Increase direct bookings: what small hotels and guesthouses can do about high portal commissions

Small hotels and guesthouses increase direct bookings mainly through three things: booking on their own website that is as easy as on a portal, a visible benefit for everyone who books direct, and regular guests who know the direct route. The law puts little in your way: you may offer a better price on your website than on the booking portal. This article shows what portals cost, what applies to rate parity and which steps are worth it for a small property.

How high are booking portal commissions?

Portals differ in how openly they publish their rates. In its partner help, Booking.com describes commission as a set percentage of the total booking amount, meaning the room rate plus additional fees such as cleaning. According to Booking.com, the exact percentage depends on country, property type and the agreement you signed. The page gives no figure. Anyone taking part in programmes such as Preferred Partner or Visibility Booster pays more than the contract states. You will find your rate in the extranet under Finance, in the reservation statements.

Airbnb does give figures. Under the fee borne by the host alone, most hosts pay 15.5% according to Airbnb. This model is mandatory for traditional accommodation such as hotels and for hosts who connect software. Under the split model most hosts pay 3% and the guest carries the rest.

How much portals matter is shown by the distribution study of the European association HOTREC, presented by the German Hotel Association on 2 July 2024. In 2023, 29.6% of all hotel nights in Europe were booked through online portals, 31.2% in Germany. Hotels' own websites with real-time booking accounted for 13.4% across Europe and 15.1% in Germany. That share has been growing since 2013.

Worked example: a guesthouse with ten rooms sells 1,200 nights a year at € 110, € 132,000 in total. If 40% of that comes through portals, that is € 52,800. At an assumed rate of 15% this costs € 7,920 a year. If a quarter of those nights move to your own website, you save € 1,980 of commission on € 13,200 of revenue. Against that stand about € 208 in payment fees for 40 bookings (1.5% plus € 0.25 per payment). The 15% is an assumption. Put in your own rate.

Can I charge less on my own website than on the portal?

Austria: yes. The annex to the Unfair Competition Act (UWG) lists, under item 32, the demand by a booking platform operator that an accommodation business must not offer a lower price or better conditions on other sales channels, including its own website. Under section 1a(4) UWG this counts as an aggressive commercial practice, and agreements to that effect are absolutely void. The rule came with the amendment in Federal Law Gazette I No. 99/2016 and also applies to older contracts.

Germany: yes. On 18 May 2021 the Federal Court of Justice ruled (KVR 54/20) that even Booking.com's narrow best-price clause is incompatible with competition law. Narrow means the hotel was only barred from being cheaper on its own website. The court noted that this clause considerably hinders hotels' platform-independent online sales.

EU: on 19 September 2024 the Court of Justice (C-264/23) ruled that wide and narrow best-price clauses are in principle not ancillary restraints that would fall outside the ban on cartels. In addition there is the Digital Markets Act: the European Commission designated Booking as a gatekeeper on 13 May 2024. The company then had six months to comply with the obligations of the regulation.

This is not legal advice. What you are legally allowed to do and what a portal rewards in its ranking or partner programmes are two different questions. Read the terms of the programmes you take part in and, if in doubt, ask your chamber or association (WKO, ÖHV, DEHOGA, IHA).

What you can do on your own website

1. A booking button on every page, visible on a phone without scrolling. Many guests find you on a portal and then look at your website.
2. Show price and free rooms in real time. An enquiry form answered the next day loses out to a portal that confirms at once.
3. Few steps: dates, room, details, payment. No forced registration.
4. Take payment online, as a deposit or in full, with clear cancellation deadlines. That protects you against no-shows and gives the guest certainty.
5. Name a direct benefit that costs you little: a better price, breakfast included, late check-out or a more generous cancellation deadline. Put it next to the booking button.
6. Present rooms as well as the portal does: current photos, amenities, location, parking, arrival times.
7. Sync calendars so that nights booked direct are blocked on the portal. For small properties an iCal sync is often enough; larger ones need a channel manager.

How to turn portal guests into regulars

The second stay no longer has to come through the portal. Leave a card with your web address and the direct benefit in every room. Link your own website in your Google Business Profile. Enter phone bookings in your system straight away so that availability and prices are right.

Be careful with email. In Austria, advertising by email requires prior consent under section 174 of the Telecommunications Act 2021. There is an exception for your own customers if you received the address yourself in the course of a sale, advertise similar services of your own and the guest can refuse free of charge when the address is collected and in every message. Similar rules apply in Germany, where the IHK can advise. Addresses a portal passes on to you only to handle a booking do not automatically meet these conditions. Ask your guests on arrival whether they would like to hear from you.

When a portal is still worth it

Portals bring guests who would never have found you otherwise, especially from abroad and in weak weeks. A mix therefore makes sense. Do not put every room on the portal in every week if you can fill high season directly. Once a year, look at what share of your nights came through which channel and what each channel cost you. Those figures tell you where to put time and money.

How this works in EachVisit

With EachVisit you embed room booking in your website or use a booking page of your own. Guests choose dates, see free categories, rates and extras such as breakfast, and pay a deposit or the full amount through your own Stripe account. You set seasonal prices, minimum stay and cancellation deadlines yourself, including a direct rate.

What EachVisit cannot do: it is not a channel manager. Occupied nights can be synced with portals via iCal, but prices and booking details are not transferred. The sync runs at intervals, not in real time. EachVisit costs € 69 a month on the Klein plan and from € 129 on the Mittel plan with 15 rooms included. Commission is 0%; Stripe's own fees apply. Closed beta pricing is available on request. Regular plan prices are shown for reference; any later paid use requires your active acceptance.