A hunch about commission
You have a strong feeling that Booking.com takes too much. You also know that most of your bookings come through it, and that without it the spring and autumn would be much quieter. Airbnb charges differently, and you are not sure whether it is better or worse. Direct bookings feel best, but you pay card fees on them, and they cancel more often because your policy is more generous.
A friend who runs a B&B in the next village says she moved most of her rooms off Booking.com and is doing fine. Another says the opposite. You would like to know which is true for you, but working it out means going through a year of bookings, statements and fees.
Why the real numbers are hidden
Each channel shows you its own numbers, in its own way. None of them shows you what is left after everything.
- Booking.com charges commission as a separate invoice after the stay.
- Airbnb takes its fee before paying you, and the split between host and guest fees depends on your settings.
- Direct bookings carry card processing fees, and sometimes the cost of your booking engine.
- Promotions, member discounts and mobile rates reduce the price on some channels.
- Cancellations and no-shows differ by channel and change the true earnings.
- Guests who stay longer or spend more on extras skew the picture.
What deciding on a hunch costs
You might push guests towards a channel that is actually costing you more, or turn off a channel that was bringing in business you cannot replace. You might spend money on a new website to grow direct bookings when the real gain would be elsewhere, or not spend it when it would pay back.
It also leaves you uneasy. Running a B&B is hard enough without the suspicion that you are giving money away and not knowing where.
Seasonality hides the truth as well. A channel that looks expensive in August, when you could fill every room several times over, may be the one that fills your Tuesdays in November. Looking at a single month or a single annual total gives the wrong answer either way, and working it out properly by hand is a job nobody running a B&B alone has time for.
How we build a net earnings view by channel
- Bookings are read from your booking system each month, with channel, dates, room, nights, price paid and extras.
- Commission invoices, payout reports and card processing fees are collected from each channel and your payment provider.
- Each booking gets its costs: commission or platform fee, card fees, any discount it was sold under.
- Cancellations, no-shows and refunds are counted against the channel they came from.
- The monthly view shows, for each channel, room nights sold, average price, costs, and what was left per room night.
- A yearly view shows how that changed by season, which matters because channels behave differently in the busy months.
| Channel | What goes in | What comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Booking.com | Price, commission invoice, promotions | Net per room night, by month |
| Airbnb | Payouts after fees, cancellations | Net per room night, by month |
| Direct | Price, card fees, booking engine cost, cancellations | Net per room night, by month |
| Phone and returning guests | Price, payment method | Net per room night, by month |
We do not tell you which channels to use. We show you what each one actually earned, and the decision is yours.
What you know at the end of the season
At the end of October, you look at the year. You can see what each channel left per room night, in each month. You might find that Booking.com earned less per night but filled the quiet midweeks nobody else did, while direct bookings earned most in summer when you would have been full anyway. Or the opposite.
Either way, next year's decisions, about promotions, minimum stays, and where to spend on marketing, start from your own figures.
Do you know what each channel really earns?
- You have a feeling about OTA commission but no figures.
- Commission invoices and payouts are hard to link to bookings.
- You are not sure whether direct bookings are really worth more after fees.
- You have considered leaving an OTA without knowing what it brings in.
- You run promotions without knowing what they cost.