For years, listing platforms have been the default way to fill your booking calendar. They’re easy to set up, come with built-in traffic, and they work, at least on the surface.
But the landscape is changing. More holiday rental owners are rethinking the cost of convenience, and a growing number are shifting their focus toward direct bookings.
This isn’t just a trend. It’s a business decision.
It’s easy to underestimate how much commission cuts into your revenue, especially when it’s automatically deducted.
If you’re running a property or small portfolio and generating €20,000 per month in bookings, a 15% commission rate means you’re giving away €3,000 every single month. That’s €36,000 a year — and you’re still doing the work to maintain the property and manage the guest experience.
Now multiply that across multiple properties or busy seasons, and the loss becomes much harder to ignore.
Want to check your own numbers? Use this to run a quick calculation.
IIt’s not just isolated cases — across the industry, there’s a clear movement toward building stronger direct booking channels. According to a Skift Research report, direct digital bookings are projected to surpass online travel agencies (OTAs) as the dominant distribution channel by 2030, generating over $400 billion in global hotel gross bookings. This shift is driven by hotels seeking better margins, increased control, and stronger guest relationships.
Major hotel groups are taking steps to encourage direct bookings. For instance, Accor has revamped its rewards program for luxury travel advisors, offering points and perks to incentivize bookings through their system, as reported by Skift. Similarly, Hilton has enhanced its luxury travel advisor program by adding additional perks to strengthen relationships with travel advisors and promote direct bookings, according to Skift.
The reason is simple: direct bookings mean better margins, more control, and long-term guest relationships.
When a guest books through a listing site, you’re not just paying a fee you’re also giving up ownership of that relationship.
You don’t get their contact details. You can’t follow up easily. You don’t control the guest journey beyond the booking itself.
And the more dependent you are on a single platform, the more vulnerable your business becomes. Changes in visibility, search algorithms, or policies can have a direct impact on your income with little recourse.
For a deeper look at the risks of over-reliance, take a look at our recent article.
We’ve reached the point where direct bookings aren’t limited to big brands with big budgets. Tools like Google Ads and Meta Ads allow even small rental businesses to run high-impact campaigns with full control over targeting and spend.
You can reach the right guests at the right time — whether that’s showing up when someone searches for a “pet-friendly chalet in the Alps”, a “luxury hotel with a spa in Tuscany”, or a “last-minute weekend stay in Lisbon”. You can retarget visitors who left without booking, promote seasonal offers or limited-time deals, and build brand awareness across platforms. All of this can be done on your terms — without relying solely on third-party platforms or OTAs.
The return on ad spend can be far stronger than most people expect when you consider that the alternative is giving away 15–20% of every booking.
No one’s suggesting you stop using listing platforms altogether. They still have value, particularly for visibility and filling gaps during low season.
But relying on them for the majority of your income is becoming harder to justify. That’s why more property owners are aiming to rebalance their strategy.
Even shifting 10–20% of your bookings direct can put thousands back into your business and give you far more control over how you grow.
We explore this shift in more detail in Why More Holiday Rentals Are Investing in Direct Bookings.
The first step is understanding the numbers.
We created a simple calculator that shows how much revenue you might be handing over in commission each month and what that looks like over the course of a year.
You can try the OTA Commission Loss Calculator to see the impact for yourself.
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