Calculators
OTA Commission & Net ADR Calculator
See what's left after the channel takes its cut. Enter the gross booking value and the commission rate, and you get the commission paid and the net revenue you actually keep.
Formula
Net Revenue = Gross Revenue − (Gross Revenue × Commission %)The booking value the commission is charged on
The percentage this channel charges, check your own contract, not a published average
Rough commission ranges
Indicative only, your actual rate depends on your contract, market, and any promo programs you've opted into. Always calculate with your real number.
What this calculator actually tells you
OTAs quote you a headline commission rate, and it's easy to mentally file it as a small cost of doing business. This calculator exists to make that cost concrete on a per-booking basis, because the number that matters isn't the percentage, it's the dollars that don't reach your account. Put in the gross value and the rate, and you get both the commission paid and what you walk away with.
The percentage hides the real cost
Use your real rate, not a published average
Where direct booking fits
Fifteen percent doesn't sound like much until you put it against your margins rather than your rate. A $30 bed booked at 15% commission nets you $25.50. Your costs to host that guest, the bed, the linen, the cleaning, the staff time, didn't move an inch. So the commission doesn't come out of your revenue evenly; it comes almost entirely out of your profit. On a tight-margin booking, a channel fee can eat a third or more of what you'd otherwise keep.
That's the reframe this tool is built around. Stop thinking of commission as a percentage of the booking and start thinking of it as a percentage of your profit on that booking. The first number is comfortable; the second is the one that actually changes how you feel about your channel mix.
Commission rates aren't fixed numbers you can look up once and trust forever. They vary by channel, by market, by property type, and by whether you've opted into visibility or promotion programs that bump the rate in exchange for placement. Two hostels on the same platform can be paying noticeably different rates for reasons buried in their contracts.
So treat any range you see online, including the rough one on this page, as a sanity check, not an input. The figure to type into the calculator is the one on your own statements. If you're not sure what you're actually paying per channel, that uncertainty is itself worth resolving before you make any pricing decisions on top of it.
The obvious takeaway is that a direct booking keeps the commission in your pocket, and that's true, but it isn't free either. Driving direct bookings costs you in website, payment processing, marketing, and the perks you offer to make booking direct more attractive than the OTA. The honest comparison isn't "commission versus zero," it's "commission versus what it costs you to win that guest directly."
Run the net number on a typical OTA booking, then weigh it against what a direct booking actually costs you to acquire and service. OTAs are genuinely useful for reach and for filling beds you wouldn't otherwise fill, the point isn't to fight them, it's to know exactly what each channel costs so you can decide where to lean.
The percentage hides the real cost
Fifteen percent doesn't sound like much until you put it against your margins rather than your rate. A $30 bed booked at 15% commission nets you $25.50. Your costs to host that guest, the bed, the linen, the cleaning, the staff time, didn't move an inch. So the commission doesn't come out of your revenue evenly; it comes almost entirely out of your profit. On a tight-margin booking, a channel fee can eat a third or more of what you'd otherwise keep.
That's the reframe this tool is built around. Stop thinking of commission as a percentage of the booking and start thinking of it as a percentage of your profit on that booking. The first number is comfortable; the second is the one that actually changes how you feel about your channel mix.
Use your real rate, not a published average
Commission rates aren't fixed numbers you can look up once and trust forever. They vary by channel, by market, by property type, and by whether you've opted into visibility or promotion programs that bump the rate in exchange for placement. Two hostels on the same platform can be paying noticeably different rates for reasons buried in their contracts.
So treat any range you see online, including the rough one on this page, as a sanity check, not an input. The figure to type into the calculator is the one on your own statements. If you're not sure what you're actually paying per channel, that uncertainty is itself worth resolving before you make any pricing decisions on top of it.
Where direct booking fits
The obvious takeaway is that a direct booking keeps the commission in your pocket, and that's true, but it isn't free either. Driving direct bookings costs you in website, payment processing, marketing, and the perks you offer to make booking direct more attractive than the OTA. The honest comparison isn't "commission versus zero," it's "commission versus what it costs you to win that guest directly."
Run the net number on a typical OTA booking, then weigh it against what a direct booking actually costs you to acquire and service. OTAs are genuinely useful for reach and for filling beds you wouldn't otherwise fill, the point isn't to fight them, it's to know exactly what each channel costs so you can decide where to lean.
Frequently Asked Questions
- It's a percentage of the booking value the channel takes as its fee. Multiply the gross value by the commission rate to get the amount paid, then subtract that from the gross to get what you keep. The one thing to confirm is what the percentage is charged on, some channels apply it to the rate only, others to the full total including certain taxes or fees.
- It varies by channel, market, property type, and any promotion programs you've joined, so there's no single rate that's true everywhere. Rather than relying on a published figure, pull the actual rate from your own contracts or statements and calculate with that, it's the only number that reflects what you're really paying.
- Most channels base commission on the gross booking value, and in some regions that includes taxes. Because the exact base differs between platforms, it's worth reading your specific agreement, a commission applied to the full total costs you more than the same percentage applied to the rate alone.
- The main lever is shifting some volume to direct bookings, where there's no channel fee, though direct booking carries its own acquisition cost, so it's a trade rather than a freebie. Beyond that, review which paid visibility or promotion programs you're enrolled in, since those raise your effective rate and aren't always pulling their weight.
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