B&Bs: direct bookings and OTA commissions, the sums
On a 400 euro booking, Booking keeps roughly 60. Across twenty similar bookings in a season that is 1,200 euros, which is about what a website and a direct channel cost to run for three years.
The sum is not there to cast the portals as the enemy. It is there so you can decide how much of your work you want to keep routing through them.
The percentages, plainly
In Italy Booking.com sits at around 15% of the total booking value, reaching between 15% and 18% if you join the programmes that push visibility.
Airbnb on the host-only scheme is around 15.5%. On the split scheme the host pays about 3% and the guest is charged up to 14.2%, which looks lighter on your side but raises the price the customer sees.
These numbers are worth one multiplication, using your own figures from last year. The result usually lands harder than any article.
The thing most owners do not know
For years the portal contracts carried rate parity: a commitment not to offer better conditions through your own channels. Plenty of owners still believe it binds them.
It does not. Law 124 of 4 August 2017, the annual market and competition act, made void any agreement under which an accommodation business undertakes not to offer the end customer prices, terms or conditions more favourable than those applied through third parties, and it does so regardless of the law governing the contract.
In practice: you may price lower on your own site. If the contract still says otherwise, that line has no force in Italy.
Where caution is warranted
The clause is unenforceable, but where your property sits inside the portal's results remains the portal's decision. Nobody can force you to hold the same price, and nobody is obliged to rank you highly.
Which is why the sturdier route is not a price war. It is offering direct something the portal does not carry: breakfast included, late check-out, a transfer from the station, the better room at the same rate, two nights for what the portal shows for one and a half. Perceived value rises, no straight comparison of two numbers takes place, and nobody has anything to object to.
What you actually need to take bookings direct
Less than people assume, particularly for a small property.
A page with the real rooms. Photographs taken properly, prices by season, what is included. If a guest has to write in to find out the price, half of them will not write.
A way to book in two taps. For a handful of apartments, WhatsApp with a request form is more than enough and costs no commission. The calendar-and-payment engine earns its place when answering by hand becomes the bottleneck, not before.
The information guests want before deciding: distance to the sea in walking minutes, parking, check-in times, whether pets are welcome. These are the questions that arrive in chat every day, and every answer written on the site is one chat fewer.
A reason to book with you. See above. Without it, the guest uses your site to look at photographs and then returns to the portal, where the card details are already saved.
The guest already under your roof
There is one channel that costs nothing and almost nobody uses: the people sleeping in your rooms right now.
A card in the room with the site address, the right sentence on it, and the request to book directly next time costs twenty cents. Somebody who had a good stay comes back willingly and needs no portal to convince them. Those are exactly the guests a portal introduced to you once and would charge you for every time after.
What the direct channel costs
The honest sum: a site with domain, hosting and edits included starts at 99 euros every three months, so 396 a year, and the full figures are on the pricing page. Set against 15% on every booking, break-even arrives quickly: six or seven direct bookings in a season cover it.
After that, every direct booking is margin that stays with you. How we work on sites is described on the websites page; if you are wondering what really drives the cost of a site, the full sums are here.
One thing not to do: walk away from the OTAs overnight. They bring guests who have never heard of you and never would. The reasonable goal is to move a share, not to switch off the channel currently filling your rooms.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Booking and Airbnb actually keep? In Italy Booking sits at around 15%, reaching 18% if you join the higher-visibility programmes. Airbnb on the host-only scheme is around 15.5%, while on the split scheme the host pays about 3% and the guest is charged up to 14.2%.
Can I price lower on my own website? Yes. Italian law 124/2017 voided any agreement binding an accommodation business not to offer better conditions through its own channels. A rate parity clause, if it is still written into your contract, has no force in Italy.
If I undercut them, will Booking penalise me? The clause is unenforceable, but your position inside the portal remains their decision. That is why the safer route is not the lowest price, it is giving something direct that does not exist on the portal at all.
Do I need a booking engine or is WhatsApp enough? For a small property WhatsApp with a request form works perfectly well and costs no commission. A calendar-and-payment engine earns its keep once volume grows and answering by hand becomes the bottleneck.
Should I leave the OTAs altogether? Almost never, and not straight away. The portals bring guests who have never heard of you. The reasonable goal is to move a share of bookings to the direct channel, not to switch off what currently fills your rooms.