Walk-ins booking on their phone in your lobby. Website visitors who price-check on Expedia. Sold-out weekends where every room was selling anyway. You're paying 15-18% commission on all of it.
We help independent Florida hotels keep more of what they earn. If we don't save you more than our fee, you don't pay.
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18%
Average OTA commission rate
15-25%
Avoidable commission
3-5%
Cost of direct booking
The difference
$18-36K/year
for a typical 50-room independent
You're paying 15-18% commission to
On a slow Tuesday in September, Booking.com fills a room that would have sat empty. You pay 18%, but some revenue beats no revenue. That's the deal, and it's a fair one.
OTAs bring new guests who've never heard of you. They put you in front of travelers who'd never find you otherwise. That visibility costs money, and for new customers, it's worth it. They handle the trust problem—reviews, photos, instant confirmation. For independent hotels without a Marriott-level marketing budget, that visibility is worth the commission.
And let's be real about the "billboard effect." Some guests do find you on Booking.com, then book direct. But most don't—and the guests who were already searching for YOUR hotel by name never needed Booking.com in the first place.
We also know that direct bookings aren't free. You still pay 3-5% in booking engine fees, payment processing, and website maintenance. The real comparison isn't 18% vs. 0%.
18% vs. 3-5%
OTA commission vs. the real cost of a direct booking
So no—we're not here to tell you to delist from Booking.com. That would be business suicide. We're here because there's a specific, fixable problem:
The problem isn't that OTAs exist. It's that you're paying them for guests who were already booking with you.
Each one is fixable. Most hotel owners don't know they're happening.
A guest finds your website, likes the room, but opens Booking.com "just to compare." Same price, but they trust Booking's cancellation policy more. You pay 18% for a guest who was already on your site.
The data: 22% of hotel website visitors leave to price-check on an OTA. Half book there instead of coming back.
A guest wants to extend their stay. Your front desk is busy, so they say "you can book through the app." The guest books on their phone in your lobby. Booking.com takes 18% for doing nothing.
The data: 43% of front desk staff direct guests to OTA booking when asked about extensions. Not because they're lazy — because the direct booking process has more steps.
Art Basel. Ultra Music Festival. You're at 92%+ occupancy — those rooms are selling regardless. But bookings still come through Booking.com, and you still pay 18%.
The data: During 90%+ occupancy weekends, 31% of bookings still come through OTAs.
A guest calls your hotel. They talk to your team. Then they hang up, Google your name, and book on Booking.com because it's instant. You pay 18% on a guest who was already yours.
The data: Only 68% of same-day phone inquiries convert to direct bookings. 18% of callers book through an OTA within 2 hours.
The more revenue comes through OTAs, the more your ranking depends on them. It feels riskier to push direct. So you don't — and the cycle continues.
The data: Hotels with 70%+ OTA dependency see their direct booking percentage decline year-over-year — even when they try to push direct.
HOW YOUR OTA COMMISSION BREAKS DOWN:
Estimates based on publicly available OTA commission data and independent hotel booking patterns.
Add it all up:
For a typical Florida independent (30-120 rooms), these five leaks represent 15-25% of total OTA commission — thousands of dollars per year that didn't need to go to OTAs.
That's the leak. That's what we fix.
Start with the calculator or jump straight to a personalized audit. Your choice.
Start with the calculator to see your potential savings. When you're ready, the booking engine makes those savings real.
Know exactly how much you're losing to OTAs. See your annual commission costs, potential savings, and what you could do with that money instead.
Zero-commission booking engine that captures guests before they leave for OTAs. Mobile-first, 5-minute setup, transparent pricing.
Transparent Pricing
$299/month
Pays for itself after 5-7 direct bookings
From insight to impact in four simple steps.
Use our free calculator to see exactly how much you're paying in OTA commissions annually. Most Florida independents lose $18-36K per year to avoidable commission leaks.
20-minute call where we analyze your property's specific commission leaks. We show you where you're losing money and how much you could save. No pitch, no pressure.
5-minute setup. One line of code on your website. Integrates with your existing PMS. Mobile-first design that converts better than OTAs. Start capturing direct bookings immediately.
Track your commission savings to the dollar. Keep 100% of your revenue. Own your guest data. Build direct relationships. No contracts — cancel anytime if we don't deliver.
Average Annual Savings
For a typical 50-room independent Florida hotel
Direct Bookings to ROI
At $299/month, just 5-7 direct bookings pays for the system
Long-Term Contracts
Month-to-month pricing. Cancel anytime. No risk.
Everything you need to start keeping more of your commission dollars.
Direct Deal Widget — permanent website asset, catches price-checkers before they leave
Lobby QR System — physical stands for front desk, lobby, and elevators
Pay-by-Link Checkout — instant, secure direct payments. No paperwork friction
Monthly Mystery Shop — anonymous front desk testing with staff scorecards
Commission Savings Dashboard — exact dollars tracked, same numbers we see
Occupancy Alerts — stop-sell triggers when demand is high enough to go direct-only
Zero-Cost Incentive Menu — customized upgrades that cost you nothing but OTAs can't match
Staff Scripts & SOPs — word-for-word playbooks for every booking scenario
Guest Reactivation Campaigns — quarterly outreach to past guests for zero-cost direct bookings
We track exactly how much commission we save you each month. You see the same dashboard we do.
If we don't save you more than our fee in any given month, you don't pay for that month.
No fine print. No clawbacks. You only pay us when we're putting more money in your pocket than we're taking out.
Keep doing nothing
Keep paying OTAs for guests who were already going to book with you. That money doesn't come back.
See where you're losing money
20 minutes. We'll show you exactly where commission is leaking at your property.
Free. No obligation.
20-min call. We show you where the money is going. No obligation.
Get a free audit of your OTA commissions. We'll show you exactly where you're losing money and what it would take to fix it.
If the numbers don't make sense for your property, we'll tell you. We'd rather be honest than waste your time.
Get Your Free Commission Audit20-min call · No obligation · We show you the numbers
Or email us: contact@killcommissions.com
Research and analysis for independent hotel operators.
Guests find you on Booking.com, then Google your hotel name. 18% of OTA searchers end up booking direct — if you give them a reason to.
Read moreDirect bookings aren't free either. But 3-5% in processing fees looks very different from 18% in OTA commission. Here's the full breakdown.
Read moreRate parity clauses prevent you from offering lower prices on your own website. Here's how smart hotels work around them legally.
Read more