What Is OTA Commission?
OTA commission is the share of a booking's value that an online travel agency keeps for selling a room; booking.com commission, for example, is charged on each booking and invoiced to the property every month (Booking.com Join FAQ). OTA commissions tend to run 15% to 25% of the room rate, by one US hotel columnist's 2026 estimate (What OTAs Actually Cost in 2026 (Hotel Online)).
Last updated: October 2026
How booking.com commission and other OTA commissions work
Booking.com charges commission for each booking a property receives, and a new property sees its rate at the Agreement step of sign-up. At the end of each month, Booking.com sends the property an invoice for the commission owed (Booking.com Join FAQ). Paying and disputing that invoice is covered on its own page, Booking.com commission invoice.
Some bookings carry no commission. When a guest cancels under a free cancellation policy, the guest pays nothing and the property pays no commission. Guests who do not show up carry no commission either, unless the property has set up a no-show charge (Booking.com Join FAQ). For US hosts, Booking.com also leaves local taxes, such as a city tax, out of the commission (Booking.com fees: Guide for US hosts (Wise, 2026)).
Expedia commission comes through its agency model. Expedia acts as the agent, passes the reservation to the hotel, and records its revenue from the hotel when the stayed night occurs (Expedia Group Form 10-K FY2025).
Expedia also sells rooms under a merchant model, where it is the merchant of record and takes the traveler's payment (Expedia Group Form 10-K FY2025). The full split between the two models has its own page, merchant model vs agency model.
Why OTA commission matters for hotel distribution
Commission sits at the center of Booking Holdings' revenue: its agency revenue consists almost entirely of commission on Booking.com accommodation reservations where it does not take the traveler's payment (Booking Holdings Inc. Form 10-K FY2025).
In Europe, the two groups hold most of the OTA market. Booking has a 71% share and Expedia close to 15%, based on 2023 data (European Hotel Distribution Study 2024 (HOTREC press release)).
Commission levels have also drawn regulatory action. In May 2025, Switzerland's Price Supervisor ordered Booking.com to cut its commission rates for Swiss hotels by almost a quarter on average, for a limited period of three years (Ruling Booking (Swiss Price Supervisor, 21 May 2025)). Booking.com said it disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal (Swiss Watchdog Orders 25% Cut (Skift, 21 May 2025)).
OTA commission compared with other platform fees
| What the property pays | Figure from the platform or source | |
|---|---|---|
| Vrbo pay-per-booking | Commission on the rent and any fees the owner charges travelers; none on Vrbo's traveler service fees, taxes, refundable deposits or insurance | 12%; up to 15% on the Professional Plan in parts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand |
| Airbnb host-only fee | A host service fee rather than a commission; required for hotels, serviced apartments and hosts who use property management software | Most hosts on this fee pay 15.5%; split-fee hosts mostly pay 3% |
| Merchant model (net rate) | No commission invoice; the OTA collects the guest's payment | Not a published rate |
| Direct booking | No OTA commission | OTA business can require up to 6.5 times the acquisition investment of a direct booking (Kalibri Labs research, as cited by Hotel Online) |
Vrbo row: Vrbo Help, booking fee calculation. Airbnb row: Airbnb service fees (Airbnb Help Centre). Direct booking row: What OTAs Actually Cost in 2026 (Hotel Online, citing Kalibri Labs). More on each: direct booking, Airbnb host fees, Vrbo fees.
Frequently asked questions
How much commission does Booking.com charge?
What is a commission rate on an OTA booking?
Can a property reduce its OTA commission?
Is OTA commission charged on cancelled bookings or no-shows?
Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
Each channel sets its own terms, from per-booking commission to host fees and merchant-model net rates, so the same room can earn a property a different amount depending on where it sold. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's systems to the channels where guests book, and keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place.