Holiday cottage owners
What OTA commission actually costs a holiday cottage
OTA commission on Airbnb, Booking.com, Sykes and cottages.com — and OTA vs direct booking on the same stay. Run the numbers on the calculator.
18 September 2026
Nathan Britten
Over a decade of experience helping businesses save time and make more money with technology.
OTA commission is the percentage an online travel agent takes when a guest books through them instead of you. For a UK holiday cottage that usually means Airbnb, Booking.com, and the owner-side agencies — Sykes, cottages.com, Hoseasons — rather than a hotel chain’s wholesale rate. I’ll cover typical ranges, Booking.com, OTA vs direct booking on the same week, and how to reduce the cut without emptying the diary. Put your own year in the calculator below.
Typical OTA commission ranges
Treat these as planning bands, not your contract. Airbnb’s single (host-only) service fee is 15.5% for most hosts, with others typically paying 14–16%. Airbnb describes 15.5% as based on its global average, not as a UK-only rate. Check your own payout. Details sit in Airbnb commission for UK hosts and the worked week in how much Airbnb takes. Booking.com does not publish a UK cottage rate; the percentage is in your Accommodation Agreement. Vrbo is weaker in the UK than Booking.com and Airbnb. It is not irrelevant in Europe — Abritel and FeWo-direkt still matter — but it is rarely the main UK cottage channel.
UK cottage agencies are a different shape. Sykes, cottages.com and Hoseasons do not publish a commission rate. The number sits in your key terms or Agency Agreement. Fully managed packages cost more; no official uplift percentage is published. Your agreement is the only number that matters.
| Channel | Typical cut to plan with | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb (most-hosts rate) | 15.5% of subtotal | Others typically 14–16%; global average, not a UK tariff. VAT on the fee may apply — check the invoice |
| Booking.com | Unpublished (in your agreement) | Trade blogs often plan with ~15%; that is folklore, not Booking.com’s published UK cottage rate. Genius is a discount you fund. Preferred / Visibility add unpublished commission. Payments can add an unpublished payment fee |
| Sykes / cottages.com | Unpublished (in your contract) | No public tariff. Do not treat a forum band as a rate card |
| Direct (cards) | Stripe 1.5% + 20p, plus any PMS fee | Lodgify adds 1% on connected gateways. Only if the site can take the stay |
Booking.com commission for holiday rentals
Booking.com commission for holiday rentals is a percentage of the reservation, invoiced monthly, set in your Accommodation Agreement. They don’t publish one UK cottage rate. Owner reports and trade blogs often use around 15% as a planning figure; it is not Booking.com’s published rate. Genius is a partner-funded guest discount of 10% (optional 15% or 20%), not extra commission. Preferred, Preferred Plus and Visibility Booster add an unpublished extra commission percentage. Payments by Booking.com can add a location-dependent payment service fee, not extra commission; no UK percentage is published. Commission usually includes extras added at booking; local tourist taxes are often out. Read the Accommodation Agreement and the GDT.
In Europe, Booking.com is the OTA that actually moves cottages, more than Vrbo. A channel manager that only obsesses about Airbnb is unfinished. Reducing Booking.com commission this year means fewer stays on Booking.com, not a coupon. Same rule as Airbnb.
OTA vs direct booking (same week, two invoices)
Take a £1,000 week including cleaning. On Airbnb at the most-hosts rate of 15.5% you keep £845 before any VAT on the fee. Direct via Stripe at 1.5% + 20p is about £15, plus any PMS application fee (Lodgify’s 1% would add another £10). Ten such weeks moved is the gap between those two invoices, not a slogan. Agency weeks cost whatever your contract says — I do not invent a 22% tariff to turn into cash.
Discovery still happens on OTAs. Direct is Google, and anyone who would have booked if the site showed a price. If the site cannot take a deposit, “OTA vs direct” is just a slogan — you’ve only got one invoice, and it’s theirs.
How to reduce OTA commission without emptying the calendar
Reduce OTA commission by moving the stays you can win: the cottage-name search, people who find you on Google. Keep OTAs on for people who’ve never heard of you. Don’t go dark in June. Don’t message Airbnb enquiries off-platform, and don’t remarket Airbnb guests. Legal mix, a live diary, a site that can take a deposit — that’s the direct booking website job.
Channel mix is a lever. If an agency fills peak weeks, you may keep it and still take winter direct. If Airbnb is 80% of a full diary and the site can’t book, the problem is the site. SuperControl’s 1% channel service fee sits on top of OTA commission for named API connections (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, Cottages.com, TripAdvisor — not direct, not Sykes, not Hoseasons, not Google). That’s software cost, on top of whatever the channel already takes.
Run your numbers. Then look at checkout. The calculator doesn’t fix a form.
What if
Result
£7,200
Lost to commission / year
If you lowered your OTA bookings from 60% to 40%, you would save £2,400 a year.
- OTA-booked revenue£48,000