← Business Metric: Industry Specific (Consumer, Services & Financial) (all topics)
Hotel commission rate & visibility programmes
What it is
Hotel commission on Indian online travel platforms typically runs 15-22% of room revenue, with visibility or preferred-partner programmes adding roughly 3-7 percentage points, taking effective rates to 22-28%. Budget aggregator models run higher still on a revenue-share basis
Most platforms settle post-stay, so the hotel funds the stay before being paid
Impact on industries
- The rate is the platform's core unit economic, and visibility programmes raise it without adding supply cost - the inventory is already listed
- For the hotel it is the largest single distribution cost, which is why direct-booking pushes recur whenever occupancy is strong
- Properties above roughly 60% platform dependence have little negotiating room, and the rate ratchets up rather than down
- Rate parity terms decide whether a hotel can undercut the platform on its own site, so commission level and parity policy have to be read together