Behind the Desk Direct bookings
Booking.com commission: what hotels really pay
GuestJourney editorial team, edited by Alon Shkuri
Booking.com commission is a set percentage of the total booking amount, and the exact rate depends on your country, property type and agreement. Booking.com publishes no table; a June 2026 guide by Wise puts the range for US hosts at 10% to 25%, and the global average at about 15%. For an example hotel of 20 rooms, 15% comes to about €28,900 a year.
Monday morning, between two check-outs
Anna runs Hotel Kadeloft: twenty rooms on the quay, a breakfast room, and two people at the desk on busy days. The Booking.com invoice arrives while she is taking back a key. She knows what she once agreed: 15%. She sees €2,409, wonders for a moment whether that's right, and has no time for it today. So she pays.
Hotel Kadeloft and Anna are made up, so the sums in our guides are about something. The amount follows from the assumptions further down.
Where is your percentage?
Your own percentage is the only one that counts, and Booking.com tells you where it is: in your accommodation agreement or under Reservation statements in the Finance tab. If you are not a partner yet, you see it at the Agreement step of the registration. Any figure you read elsewhere, ours included, is an estimate.
If the percentage on your reservation statement is higher than the one in your contract, Booking.com says you may be in a marketing programme such as Preferred Partner or Visibility Booster. Check that first, because then you are paying a different rate from the one you think you agreed.
Why 15% is more than it sounds
The percentage is taken over the whole amount the guest pays, and in most countries that includes VAT. On a hotel room in the Netherlands, VAT has been 21% since 1 January 2026. This is what one night at €110 then looks like:
Of what you receive before VAT, that €16.50 is 18.2%.
Last year, at 9% VAT and the same room rate, it was just over 16%. And the cleaning, the laundry and the staff still have to come out of that €74.41. Outside the Netherlands? Do the sum with your own rate.
This is what you pay commission on, according to Booking.com itself:
Commission
- The room rate and fees you add, such as cleaning and service
- VAT, in most countries (see your General Delivery Terms)
- A non-refundable booking where the guest does not come, unless you waive the fee
- A no-show, if you charge a fee
- An overbooking, with an exception for new properties and fewer than five in 12 months
No commission
- Local taxes such as city tax
- A free cancellation
- A no-show you mark within 48 hours of check-out and waive
What the programmes add
- Preferred Partner: about 3 percentage points on top, according to Wise, so 15% becomes about 18%.
- Genius: not a direct fee, but you fund a discount of 10% to 20% for frequent travellers, also according to Wise. It costs you margin without showing up as commission.
- Visibility Booster: a higher commission on the dates you choose. Your own Extranet shows the rate under Boost performance.
These figures come from a third party, not from Booking.com. Take them as an order of magnitude and read the real ones in your Extranet.
Run the numbers for your own hotel
This is Kadeloft: 20 rooms, 60% occupancy over the year, €110 a night, 40% through Booking.com and 15% commission. Those are assumptions, not measured averages. Put in yours.
Commission per year
€28,908
Per month €2,409, per night through Booking.com €16.50
| Step | Sum | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Room nights sold | 20 x 365 x 60% | 4,380 |
| Room revenue | 4,380 x €110 | €481,800 |
| Through Booking.com | 40% of that | €192,720 |
| Commission at 15% | 15% of that | €28,908 |
| At 18% with Preferred | 18% of that | €34,690 |
Why 40%? Because small hotels depend on OTAs more than average: in the HOTREC study of 2024, 27% of hotels under 20 rooms get 30-49% through OTAs and another 27% more than half, and Booking.com holds 66.1% of OTA bookings in Europe. It is a plausible example, not your number. The commission calculator also shows what moving guests to direct would save.
Is that too much? It depends on two guests
The same €16.50 can be cheap or a waste. The difference is who books.
Jonas
Has to be in town for two nights, searches on Booking.com by price and location, and had never heard of Kadeloft.
€16.50 is what marketing costs, and Anna pays only after he has stayed.
Laura
Stayed here in the spring and wants to come back. She googles Hotel Kadeloft, sees Booking.com next to the hotel's own site, and taps the button she finds first.
€16.50 Anna did not need to spend.
Laura is the one to go after. She belongs to the smaller group, which makes the sum more honest than you often read.
“Let's not even talk about the commission they pay on an annual basis.”
“Having those OTAs is actually a free advertising. Yes, you're paying a commission.”
Both from The Future of Hospitality, the podcast GuestJourney sponsors.
What you can reasonably get back
Say that at Kadeloft 5 percentage points of revenue move from Booking.com to direct. That saves €3,614 in commission. Your own booking engine and card fees cost something too: at an assumed 3%, about €2,891 a year is left.
Real money, but no revolution. Anyone who promises you the whole €28,908 back has not done the sum.
What Anna does this week
- Look up her real rate, and check whether a programme has raised it. Ten minutes in the Extranet.
- Mark no-shows and changes within 48 hours of check-out, so she is not paying on money she never received.
- Make direct the easiest route for guests like Laura: six places to fix.
- Show up next to the OTAs on Google with free booking links. They cost nothing per click.
- Decide on purpose whether her own site is cheaper. In the EU Booking.com can no longer stop that.
What we don't know
We don't know your contract. The figures for Preferred and Genius come from Wise and not from Booking.com, so take them as an order of magnitude.
We also don't know how many of your Booking.com guests already knew you. You probably don't either, and that is the number that decides whether your commission is too high. You can measure it: for a month, ask every guest at check-in how they found you, and keep a tally on a sheet next to the till.
Sources
- Booking.com Partner Help, Understanding your commission
- Booking.com, FAQ for new partners
- Wise, Booking.com fees guide (29 June 2026)
- Belastingdienst, btw-tarief logies omhoog naar 21% (vanaf 1 januari 2026)
- HOTREC, European Hotel Distribution Study 2024 (reference year 2023, 2,537 responses)
- TRAVEL Extra on the HOTREC study 2026 (21 September 2026)
- European Commission, factsheet on the DMA and Booking.com (28 September 2026)
- The Future of Hospitality, Make your story the destination
- The Future of Hospitality, Make OTAs Your 24/7 Marketing Engine