What is an OTA commission?
Online Travel Agencies such as Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb charge hotels a commission for each reservation they deliver. Depending on the agreement, market, and visibility package, commission levels often range from 10% to 25%.
Why OTA commission matters
Many hotels focus on top-line revenue and occupancy, but fail to measure how much income is lost through commission-based distribution. A property may appear busy while still sacrificing a significant amount of margin to intermediaries.
Simple example
If your average room price is 100, you receive 200 OTA bookings per month, and your commission rate is 15%, your monthly OTA revenue is 20,000 and your monthly commission cost is 3,000. Over a full year, that becomes 36,000 in commission expense.
How to reduce OTA dependency
- Increase direct bookings through your own website
- Use a booking engine with a strong conversion flow
- Improve hotel website SEO and visibility
- Offer guests benefits for booking direct
Why this calculator is useful
This tool helps hotel owners and revenue managers visualize the real cost of OTA distribution. It is especially useful when comparing direct booking growth strategies against third-party channel costs.
If you want to reduce OTA costs, explore the hotel booking engine, learn how to get more direct bookings, or review the benefits of a hotel website builder.