Commercial & Distribution
What an OTA booking actually costs you
Commission is the visible cost of distribution. It is rarely the largest one.
Author
TEX Online
The commission is only the headline
Commission is the number everyone quotes, but the real cost of a channel also includes the discounting you accepted to stay visible, the loyalty programme you help fund, payment fees, and the cancellations that channel produces at a higher rate than your own site. Two channels quoting identical commission can land very differently once all of that is counted.
Net rate, not gross rate
The only figure worth comparing across channels is what reaches the bank per room night actually stayed. That means taking the gross rate and removing commission, promotional discounts, payment costs and the share of bookings that cancel or no-show. Properties that manage on gross ADR routinely misread which channel is carrying them.
Parity is a commercial decision, not a legal one
Rate parity is usually treated as a compliance problem. It is better handled commercially: decide what your direct channel offers that no intermediary can match — flexibility, room choice, package inclusions — and price accordingly. Leakage is normally the symptom of an unmanaged channel rather than a broken contract.
Mix moves further than rate
Most properties can move net revenue further by shifting channel mix than by moving rate. That work is unglamorous — content accuracy, availability discipline, closing loss-making promotions, keeping the booking engine honest — but it compounds, and it does not require asking the market to pay more.
