Booking.com Commission for Hosts (2026): Rates, Genius, Preferred Partner, Payments and No-Shows

Booking.com takes a commission from the host on every booking, and adds no separate service fee for guests. There is no single global rate: the percentage is set in your accommodation agreement and depends on your country and property type. Skift described it on 29 September 2026 as around 15%, a useful benchmark but not necessarily your rate.

The commission applies to the total booking amount: the room rate, the cleaning and other fees you charge, any cancellation or no-show fee you collect and, in most countries, VAT. It does not apply to city tax. Preferred Partner, Preferred Plus and the Visibility Booster add commission on top, while Genius is a guest discount that you fund.

The Booking.com rules below come from its partner help (checked 8 October 2026), starting with Understanding your commission.

How much commission does Booking.com charge hosts?

In Booking.com’s words, the exact percentage “depends on your country, property type and the accommodation agreement you signed”. The registration flow shows it before you go live. After that, you find it in three places:

• your accommodation agreement and General Delivery Terms (GDT), which you can request from Contracts under the user icon in the extranet;
• Finance then Reservation statements, which shows the commission on each booking;
• Finance help, if you use Payments by Booking.com.

Two details explain most surprises. The rate is locked when the guest books, so a change only affects new bookings, and Booking.com says changes come with signed documentation or a notice sent in advance. And if a statement shows more than your contract, you are probably in one of the paid visibility programmes described below.

What is the commission calculated on?

Booking.com defines it as “a set percentage of the total booking amount”, applied once the guest checks out.

• Included: the room rate, cleaning fees, service fees and any cancellation or no-show fee you charge. In most countries VAT or GST is included too, as set out in your GDT.
• Excluded: local taxes such as city tax.
• Non-refundable and partially refundable bookings: commission is due whether or not the guest stays, unless you waive the fee.
• Overbookings: commission is due (waived if the property has been live for under 30 days or has had fewer than five overbookings in the last 12 months), and you are asked to cover the guest’s relocation.

Do you pay commission on no-shows and cancellations?

Only if you keep the money. Booking.com charges commission whenever you charge the guest a cancellation or no-show fee. You pay nothing on a no-show that you mark in the extranet within 48 hours of the planned check-out while waiving the fee, or on a booking where you marked the guest’s card as invalid.

To mark a no-show:

1. Sign in to the extranet and open Reservations.
2. Select the booking, then under Reservation actions choose Mark as a no-show.
3. Answer the waiver question with Yes, waive fee or No, charge fee, then confirm.

The button is available from midnight on the check-in date until 48 hours after the planned check-out. Miss that window and you are charged full commission on the original booking. With Payments by Booking.com, Booking.com tries to collect the fee for you on non-prepaid bookings and waives the commission if collection fails.

Is Genius a commission?

No. Genius is a discount for Booking.com’s loyalty members, and Booking.com’s Genius page states that the standard discount is funded by the partner.

• Discount: 10% by default on your least expensive and most popular room type, with optional 15% for Genius levels 2 and 3 and 20% for level 3.
• Eligibility: at least three reviews and a review score of 7.5 or more. In wide or narrow parity countries you also need competitive prices; Booking.com says this does not apply anywhere in the European Economic Area.
• Booking.com’s figures: on average +30% search views, +45% bookings and +40% revenue, after the cost of the discount.
• Flexibility: you can suspend the discount on chosen dates (up to 30 days at the 10% level) or leave at any time, but rejoining can take six months.

Because commission is a percentage of what the guest pays, a Genius booking carries slightly less commission. The real cost is the discount minus that saving.

Preferred Partner and Preferred Plus: how much extra commission?

Booking.com offers more visibility in search results and a badge “in exchange for a small increase in commission”. It does not publish the extra percentage: you see it in the extranet under Boost performance, then Preferred Partner Programme, and on your statements.

• Preferred Partner: a performance score of at least 70% (based partly on “the maximum commission your property can generate”) and a review score of 7. Booking.com reports +65% search views and +20% bookings on average.
• Preferred Plus: the premium tier for about 10% of Preferred partners, with a higher commission, a performance score of 80% and a review score of 8. Booking.com claims 30% more bookings than Preferred partners on average.
• Leaving: both are optional and your commission changes immediately when you join or leave. Preferred eligibility is reviewed every 90 days, and a property removed from either tier waits 180 days to rejoin.

On 22 April 2026, Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) opened an unfair commercial practices investigation into both programmes, case PS13115. Its press release says selection “appears to be driven largely by criteria that favour accommodation providers paying higher commissions” and that the way these listings are presented may lead guests to book more expensive stays. We found no decision as of 8 October 2026. For a host, judge Preferred on the extra bookings it brings at its extra commission, not on the badge.

