Booking.com commission and direct bookings: pay less

You get more direct bookings when guests have both a reason and an easy way to book directly with you: your own website where they can see free dates and the price straight away, better terms than on the portal, and regular contact with guests who have already stayed with you. A portal takes commission on every booking, with Booking.com typically 15% or more. On a direct booking through your own website you pay nobody anything. You do not have to leave the portals, either; it is enough for fewer bookings to go through them.

What a portal really costs you

In its partner help pages, Booking.com says commission is a fixed percentage of the total booking amount. The exact percentage depends on the country, the type of property and the contract you signed, and you will find it in your accommodation agreement or in the Finance section of the extranet. Besides the percentage itself, you need to know what it is charged on:

• the accommodation price and extra fees, such as cleaning or services,
• non-refundable and partially refundable bookings, even when the guest does not turn up,
• cancellation fees and no-show fees,
• double bookings, where you also cover the cost of relocating the guest; Booking.com waives the commission if the property has been on the portal for less than 30 days or if you have had fewer than five double bookings in the past 12 months,
• the Preferred Partner and Visibility Booster programmes add further percentage points on top of the base rate.

Booking.com does not charge commission on local taxes such as the tourist tax.

Example (illustrative figures, not yours): 40 nights a year through a portal at €250 is €10,000. At 15% commission, you pay the portal €1,500 a year. If the same nights came through your website, the commission would be €0. Work out your own figures in the commission calculator.

The portal as a shop window, your website as the till

A portal has its own customers and promotes itself; Booking.com says it promotes properties on search engines in 45 languages and through more than 17,500 partner websites. That is its value, and that is what you pay for. So the sensible strategy is not to drop the portal, but to let it bring in new guests and steer everyone else to your own website:

• guests who found you via Google or a recommendation,
• guests who keep coming back,
• groups and families who prefer to agree details directly.

1. A website where guests can book straight away

Guests should not have to send an email and wait for a reply to find out whether their dates are free. Your website should have:

• a live availability calendar where free dates are obvious at a glance,
• price calculation by date: seasons, weekends, minimum number of nights,
• a simple booking form that also works on mobile,
• an email confirmation, so guests know what happens next.

We explain how SFERIN does this on the booking system page.

2. Give guests a reason to book directly

Since 14 November 2024, under the Digital Markets Act, Booking.com must allow accommodation providers to offer better prices and terms on other channels, including their own website, and must not restrict this freedom. This was stated by the European Commission, which designated Booking as a gatekeeper. So on your website you can offer, for example:

• a lower price, since you pay no commission,
• more flexible cancellation terms,
• early check-in or late check-out,
• a discount for returning guests.

State the benefit clearly and visibly on the website, not in small print in the footer.

3. Be easy to find

A guest who searches for your property by name should find your website before your listing on a portal. What helps:

• your own domain with the name of the property,
• a website with pages about the accommodation, facilities, prices and the surrounding area,
• a Google Business Profile, if your property meets the conditions (note that not every property does; more in our article Google Business Profile for holiday rentals),
• a link to your website on social media, business cards and a QR code right in the property.

4. Look after guests who have already stayed with you

Contacts from direct bookings are yours. A happy guest is more likely to get in touch with you than with the portal, as long as they know where to find you. After the stay, thank them, send a link to your website and remind them of the benefit of booking directly. If you want to send them offers by email regularly, check the consent requirements under data protection and electronic communications rules first.

5. A calendar in sync with the portals

Direct bookings only work when you are not worried about double bookings. The calendar on your website must see bookings from the portals, and the portals must see bookings from your website. Booking.com offers synchronisation via iCal links for this, but warns that it is not instant and that connected calendars are read every two hours. We cover how to work with this in our article Double bookings from Booking.com and your website and on the channel sync page.

6. Track where your guests come from

Without tracking you cannot tell whether things are improving. Record the source of every booking (portal, website, phone, recommendation) and set up Google Analytics and Search Console on your website. After six months you will see how many bookings already come directly and how much you have saved.

What puts guests off booking directly

Even a good website can unintentionally send guests back to the portal. Check whether any of these apply to you:

• price only at the end: guests want to see the total for their dates before they fill in their contact details,
• unclear terms: deposit, cancellation, check-in and check-out, pets; whatever is not written down, guests will prefer to check on the portal, where they see it in the summary,
• an out-of-date calendar: if your website shows dates as free that are actually booked, guests lose trust,
• slow replies: confirm booking requests as soon as possible, ideally the same day,
• missing photos and information that the portal has; your website should say at least as much about the property as the listing.

How quickly your own website pays for itself

Example (illustrative): a 3-night stay at €250 a night costs €750. At 15% commission, you would pay the portal €112.50. A website with SFERIN costs from €249, so three such direct bookings cover it. Every booking after that is a saving. The commission calculator shows how the numbers work out for your property.

How SFERIN does it

SFERIN is your own commission-free booking system for your property. You get a website on your own domain with a live calendar and prices, booking requests that you confirm yourself, and a calendar kept in sync with Booking.com, megaubytovanie.sk, hauzi.sk and other portals. You pay no commission on direct bookings, not even to us. A website with a booking system costs from €249, and we will show you what your property's website could look like in a free preview.