Understanding Booking.com fees
Booking.com fees for hosts are amongst the most complicated to understand. Considering that every rental website has a different fee structure, understanding how pricing works on each one can be a bit of a headache for any vacation rental manager.
With variation in fees depending on location, property type, cancellation policy and more, it can be a challenge to get your head around the different permutations of Booking.com fees. Yet, Booking.com fees should not deter you from listing your property there, since it is one of the biggest OTAs, with more than 6 million listings and 100 million visitors per month.
What is the Booking.com fee for hosts (booking partners)?
Fees for property hosts on Booking.com
For property hosts, the Booking.com app uses a commission based platform to charge fees. This basically means that the host pays a certain percentage of the reservation everytime a reservation is made through the Booking.com app or webpage.
These percentages vary from anywhere between 10% and 20% (sometimes 25%) depending on the:
- Country of registration
- Listing location
- Property type
- Cancellation policy
- Payout method
While the property location and cancellation policy are the major factors affecting the Booking.com fees, it’s good to know that fees may vary if you rent out an apartment or villa.
Additionally, the cost of Payments by Booking.com, a payment solution that handles all transactions for hosts and their guests, varies based on the location of the property. The bank processing fees range from 1.1% to 3.1% depending on the country.
Hotel fees on Booking.com
The hotel base fee also stands at 15%, and this can also rise to a 18% commission charge, if the host prefers to use the member service that Booking.com recommends.
As you can see, Booking.com fees can vary a lot depending on how you set up your account and what the guest chooses when they book, so if you do want to list with them directly you need to be quite thorough in your research.
It is worth noting that the host fee on Booking.com is not affected by whether you’re a ‘private host’ or a ‘professional host’ (definitions from the EU law).