The Visibility Booster is the short-term version: you pick check-in dates, optionally a country of bookers, and a higher commission for those dates.

What does Payments by Booking.com cost?

Guests pay through the platform, and Booking.com pays you by bank transfer after check-out or by virtual credit card (VCC). There is no setup fee. With bank transfer payouts, Booking.com charges a payment service fee: a percentage of each completed reservation that depends on your property’s location, shown in Finance help. With VCC payouts, your bank or payment provider charges the card fee. When Booking.com handles all your guest payments, commission and the payment fee are deducted from each payout; otherwise they come on the monthly invoice.

How do commission invoices and VAT work?

• Timing: one invoice in the first week of each month, covering guests who checked out the month before, payable within 14 days.
• Late payment: an unpaid invoice can close your property until the balance is settled.
• Errors: you can dispute commission on bookings from the last three months in Reservation statements and receive a credit note.
• VAT on the commission: the invoice shows your VAT number if you have one. Whether VAT is added to the commission or you account for it yourself depends on your country and VAT status; for tax questions, Booking.com points to your GDT and to an accountant. Check one invoice with yours before you calculate margins.

Worked example: what does the host actually receive?

Assumptions: 3 nights at €120 (€360), a €60 cleaning fee, two guests paying €2 per person per night of city tax (€12), no VAT on the stay, and an illustrative 15% commission. Replace 15% with the rate on your statement.

• Commissionable amount: €360 + €60 = €420. The €12 of city tax carries no commission.
• Commission: 15% of €420 = €63.
• What you keep: €357, or 85% of your prices, before any payment service fee (each 1% of that fee costs about €4.20 here).
• Genius booking at 10% on the room: the guest pays €324 + €60 = €384, commission is €57.60 and you keep €326.40. Genius cost you €30.60 on this stay.
• Preferred or Visibility Booster: each extra point of commission costs €4.20 on this booking.
• Non-refundable no-show: if you charge it, commission is due as if the guest had stayed. Waive the fee and mark the no-show within 48 hours: no revenue, no commission.

How should you price Booking.com so your payout matches other channels?

Use one formula: Booking.com price = base price ÷ (1 − commission rate). If you use bank transfer payouts, add the payment service fee to the rate.

• At 15%: +17.6%. The €420 stay becomes €494 and you keep €420.
• If your statement shows 17%: +20.5%.
• Nightly rate only: if the €60 cleaning fee stays unchanged, the nights carry the whole difference, about +20.6% at 15%.

On the same €420 of prices, the other platforms compare like this:

• Airbnb: a 15.5% host-only fee for most hosts, so €354.90 if it applies to the cleaning fee too, and a markup of +18.3%. See how to reprice for Airbnb’s 15.5% fee.
• Vrbo: 12% from 29 October 2026, so €369.60 and +13.6%, while Vrbo guests still pay a service fee. See what Vrbo’s 12% commission changes.
• Booking.com at 15%: €357 and +17.6%.
• Direct booking: no platform commission, only card processing.

Watch the order of your prices. Vrbo’s new Host Terms ask for Vrbo rates at least as favourable as elsewhere, which its smaller markup respects. Booking.com’s price condition for Genius and Preferred does not apply in the EEA; outside it, check your parity status in your GDT before pricing your website lower. Keeping your direct price at your base rate is the core of a direct-booking strategy.

How Nowistay handles Booking.com commission

Nowistay is a PMS and channel manager with an autonomous AI co-host built in, synced in real time with Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo and Expedia. Three parts matter here.

A markup on Booking.com alone. Your calendar keeps one base rate, and each channel gets its own percentage:

1. Go to Properties, open the … menu on the property card and choose Synchronization.
2. Click the Channel settings icon next to Booking.com.
3. On the Rate Adjustment tab, enter your markup in Rate adjustment (%), for example 17.6 for a 15% commission.
4. Click Save.

The adjustment applies to the nightly rates sent to Booking.com, so handle the cleaning fee as shown above. Your base rates and the other channels stay unchanged, and the Rate Plans tab in the same drawer sets which Booking.com rate plans stay synchronized. The full walkthrough is in How to manage your rental prices.

Booking.com guests answered, automatic requests included. The AI co-host replies to Booking.com messages on its own, 24/7 in 90+ languages, and escalates to you when a human is needed. Booking.com sends some requests as fixed English text, such as a check-in time or cot request; Nowistay shows them in the guest’s booking language and the AI co-host answers them like any other message. Read more in automating Booking.com guest communication and how messaging affects your Booking.com ranking.

Direct bookings at 0% commission. The direct booking widget takes payment through Stripe with no Nowistay commission and quotes your base calendar rates, without channel markup. See how to add a direct booking widget to your website.

Nowistay costs €12 (US$15) per property per month, with the first month free and no credit card required.