What OTA commissions actually cost your homestay (the real math)

The number nobody adds up

OTAs like Booking.com and MakeMyTrip charge a commission on every booking they pass you — typically 15% to 25%. It feels painless because it comes out of the booking, not your pocket. But over a month it is one of your largest line items, and you never see an invoice for it.

Let’s put real numbers on it.

The math for a single villa

Say your average room rate is ₹15,000 per night and the OTA takes 20%. That is ₹3,000 gone on every booking — before you have paid for cleaning, staff, or electricity.

• 10 OTA bookings a month × ₹3,000 = ₹30,000 / month
• Over a year that is ₹3,60,000 — for bookings you often sourced yourself on Instagram.

What you’re actually paying for

OTAs are genuinely useful for discovery — reaching travellers who have never heard of you. That is worth paying for. What is not worth 20% is processing a booking from someone who found you on your own Reel and would have booked you directly if there had been an easy way to.

The fix: own the direct channel

You don’t have to leave the OTAs. You just need a direct path for the guests who already want you, so those bookings come in at zero commission:

• A branded booking page with your rooms, photos, prices and live availability.
• A link you drop in your Instagram bio, stories and WhatsApp.
• Payments straight to your account — no middleman taking a slice.

With Booklinq this is free to start: you go live and begin receiving inquiries without paying anything. You only pay a flat monthly fee — never a commission — when you’re ready to take payments. Move even a third of your bookings direct and the math above flips in your favour fast.