What OTAs really cost
Booking.com vs Expedia for Independent Hotels: Which Costs More?
Expedia usually costs a little more per booking. Neither company publishes a rate card, but one third-party guide, BookingWhizz, puts Booking.com at about 15% to 17% for most independent hotels and Expedia Group at 18% to 22%. Paid visibility programs, guest discounts and cancellations can change that order for your hotel.
Most independent US hotels list on both. So the useful question is not which one to join, but which one earns its cost for your hotel, and where to spend less. This guide compares them on the points an owner can check: commission, how the money is collected, where their guests come from and what each paid program adds. For how each commission works in detail, see how much Booking.com charges hotels and how much Expedia charges hotels.
How do Booking.com and Expedia commissions compare?
Both set your rate in your agreement, and neither publishes a price list. Booking.com says the exact percentage depends on your country, property type and the agreement you signed (Partner Hub). For a ballpark, BookingWhizz's guide puts Booking.com at 15% to 17% for most independent properties and Expedia Group at 18% to 22% across its brands.
| Item | Booking.com | Expedia Group |
|---|---|---|
| Typical rate (third-party) | About 15% to 17% | About 18% to 22% |
| Charged on | The total booking amount, including fees you charge, once the guest checks out | Set in your agreement |
| Brands that can show your hotel | Booking.com, plus partner sites it shares listings with | Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo and others, plus B2B partners |
| Where to check your rate | Your agreement and the Finance tab in the Extranet | Your agreement and Partner Central |
Typical rates are BookingWhizz estimates, not quotes. Your own rates are in your agreements.
How does each one collect the money?
Both run two payment models, and which one you are on changes how visible the cost is.
- Expedia Group. Under its merchant model (Expedia Collect), the guest pays Expedia when booking. Under its agency model (Hotel Collect), the guest pays the hotel at the stay and Expedia earns a commission. Its Expedia Traveler Preference program lets the guest choose. In 2025, merchant revenue was 70% of Expedia Group's total revenue and agency revenue 22% (Expedia Group's 2025 annual report).
- Booking.com. Hotels on the invoice model get one bill a month for guests who checked out the month before. With Payments by Booking.com, commission may be taken from your payouts automatically. Booking Holdings reported that its merchant revenues grew 25.5% in 2025 to $17.76 billion while agency revenues fell 6.5% to $7.97 billion, which it put down to an ongoing shift from agency to merchant revenues at Booking.com (Booking Holdings' 2025 annual report).
When the booking site collects the money, the commission comes out before you are paid, so there is no bill to question. Compare what guests paid with what you received on a sample of bookings from each site. Our Expedia guide shows how.
Which one brings more US travelers?
Expedia Group leans on the US. It booked $8.71 billion of its $14.73 billion revenue in 2025 through US websites and points of sale, about 59%. Booking Holdings said its 2025 room night growth came mainly from Europe and Asia, and lists the US as a market where it is still working to raise brand awareness. Booking.com is still enormous: it listed about 4.4 million properties at the end of 2025, including about 500,000 hotels, motels and resorts.
These are company-wide figures. What matters is where your own guests come from. Your Extranet and Partner Central reports show booker countries, and a hotel that draws foreign visitors may find Booking.com does more for it than the US numbers suggest.
What do their paid visibility programs cost?
Each sells a way to rank higher, and each changes the per-booking cost.
| Program | Site | What you give |
|---|---|---|
| Preferred Partner and Preferred Plus | Booking.com | A higher commission on every booking, for more exposure and a badge |
| Visibility Booster | Booking.com | Extra commission you choose, for dates you choose |
| Genius | Booking.com | A discount you fund, from 10%, on at least one room type |
| Accelerator | Expedia Group | Extra compensation you choose, paid only on stays |
Before joining any of them, work out how many extra bookings it needs to pay for itself. We do that for Booking.com's Preferred Partner program and Booking.com Genius for hotels, and our Expedia guide covers Accelerator. All of them stack on top of the base rate, which is how many hotels end up paying more than their contract says (see the real cost of an OTA booking).
