← All resources
Pricing & money
What booking marketplace fees really cost you in a year
How to work out your own number in five minutes, and what to compare it against.
May 22, 2026 · 6 min read
The short version
- Per booking fees scale with your success; a flat subscription does not.
- Count new client fees, card processing and any marketing boosts separately.
- The real comparison is total annual cost plus who ends up holding the client list.
Most owners know their monthly software bill and have no idea what the per booking economics add up to. Here is how to find out without an accountant.
Do the arithmetic
- 01Pull last month's statementNot the app dashboard, the payout statement. It shows what was deducted before the money reached you.
- 02Separate the three bucketsCard processing, per booking or new client commission, and anything optional like promoted placement.
- 03Multiply by twelveThen add the months where you are busiest, because commission grows with volume while a subscription does not.
- 04Compare like for likeAgainst a flat monthly cost, add up what you would still pay: card processing does not disappear, it just goes to your own processor.
The part that is not on the statement
- Clients who found you on the platform and can be marketed to by your competitors in the same app.
- The list you cannot take with you.
- The page that carries the platform's name in search results instead of yours.
None of that shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it goes unexamined. Run the number for your own business, then decide. The point is to choose deliberately rather than by default.
Sources
General information for business owners, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by trade.
