Commissions · 7 min read
Viator vs GetYourGuide vs Klook vs Airbnb vs Direct: What You Actually Keep Per Booking
A channel-by-channel breakdown of take-home pay on a $100 booking, including payment processing.
Headline commission rates are only half the story. What matters is what lands in your account after the marketplace fee and the card fee have both been taken. Here is the same $100 booking, run through every major channel.
| Channel | Typical commission | Payment fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viator | 20–30% | Included | $70 – $80 |
| GetYourGuide | 20–30% | Included | $70 – $80 |
| Klook | 15–25% | Included | $75 – $85 |
| Airbnb Experiences | 20% | Included | $80 |
| Direct on your own site | 0% | ~2.9% + $0.30 | $96.80 |
| Direct via Tixxly | 0% | ~2.9% + $0.30 | $96.80 (plus flat subscription) |
Why the gap compounds
A marketplace fee scales with your revenue. A subscription does not. At $10,000 a month in bookings the difference between 25% commission and a flat monthly fee is roughly $2,300 a month. At $1m a year it is a quarter of a million dollars.
Marketplaces still earn their place
Nobody sensible turns off the OTAs overnight. They buy demand you cannot buy alone. The goal is a healthier mix: keep the marketplaces for discovery, and make sure the travellers who already know your name can book you direct — including the ones who now start their trip planning inside an AI assistant.
Sources
- OTA Playbook
- Kong
- Stripe published card processing rates