or run your own booking website? What each one costs you, who keeps the guest, and how your own site builds search traffic that stays yours.
By the Zittle team ·
Sooner or later every workshop host asks the same question: should I list my sessions on an event marketplace, or send people to my own booking website? Marketplaces promise an audience. Your own site promises control. Both are true, and the right answer depends on where your bookings come from today and where you want them to come from in a year.
This guide compares the two honestly, including the part most comparisons skip: how your own website gets found on Google, and how long that takes.
What a marketplace gives you
- An audience on day one. People already browse the marketplace for things to do this weekend. Your workshop can be in front of them the day you list it.
- Trust from the platform’s name. A first-time guest who has never heard of your studio may book more easily through a platform they’ve used before.
- Very little setup. Fill in a listing form and you’re live.
For a new host with no following yet, that first stream of bookings can be worth a lot.
What it costs you
The price isn’t only the commission.
- A cut of every ticket. Most marketplaces take a commission or fee on each booking, and it comes out of your price, including from guests who found you on Instagram and only booked through the marketplace because that’s the link you gave them.
- The guest belongs to the platform. You usually get a name and a booking, not a relationship. When that guest wants to come back, the easiest path is the marketplace again, and you pay the commission again.
- Your listing sits next to your competitors’. The page that shows your pottery class also suggests three others, some of them cheaper.
- Rules you don’t control. The platform decides how listings are ranked, when you’re paid and what you can say to guests. Those rules can change.
- Your brand comes second. Guests remember where they booked as much as who taught them.
None of this makes marketplaces bad. It makes them a rented audience: useful, but you pay for it on every booking, for as long as you use it.
What your own booking website gives you
- You keep the guest. Every booking lands in your own dashboard, with the guest’s name and phone number. You can message them about your next session without going through anyone.
- Repeat bookings cost you nothing extra. A guest who comes back books on your site directly.
- One link for everything. Your Instagram bio, WhatsApp groups, Google Business Profile and printed flyers all point to the same place, in your name and colours.
- Search traffic that builds up. Every event page, venue page and review on your site is something Google can find. Unlike a marketplace listing, it keeps working for you when you stop paying for anything.
The trade-off is that nobody arrives by default. You bring the first visitors yourself, from Instagram, WhatsApp and word of mouth, and Google follows over time.
How your own website gets found on Google
Organic traffic is the long-term payoff of having your own site, so it’s worth knowing what actually helps.
- Pages that match what people search. People search for things like pottery workshop in Bandra or candle making class this weekend. An event titled Wheel Throwing for Beginners, held at a venue whose address and area are on the page, matches those searches far better than a single Instagram post.
- A page for each event and venue. One page per class, with a real description, dates and prices, gives Google something specific to show.
- Fresh dates. Sessions that keep getting new dates look like an active business, not an old listing.
- Reviews. Ratings from real guests help people choose you once they find you.
- Links from places that already know you. Your Google Business Profile, Instagram bio and any local blog or community page that mentions you. See How to get your workshop on Google Maps.
On Zittle, your website does the technical part for you. Each website has its own sitemap, so Google can find every event and venue page. Event pages describe their dates, prices, venue and reviews in the structured format search engines read. You can use a yourstudio.zittle.in address or your own domain. Your events can also show up when someone asks ChatGPT or Claude for things to do; see Your events in ChatGPT and Claude.
Be realistic about timing: search traffic for a new site usually takes a few months to build. The good news is that it compounds. A marketplace stops sending bookings the day you leave it. Your own pages keep bringing them.
Side by side
| Marketplace | Your own booking website | |
|---|---|---|
| New guests in the first week | Often, from the platform’s audience | Only the ones you bring |
| Cost per booking | Commission or fee on every ticket | No commission on Zittle |
| Guest contact for next time | Usually stays with the platform | Yours, in your customer list |
| Competitors on the same page | Yes | No |
| Your brand | Next to the platform’s | Yours: logo, colours, address |
| Search traffic | Goes to the platform’s pages | Goes to your pages and keeps building |
| Who sets the rules | The platform | You |
On Zittle, guests pay a small platform fee on top of your ticket price, so you receive the full price you set. See Payments, fees and payouts.
The middle path: use both, on purpose
Many hosts get the best of both by giving each a clear job.
- Use the marketplace for discovery. Let it bring you first-time guests while your own site is new.
- Use your own site for everything else. Your Instagram bio, WhatsApp groups and Google profile link to your website, not the marketplace.
- Turn first-timers into direct guests. At the end of each session, show a QR code to your website and invite people to follow you. Check the marketplace’s terms on contacting guests, and keep the invitation to the session itself.
- Give regulars a reason to book direct. A coupon for their next session, or early access to new dates announced only in your WhatsApp group.
- Keep one seat count. If you sell the same session on a marketplace, add those bookings to Zittle as offline tickets with the source Marketplace, so your website never sells a seat that’s already gone.
Measure, then decide
Don’t guess which channel works. Give each place you share your event its own campaign link, and record marketplace bookings as offline tickets with the Marketplace source. After a month or two, your bookings show exactly how many came from each.
If most new guests still come from the marketplace, keep it and keep converting them. If your own site, Instagram and repeat guests bring most of the bookings, you’re paying commission for an audience you no longer need.
In short
A marketplace rents you an audience. Your own booking website builds one you keep. Start with whichever brings bookings now, but put your own website at the centre of everything you share, because every guest who books there directly is one you’ll never pay commission on again.