What does a hotel keep per room night on each?
Here is one $160 room night through each route. Booking.com uses 15%, the low end of the BookingWhizz range. Expedia uses 20%, the middle of its range. Program costs are assumptions, shown so you can swap in your own.
| Route | Cost | Cost in dollars | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking.com, base rate | 15% | $24.00 | $136.00 |
| Booking.com with Preferred Partner (assumed +3 points) | 18% | $28.80 | $131.20 |
| Expedia, base rate | 20% | $32.00 | $128.00 |
| Expedia with Accelerator (assumed +4 points) | 24% | $38.40 | $121.60 |
| Direct booking through MarginStay | 8%* | $12.80 | $147.20 |
Illustrative. Excludes taxes and payment fees. *8% is the low end of the 8% to 12% a direct booking through MarginStay usually costs. At 12%, the hotel keeps $140.80.
On these assumptions, Booking.com leaves the hotel $8 more per night than Expedia at base rates. Over 1,000 room nights, that is $8,000. Your own rates could narrow that gap or reverse it, so put your numbers into the table, or into our savings calculator.
How should a hotel decide where to focus?
- Work out what you keep per room night on each site over the last 12 months, after commission, programs and discounts. Hotel analysts call this net ADR.
- Compare cancellations by site. A cheaper booking that cancels more often can cost more in the end.
- Look at which dates each site fills. A site that fills quiet midweek nights may be worth a higher cost than one that sells dates you would have sold anyway.
- Switch off programs that do not pay back. They are optional on both sites.
- Move some bookings to your own website. Whichever site costs more, a direct booking costs less. Read direct booking vs OTA: what each booking really costs for the sums, and how independent hotels get more direct bookings for where to start.
MarginStay helps independent hotels bring in direct bookings, so we have a stake in this topic. How each company works comes from its own partner pages and its 2025 annual report filed with the SEC. Typical rates are labeled as third-party, and the per-night example is illustrative.
Booking.com vs Expedia: quick answers
Is Booking.com or Expedia cheaper for hotels?
Usually Booking.com, at base rates. One third-party guide, BookingWhizz, puts Booking.com at about 15% to 17% for most independent hotels and Expedia Group at 18% to 22%. Paid programs, guest discounts and cancellations can reverse that for a given hotel, so compare what you keep per room night on each site.
Should a small hotel list on both Booking.com and Expedia?
Most do, because they reach different travelers. Expedia Group made about 59% of its 2025 revenue through US points of sale, while Booking Holdings said its 2025 growth came mainly from Europe and Asia. Check your own booker countries and net revenue per site before cutting either one.
What is the difference between Expedia Collect and Hotel Collect?
With Expedia Collect, the guest pays Expedia when booking and Expedia pays the hotel after the stay, minus its compensation. With Hotel Collect, the guest pays the hotel at the stay and Expedia earns a commission. Expedia's Traveler Preference program lets the guest choose. Your agreement says which models you use.
Which booking site has more paid programs?
Booking.com has more: Preferred Partner, its premium Preferred Plus tier, Visibility Booster and Genius. Expedia Group's main pay-per-stay tool is Accelerator. All are optional, and each raises your cost per booking, so work out how many extra bookings each needs before joining.
Compare your booking-site costs with a direct booking
Put your monthly booking-site bookings and commission into our calculator, then talk to us about moving some of them to your own website.
Sources
- Booking.com Partner Hub: Understanding your commission
- BookingWhizz: The true cost of OTA commissions
- Expedia Group: Annual report on Form 10-K for 2025 (SEC)
- Booking Holdings: Annual report on Form 10-K for 2025 (SEC)
- Booking.com Partner Hub: Understanding the Preferred Partner Program
- Expedia Group: Accelerator, maximize hotel bookings when you need them most