// Commission calculator
Booking.com's commission: what it costs you a year
Visibility programmes included. Four questions, 30 seconds, no email needed.
What does Booking.com charge?
- Base commission is around 15% in most of Europe, set in each property contract (10% to 25% worldwide).
- Preferred adds about 3 points (around 18%) and Preferred Plus about 8 (around 23%), in exchange for more visibility.
- Genius charges no extra commission, but asks you to fund guest discounts of 10% to 20%.
- Payments through Booking.com can add 1% to 3%.
You may sell for less on your own website
Since 14 November 2024, under the EU Digital Markets Act, Booking.com must let accommodation in the European Economic Area offer better prices and conditions on other channels, including its own website. The UK rules differ. Source: European Commission.
Rates reported by industry sources; your contract may differ. Checked 25 September 2026.
Adjust the split and the rates
Published: the platform states it. Reported: industry sources, contracts vary. Yours: the rate you typed. Type the rate from your own contract and the line switches to yours.
| Share | Rate | Paid visibility | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking.com reportedAbout 15% base in most of Europe. Preferred adds about 3 points, Preferred Plus about 8; Visibility Booster adds more on boosted bookings. Genius discounts come out of your price. |
Extra points for paid visibility programmes, if you use one.
Example figures. Change them to yours.
Live result: about €13,230 a yearYour result
About €13,230 a year goes to the platforms.
- €36 every day, Sundays included.
- €52.50 from every platform booking.
Until 7 February, you work for the platforms.
Where it goes
- Booking.com€13,230
The direct channel
What a direct channel is worth to you
- Commission comes back on every booking, every year. A direct channel is built once and keeps working.
- A direct guest is yours: they come back, recommend you and leave a review, with no commission the next time.
- Less dependence: when a platform raises its rate or changes its ranking, your bookings do not ride on it.
In five years, if nothing changes, you hand €66,150 to the platforms.
With 20% of those bookings direct, you keep about €6,174 more.
What share of your platform bookings could you take back?
Taking back 20% of platform bookings removes about €2,646 of commission a year.
Winning those bookings yourself costs about €1,411 (8% of their value).
You keep about €1,235 a year: €6,174 over five years.
Commission is one cost. Winning a direct booking has its own: card fees, booking software and marketing. We counted 8%; change it below.
Adjust the cost of a direct booking
Keep the platforms for discovery. The goal is to know which bookings should be yours.
Your OTA receipt
But can your website actually win those bookings?
Six quick taps. From what you tell us, we show where bookings leak.
Do you have your own website?
Can guests book and pay on it?
When someone searches your business name on Google, what shows first?
Do you have a Google Business Profile with recent reviews?
When you ask ChatGPT or Gemini for a business like yours, do you appear?
Do you keep guests' emails or WhatsApp to invite them back?
From what you told us, your bookings depend heavily on the platforms.
The first things we would check
- Your basics look solid. The next gains are usually in who shows up for your name and in repeat guests.
Your next step to more direct bookings
Here a direct channel pays back fast
At this level, a few changes usually pay for themselves within a season. Twenty minutes is enough to see where your bookings leak.
The Direct Booking Audit checks your website, your visibility on Google and in AI answers, and your booking journey, from €197: less than 6 days of the commission you already pay. The fee is credited in full if you go ahead within 30 days.
Show me what to fix
Estimates from the rates platforms publish or that are widely reported (checked 25 September 2026). Your contract may differ. Not affiliated with any booking platform.
How we calculate
Every number on the result comes from what you type and from the rates below. The numbers you type are not sent anywhere unless you choose to send them.
The formula
- Yearly revenue = bookings a month × 12 × average booking value.
- Platform revenue = yearly revenue × the share through platforms.
- Commission = platform revenue × each platform's share × (its rate + any paid visibility points), plus booking-software fees and commission charged on cancellations you had to make.
- Freedom Day = the day of the year that commission as a share of revenue reaches (for example 15.6% of the year is day 57, 26 February).
- Take back = the share of platform bookings you move direct × (the platform rate you avoid − the cost of winning a direct booking). Never shown below zero.
Published, reported or yours
Published means the platform states the rate itself. Reported means industry sources and operator reports; contracts vary by country, volume and programme. Yours means the rate you typed from your own contract, which always beats our default.
Default rates
| Platform | Default | Range | Class | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GetYourGuide | 27% | 25-30% | reported | arival.travel |
| Viator | 25% | 20-35% | reported | sambahq.com |
| Airbnb Experiences | 20% | 20% | published | airbnb.com |
| Klook | 20% | 15-35% | reported | bokun.io |
| Headout | 22% | 15-30% | reported | partner.headout.com |
| Civitatis | 20% | 15-30% | reported | civitatis.com |
| Musement (TUI) | 20% | 15-25% | reported | partner.tuimusement.com |
| Expedia Things to Do | 20% | 15-30% | reported | bokun.io |
| Booking.com | 15% | 12-23% | reported | partner.booking.com |
| Airbnb | 15.5% | 15.5% | published | airbnb.com |
| Expedia / Hotels.com | 18% | 10-30% | reported | advertising.expedia.com |
| Vrbo | 8% | 8-15% | reported | hosttools.com |
| Agoda | 18% | 15-25% | reported | partnerhub.agoda.com |
| Hostelworld | 17% | 15-18% | reported | rte.ie |
| Other platform | 18% | 10-35% | reported | - |
Rates checked 25 September 2026.
The cost of a direct booking
Direct bookings are not free. The default of 8% adds card processing (2.5%, Stripe's published EEA rate), booking software, ads and marketing, and the website. Change any line to your own costs.
Context
- Platforms' share of tour and activity bookings rose from 28% in 2023 to 37% in 2025, while operators' own websites fell from 29% to 25% (Arival, survey of 5,664 operators).
- In the EU and EEA, Booking.com may not stop a business from offering a better price on its own website (Digital Markets Act, since 14 November 2024).
- Google Things to Do shows free booking links to operators' own sites, with no commission.
What the calculator does not know
It does not know your contract, your seasonality, or how many platform guests would have found you anyway. Platforms also bring guests you would not reach alone. Treat the result as a starting point for a conversation, not an invoice.
Privacy
The calculator runs in your browser. The numbers you type are not sent anywhere unless you choose to send them with the form or by WhatsApp.
If you use the form, we receive what you type in it (name, contact, website, business name), your answers to the six questions, the platforms you picked and your result band (a range, not an amount) and, if you tick the box, your calculator numbers. We use them only to reply to you about this result.
Controller: Digital Caravel (João Ferreira, sole trader), Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. Contact: [email protected].
We keep form messages for up to 24 months, then delete them. You can ask to see, correct or delete your data at any time by writing to [email protected].
The hosting provider (Netlify) processes technical request data to serve this site and stores form messages. The site uses Google Analytics to count visits; the numbers you type are never sent to it.
You can complain to the Portuguese data protection authority (CNPD, cnpd.pt).