There are two commission rates. The one you negotiated, and the one you pay. This is how to find the second one.
The method
- Export twelve months of payout statements from every platform you list on.
- For each booking, note the gross fare the guest paid — not your net payout.
- Sum what the platform kept: commission, processing, adjustments, promotion funding.
- Divide kept by gross. That percentage is your effective rate.
Where the extra points hide
Processing: card fees often sit inside the commission line where nobody itemises them. Cancellations: generous platform cancellation terms cost you fare you never see. Promotions: platform-funded discounts frequently are not platform-funded at all.
25% → 31%+A typical contracted rate vs the effective rate after fees, cancellations and promotions.
Why one afternoon of spreadsheet work matters
Every direct-booking decision — what to spend on ads, whether a booking engine pays for itself, how to price — keys off this number. Operators who use the contracted rate underestimate the prize by several points, and several points on OTA volume is real money.
Prefer it done for you? That is literally what the free audit is.
