OTA commissions: what Booking.com and Expedia really cost your hotel
Commission is the price of the reach online travel agencies bring. To know what an OTA booking really costs, separate three things that often get blended together: the commission, the discounts your hotel funds and the extra fees in the booking. This guide explains what Booking.com and Expedia charge on and follows one booking from rate to net.
- Booking.com charges the percentage in your agreement on the total booking amount, which includes extra fees you charge, once the guest checks out.
- Discounts such as Genius aren’t commission: your hotel funds them through a lower price, and commission is then charged on that lower price.
- Visibility programs such as the Preferred Partner Program or the Visibility Booster raise the percentage.
- Expedia’s compensation works differently under Expedia Collect and Hotel Collect.
- Rates, what counts toward the booking amount and how taxes are treated depend on your contract and market.
How Booking.com calculates commission
Booking.com describes commission as a set percentage of the total booking amount for each reservation received through its platform: the room rate plus any additional fees you charge, applied once the guest checks out. According to its partner help, you pay commission on:
- Confirmed stays, once the guest has checked out and paid.
- Non-refundable and partially refundable bookings, whether or not the guest stays.
- Cancellation and no-show fees you charge the guest.
- Overbookings, with exceptions for properties live for less than 30 days or with fewer than five overbookings in the last 12 months.
It isn’t charged on fees you waive, on no-shows you mark in the Extranet within 48 hours of checkout when you waive the fee, or on bookings with cards you marked as invalid. Local taxes such as city tax are excluded; in most countries commission is charged on VAT or GST, depending on local tax law, and your General Delivery Terms say what applies to you.
The percentage itself is in your accommodation agreement and in your reservation statements; Booking.com says it depends on your country, property type and the agreement you signed. If a statement shows a higher percentage than your contract, you’re probably in a program such as the Preferred Partner Program or the Visibility Booster, which trade extra commission for visibility. We compare them in How Booking.com ranking works.
How Expedia charges
Expedia Group works with two payment models. With Expedia Collect, the traveler pays Expedia and, under Expedia’s lodging agreement, the hotel is entitled to the total room price minus Expedia’s compensation. With Hotel Collect, the guest pays the hotel at the time of the stay and Expedia bills its compensation separately. How compensation is calculated is set in your agreement.
Expedia also says that what it’s paid is one of the factors it considers when placing properties in search results, and its Accelerator tool lets you pay extra compensation for more visibility on the dates you choose. More in Expedia TravelAds and Accelerator.
From rate to net: a worked example
Illustrative example. A three-night Booking.com stay at a $200 public rate, booked by a Genius member, with a $10-per-night fee charged through the booking.
| Line | Amount | How it’s calculated |
|---|---|---|
| Original rate | $600.00 | 3 nights × $200 |
| Genius discount, funded by the hotel | −$60.00 | 10% × $600; a lower price, not commission |
| Room amount sold | $540.00 | $600 − $60 |
| Fee charged through the booking | +$30.00 | 3 nights × $10; part of the total booking amount |
| Commissionable amount | $570.00 | $540 + $30; taxes left out of this example |
| Commission at 15% | −$85.50 | 15% × $570 |
| Net received, before other costs | $484.50 | $570 − $85.50 |
The statement shows 15%. But at full price the stay was worth $630, and the hotel gave up $145.50 of it: $60 in discount and $85.50 in commission, about 23%. Reading the two separately tells you which lever to review: the discounts you fund or the commission rate and programs you pay.
Assumes a 15% contract rate, no visibility program, a fee loaded into the booking and taxes left out. Payment processing and other costs aren’t included. Your percentage, what counts toward the booking amount and how taxes are treated depend on your contract, country and market; your reservation statements show the commission charged on each booking.
What commissions add up to in a year
A simple estimate: annual room revenue × share of room revenue booked through OTAs × average OTA commission. Use shares of revenue, not of bookings, and weight the average commission by each OTA’s revenue.
An illustrative example: a hotel with $2.5 million in room revenue, 65% of it through OTAs at an average 22% commission, pays about $357,500 a year, 14.3% of its room revenue. These are the calculator’s example figures, not a benchmark. Try your own numbers in the OTA commission calculator.
Commission isn’t the whole picture
The commission figure is a cost, not a saving waiting to be collected. Direct bookings have costs too — paid search, metasearch, booking engine and payment fees, and brand or loyalty fees where they apply — and some OTA bookings are demand you wouldn’t have captured otherwise. The useful comparison is cost per booking by channel, which we cover in Direct booking vs. OTA.
Where to start
- Know your real rate. Compare the percentage on your statements with your contract, and list the programs that add to it.
- Track discounts separately. Add up what the promotions you fund cost you, apart from commission; see Booking.com promotions.
- Record changes on time. Mark cancellations and no-shows within 48 hours of checkout so commission is billed correctly.
- Check your prices across channels. A lower price on an OTA can pull bookings there; see rate parity.
See what your channel mix costs, and where direct can compete.
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- Booking.com for Partners, Understanding your commission.
- Booking.com for Partners, Understanding the Genius marketing program.
- Expedia Group, Expedia Lodging Agreement (template).
- Expedia Group, Decoding our algorithm: A guide to boosting your hotel’s visibility.
Sources consulted on September 27, 2026; the Expedia Lodging Agreement template, on September 26, 2026.
