The short answer
Commission is set per property and per contract, so no article can tell you your rate. What can be said is the range each platform is publicly reported to work within, which is enough to tell you whether the number in your contract is ordinary or high.
| Channel | Commonly reported range | What pushes it higher |
|---|---|---|
| MakeMyTrip and Goibibo | 15–25% | Standalone properties, visibility and promotion programmes; reported to reach 40% at the top end |
| Booking.com | 15–20% | Preferred Partner and similar visibility programmes |
| Agoda | 15–25% | Location, demand and the terms of your individual agreement |
Ranges are what the platforms and industry sources report publicly, not figures we have negotiated on your behalf. Your contract is the only number that applies to you.
What moves your rate
The base rate is agreed when you sign. What changes it afterwards is almost always something you opted into, which is also what makes it recoverable.
- Visibility and promotion programmes. Most platforms let you add a few percentage points in exchange for better placement. It works, and it is the single most common reason a rate drifts upward without anyone deciding to raise it.
- Property type. Chains and groups negotiate; standalone properties usually take the standard rate.
- City and demand. Metro and high-demand leisure markets are priced differently from tier-2 cities.
- Cancellation and payment terms. Flexible and prepaid inventory are not always on the same rate.
- Campaign participation. Seasonal sales and flash campaigns can carry their own commission terms for the duration.
If your effective rate is higher than you expected, the first place to look is the list of programmes your property is enrolled in, not the base contract.
Where to find your own rate
- Open the channel's extranet and find the contract or property agreement section. The base commission is stated there.
- Check which visibility, promotion or preferred programmes the property is enrolled in, and what each adds. These are usually on a separate screen from the base rate.
- Take a recent remittance or payout statement. Divide the commission deducted by the gross booking value for the same period — that is your effective rate, including everything you opted into.
- Compare the two. A gap between the base rate and the effective rate is the cost of your programmes, stated in money.
Put your own numbers in
What else comes off before the money lands
Commission is the largest deduction but it is not the only one, and the gap between the booking value on your dashboard and the amount that reaches your bank is usually a few things stacked together.
- Cancellations and no-shows reduce the revenue the commission was calculated on, so a month's effective rate is rarely the same as the contracted one.
- Prepaid bookings carry a payment gateway deduction on the platform's side before the payout is assembled.
- Tax is withheld at source on Indian payouts. The rates and the thresholds have moved more than once recently, so treat any figure you read — including in this paragraph — as a prompt to ask your accountant rather than an answer.
- Adjustments from earlier periods, such as a disputed booking or a chargeback, are commonly netted off a later payout rather than refunded separately.
What to do about it
Commission is a real cost of a real distribution channel, and the answer is almost never to leave. Channels reach guests you would not reach yourself, and a hotel that closes them abruptly usually discovers that the hard way.
- Know your effective rate per channel, not one blended figure. Channels rarely cost the same, and averaging them hides the expensive one.
- Audit the programmes you are enrolled in every quarter. This is where rates drift.
- Reconcile payouts against your own bookings. Underpayments are usually recoverable, and they are only recoverable if you notice.
- Give guests a way to book directly, especially the ones who have already stayed with you. A repeat guest arriving through a channel is the most expensive booking you take.
- Keep your rates consistent across channels and your own site, so a guest who checks both is not given a reason to distrust either.
The goal is a mix you chose rather than one that happened. A property that knows its per-channel effective rate can decide what to feed each channel; one that does not is being priced by whoever it signed with last.