If you’re running a successful rental business — maybe it’s a group of chalets, a lakeside retreat, or a high-performing portfolio of holiday homes, there’s a good chance a large share of your bookings still come through listing platforms. They’re convenient, no doubt. Guests know them. You’ve likely used them yourself.
But behind that convenience is a cost. One that creeps in quietly, scales with your success and often goes unchecked for far too long.
Most owners can rattle off their average nightly rate, their occupancy, maybe even their booking split. But when you ask, “How much commission are you paying each year?” the answers tend to get a lot less confident. Let’s look at it further.
If you’re charging €250 a night, sitting at 80% occupancy across 10 properties, and getting 70% of your bookings through platforms that take a 15% cut — you’re losing over €6,000 every single month. More than €75,000 a year. And that’s assuming you don’t raise prices or expand. If you do, that number only grows.
That’s not marketing spend. That’s not reinvestment. That’s money out simply for access.
It’s not just the size of the number. It’s how invisible it is. There’s no single moment where you feel it all leave. No monthly invoice to review. The commission is taken before you even see it, so it doesn’t register the same way as an outgoing expense.
That makes it easy to downplay. Easy to call “the cost of doing business.” Until one day, you realise that a massive portion of your margin is going toward delivering value to a platform, not your business.
And it’s not just margin.
When guests come through third-party channels, you lose the relationship. You can’t easily bring them back. You can’t build a database. You can’t market to them next season, or offer upgrades, or build loyalty. You’re effectively renting customers — and paying every time.
The question is: how sustainable is that?
Let’s be clear: there’s nothing wrong with using listing platforms. They drive bookings. They reduce admin. They’re part of the mix for a reason.
But when 70–90% of your income flows through someone else’s system, it doesn’t take much to feel exposed. A change in algorithm, a guest dispute, a listing suspension — these things happen every day. And if the platform is your lifeline, you’re suddenly stuck.
What starts as a channel becomes a choke point.
None of this means you need to scrap listing platforms overnight. But most businesses benefit significantly from shifting even 10–30% of their bookings direct.
The benefits stack up quickly:
• You keep more revenue
• You build a guest base that comes back without a middleman
• You create brand equity, not just occupancy
• You gain control over pricing, policies, and communication
But more than anything, you start building a business that’s yours and not one you’re renting space in.
It’s simple: know your numbers.
Not your occupancy or rate but your commission loss. Most owners never calculate it properly. And once they do, it tends to shift the way they look at their strategy.
That’s why we built a simple calculator to show the actual cost. Monthly, yearly, and based on your property size and OTA share. It takes less than a minute to fill in, and it could be the first step toward keeping more of what you earn.
Because the truth is the bigger your business grows, the more you have to gain by owning the booking.
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