What Owners Actually Lose to Commissions: The Real Chain

On €100,000 in gross annual booking revenue, a typical owner using both an online travel agency and a property manager can lose €25,000–30,000 to combined commissions — before accounting for any other operating costs.

The commission chain most owners do not see

Booking.com charges hosts between 10% and 25%, with an average commission of roughly 15%. Airbnb now charges a flat 15.5% host-only fee, deducted directly from the owner's payout.

If the property is managed by a third party, property management fees typically add another 15–30% on top of the OTA commission.

How combined commissions affect revenue

When these fees are combined, the total cost increases quickly. A 15.5% Airbnb fee and a 20% management fee do not necessarily mean that exactly 35.5% of gross revenue is lost.

The fees may compound because the property manager's commission is often calculated from the amount remaining after the platform fee has been deducted. In other contracts, the order of calculation may be reversed.

Regardless of the contract structure, an effective combined commission of 25–35% of gross revenue is common for owners who use both a property management company and an OTA-heavy booking strategy.

Commission rates are not always fixed

One factor many owners overlook is that OTA commissions can increase depending on the programmes they join.

Booking.com's Preferred Partner visibility programme may add another 2–5% in exchange for improved ranking. This is an additional cost paid for greater visibility rather than for a guaranteed booking.

Direct bookings, by contrast, carry no platform commission. The main transaction cost is usually payment processing, which is typically around 1.5–3%.

Practical takeaway for property owners

The biggest cost lever for an owner is not necessarily negotiating a lower property management fee. It is the booking channel mix.

Every booking shifted from an OTA to a direct channel can preserve an additional 12–20 percentage points of revenue for the owner, without requiring any renegotiation with the property manager.