Direct bookings vs OTAs: what Greek hotels pay and how to book direct

Many Greek hotels sell a good part of their rooms through online travel agencies (OTAs). That is not a failure. Booking.com and Airbnb put a property in front of guests it would never reach on its own, and for a small island hotel they are often the main shop window.

The useful questions are narrower: what each OTA booking really costs, what your contracts let you do with your own prices, and how much demand you can bring in yourself at a lower cost. This guide covers how Booking.com and Airbnb charge, what changed when Booking.com dropped parity clauses in the European Economic Area, and how we approach building a direct channel that earns its keep.

How Booking.com commission works

Booking.com charges commission as a set percentage of the total booking amount, and that total includes extra fees added to the booking. The commission is applied after check-out. City tax is not commissionable, while VAT usually is, according to Booking.com for Partners.

What Booking.com does not publish is a single commission rate. Its partner help page says the exact percentage “depends on your country, property type and the accommodation agreement” (Booking.com for Partners). Anyone quoting you “the” Booking.com commission for Greece is quoting a figure the company itself does not publish. Your rate is the one in your own agreement and on your invoices.

On top of the base commission, Booking.com offers programmes that raise it. Preferred Partner status and Visibility Booster both add to the commission in exchange for more prominence in search results. They can make sense for specific dates, but switch them off once the reason has passed.

Because commission is charged on the total amount, extra fees passed through the reservation are commissioned too. The real cost of the channel is best measured from a full season of invoices, not from the contract rate alone.

What Airbnb charges hosts

Airbnb works differently because it has two fee structures. Under the split fee, the cost is shared: most hosts pay 3%, and guests pay a service fee of 14.1%–16.5%, according to Airbnb’s Help Centre.

Under the single fee, the host pays the whole service fee and the guest pays no separate one. Airbnb’s Help Centre describes moving all home hosts to this host-only fee, and says most hosts on it pay 15.5%, with the remaining hosts typically paying 14–16% (Airbnb Help Centre). That move applies to home hosts, so a hotel listing on Airbnb should confirm which structure applies to its own account.

For a hotel owner the lesson is the same as with Booking.com: compare what the guest pays with what reaches your bank account. A fee that sits with the guest still shapes the total they compare against your website. A fee that sits with you comes straight out of room revenue.

Rate parity after Booking.com dropped its EEA clauses

A rate parity clause is a contract term that stops a hotel from offering a lower price on other channels, often including its own website, than it offers on the OTA. Where such clauses applied, they limited how far a hotel’s own website could undercut the OTA price.

Booking.com’s newsroom states that “we no longer use parity clauses with our partners in the European Economic Area (EEA)”, and that they were removed as part of its compliance with the EU Digital Markets Act (Booking.com newsroom). Greece is in the EEA, so a Greek hotel’s Booking.com agreement no longer ties its website price to its Booking.com price. Other OTAs have their own contracts, so read each one rather than assume the same applies.

That does not mean the best move is to cut your website rate as low as it will go. Without the clause, parity becomes a commercial choice rather than a contractual obligation. A small, consistent direct-booking advantage gives guests a clear reason to book with you. A deep, erratic gap is hard to manage across channels and teaches guests to hunt for deals.

Many hotels hold the headline rate level and make the direct offer better in other ways: flexible cancellation, breakfast included, a late check-out, or an upgrade when one is available.

Photo: Karol Chomka on Unsplash, Mykonos

Building a direct channel that pays its way

A direct booking is not free. You pay for the website, the booking engine, payment processing, search and social advertising, and the staff time to run them. The aim is a cost per direct booking below what the same booking would cost through an OTA, plus a guest you can speak to again.

Direct marketing also cannot fix a product that no longer matches its price. A hotel whose rooms, category or story have fallen behind will lean on OTAs whatever it does with its website, and our guide on how to reposition an existing Greek hotel covers that problem.

The website and booking engine

Guests who find you on an OTA often check your own website before they book. If the site is slow, the photos are weaker than the listing, or the booking engine takes several screens, they go back to the OTA. A fast mobile site, the same room names and photos as your listings, prices shown with taxes, and a booking engine that completes in a few steps are the basics.

Offers built around your calendar

Direct marketing works best on the dates the OTAs fill least well for you. For most Greek resort hotels those are the shoulder months rather than the peak weeks, which tend to fill through every channel. Our analysis of how Greek hotel demand moves month by month shows where those months sit. A direct offer aimed at them, such as a longer-stay rate or a package, is where your own channel earns most.

Guest data and repeat stays

An OTA guest belongs, commercially, to the OTA until they book with you. Once they have stayed, a clear opt-in at check-in, a post-stay email and a returning-guest rate give them a reason to come back direct. Repeat guests are usually the cheapest direct bookings to win.

Searches for your own name

A guest searching for your hotel by name is already interested. If an OTA’s ad sits above your website for that search, you may end up paying commission on a booking you had already won. Bidding on your own brand name and showing your direct rate on metasearch are the usual defences.

Which markets to court directly

Direct marketing costs money per market, so it pays to spend where demand is growing. The Bank of Greece breaks down 2025 travel receipts by source market. Receipts from the UK rose 18.4% to €3,741.6m, from Germany 2.2% to €3,784.7m, and from the US 9.7% to €1,736.7m.

Those three markets behaved differently in 2025. Germany was the largest of the three but grew slowly, the UK was almost as large and grew much faster, and the US was smaller but grew strongly (Bank of Greece).

National figures are a starting point. Look at your own guest mix by nationality before choosing where to advertise. If a market already books you, a direct campaign there builds on something real. Language, school holidays and the flight connections to your destination all shape when and how each market books, so campaigns should differ by market, not only by translation.

Who runs the channel mix

Distribution is a daily job: rates, availability, restrictions, content and payments across every channel. For hotels under our management it sits within our Sales & Marketing discipline, alongside revenue management.

We also work with Loguers, Finest Hospitality’s hotel sales and distribution partner.

Whether you run this in-house or hand it to an operator depends on the size of the hotel and the team you have. Our explainer on what a hotel management company actually does sets out which tasks an operator takes on and how to choose one.

What this means for owners

• Measure the real cost. Pull a full season of OTA invoices and work out what each channel costs per booking, including programmes such as Visibility Booster.
• Read your contracts. Booking.com no longer uses parity clauses in the EEA, but check every other OTA agreement for its own price terms.
• Pick one direct advantage and keep it. A consistent benefit, in price or in what is included, works better than ad hoc discounts.
• Spend where it counts. Aim direct marketing at the dates you struggle to fill and the markets that already book you.
• Own the repeat guest. Collect consent, stay in touch and give past guests a reason to return direct.

OTAs will stay part of the mix for most Greek hotels, and the aim is to decide what each channel costs you rather than simply accept it.