Industry
Hotels
Every platform booking costs you 15-25 %. Forever.
Portals bring reach and take their cut on every booking - and their guests cancel twice as often. The way back to direct bookings is not a gut feeling, it is arithmetic. Here are the numbers, the levers and what we build for it.
Calculator
What is left per room at the end · GOPPAR
Same numbers, your business: pull the levers and watch what moves.
Occupancy
Distribution cost ratio
Hebel
Simplified calculation: distribution cost from platform commission and direct acquisition (ads, SEO, website, payment). Staff, cost of goods and energy are not included - the figure shows the leverage effect of your distribution strategy, not your full operating profit.
Occupancy
Distribution cost ratio
Simplified calculation: distribution cost from platform commission and direct acquisition (ads, SEO, website, payment). Staff, cost of goods and energy are not included - the figure shows the leverage effect of your distribution strategy, not your full operating profit.
Where the margin goes
Gross operating profit per available room and day - what really remains after all operating costs. Commission, cancellations and ad spend pull on it directly.
The commission is not a one-off. It runs with every booking.
Between 15-25 % leave with every platform booking - on a 200 euro room that is 30 to 50 euros, every night, every year. Direct, the distribution cost floor sits at 4.5 %. The difference is the margin an own booking path brings back.
Source: HiJiffy Hotel Booking Commission Report 2026; Kovly Distribution Benchmarks 2026; mylighthouse Direct Distribution Cost Benchmarks 2026
Platform guests cancel twice as often.
21.8 % cancellations via portals against 10.6 % for direct bookings. Whoever books direct has decided - whoever books via a portal keeps comparing. The occupancy you see in the system is not the one in the house that night.
Source: Cloudbeds Hospitality Benchmark Report 2026
Repeat guests are the cheapest booking. Most houses do not know theirs.
Independent hotels sit at 10-15 % repeat guests, chains with a CRM at around 60 %. The difference is not budget, it is a system: who comes back, why, and when to reach out. Without your own guest data that is impossible - and the data sits with the platform.
Source: Starkov / Cendyn Loyalty & Direct Booking Studies 2024-2026
The numbers behind it
- 15-25 %
- Commission per platform bookingSource: HiJiffy Hotel Booking Commission Report 2026; Kovly Distribution Benchmarks 2026
- 21.8 % vs. 10.6 %
- Cancellation rate platform vs. directSource: Cloudbeds Hospitality Benchmark Report 2026
- 4.5 %
- Distribution cost floor for direct bookingsSource: mylighthouse Direct Distribution Cost Benchmarks 2026
- 10-15 % vs. ~60 %
- Repeat guests: independent hotels vs. chains with CRMSource: Starkov / Cendyn Loyalty & Direct Booking Studies 2024-2026
What we build for it
Your own booking path on your site, tracking that separates direct from portal cleanly, Google Ads only where a direct booking is genuinely cheaper, and a guest CRM that recognises repeat visitors. The chain - not the single channel.
Common questions
Is direct booking worth it at 15-25 % commission when the platform brings the reach?
The platform keeps its role as a shop window. The maths flips on the second contact: a guest who came via the portal once and books direct next time saves the house 15-25 % - and cancels half as often. That second contact is exactly what we build.How do I get repeat guests onto my own site?
With your own data: who booked when, what they liked, when they return. That turns into targeted messages instead of newsletters to everyone. The precondition is a booking path where the data lands with you - not with the portal.Does a hotel need Google Ads?
Only where a direct booking stays cheaper after ad cost than the commission. In the model we cap the ad share at 25 % of revenue - above that you buy reach the portal already has. Whether and how much, we calculate before a single euro runs.What do you measure first at a hotel?
The direct-versus-portal share, the cancellation rate per channel and the distribution cost per booking. Three numbers every house has and almost none sees side by side. The first lever follows from that.
Next step
Where do you stand?
The analyzer reads your website in a minute - tracking, speed, visibility. What of that matters for a hotel, we think through together.