Originally Posted by
bocastephen
Are you suggesting that hotel properties (commissions are set by property per room type per rate category) are paying Expedia 15-20% per booking without a bulk-buy commitment? I don't believe that is true at all. You would personally need to have access to internal contract documents to know what any commission rate is for a particular property.
Standard commissions are 10% of the base room rate for all travel agencies, online or not, except when some properties will offer an incentive or bonus of 20% or so per room. If you are quoting a bulk-buy commitment with penalties for failing to sell out an allocation, that is a different scenario and is an optional path for a hotel property to take, but not compulsory. As a franchisee, any Marriott property can choose to participate in a bulk buy or not, or offer a different commission structure, so they remain in full control of their revenue stream. No different than an AirBnB owner voluntarily choosing a full service property manager who takes 30% of the cut to handle advertising, check-in/out, cleaning, etc.
Not sure about bulk buy commissions or the structure of contracts - all I know is that independent hotels in a large city are often paying 20%+ of the room rate all in to Expedia when the booking comes from that channel on average - this is a widely cited figure:
https://skift.com/2018/02/08/expedia...ing-campaigns/
“
Skift Research estimates that independents pay Expedia commissions of 15 percent to 30 percent as opposed to big brands, which pay 10 percent to 15 percent commissions.”