Calculate exactly how much commission you pay to Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, and GetYourGuide every year — and discover how much you'd keep with direct bookings.
Select your platform, enter your booking value and volume, and see exactly how much you're losing — and how much you'd save with direct bookings.
Real estimates for three common tourism business types in Marrakech — based on typical Booking.com rates of 15%.
A 4-room traditional riad in Marrakech's medina, primarily listed on Booking.com with occasional Airbnb bookings.
A 20-room boutique hotel near Jemaa el-Fna, using Booking.com and Expedia as primary distribution channels.
A Marrakech-based experiences company offering desert tours, cooking classes, and guided medina walks listed on GetYourGuide.
Every time a guest books your hotel, riad, or tour through Booking.com, Airbnb, or Expedia, a portion of your revenue is permanently transferred to a platform based thousands of miles away. What many hospitality owners don't realize is just how significant this cost is over a full year.
Booking.com typically charges 15% commission on the total booking value. Expedia operates at 15–18%. GetYourGuide charges tour operators 25–30%. On a €300 booking, that's €45–€90 in commission — per booking, every booking, 365 days a year.
For a medium-sized hotel processing 50 bookings per month at an average value of €280, the annual OTA commission bill exceeds €25,200. That figure alone could fund a full website redesign, a professional SEO campaign, and a Google Ads budget with money left over — all of which would generate direct bookings at zero per-booking cost.
The damage from OTA commissions isn't just financial — it's structural. When 70–80% of your bookings come through platforms, you become dependent on their pricing policies, ranking algorithms, and review systems. A single algorithm change can reduce your visibility overnight. A price parity clause prevents you from offering better rates on your own website.
Consider the math more closely. If your average booking nets €200 after OTA commission, and a direct booking nets €240 for the exact same stay, you need 20% fewer direct bookings to generate the same revenue. Or put differently: you could lower your prices by 10% on your direct channel, still earn more per booking than through OTAs, and convert more price-sensitive travelers to loyal returning guests.
Marrakech is one of the most searched travel destinations in North Africa, with hundreds of thousands of monthly Google searches for terms like "riad Marrakech," "hotel Medina Marrakech," and "best riad Marrakech." Every one of these searches is a potential direct booking — but only if your property appears in the results.
The most effective strategy for increasing direct bookings in the Marrakech market combines three elements: a professional direct booking website, local Google SEO, and Google Business Profile optimization.
A well-built direct booking website with a clear booking engine, authentic photography, and compelling copy converts visitors into direct bookings at rates of 3–8%. Add targeted SEO to rank for specific search terms your guests use, and you create a compounding asset that generates bookings at near-zero marginal cost for years.
Search engine optimization is the single highest-ROI marketing channel available to hospitality businesses. Unlike paid advertising, which stops generating results the moment you stop paying, SEO builds organic visibility that compounds over time. A property that ranks on page one of Google for "riad Marrakech with pool" receives free, high-intent traffic every single day.
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is equally powerful for local discovery. When travelers search "riads near Jemaa el-Fna" or "guesthouses Marrakech medina," the map pack dominates the results. Properties with optimized profiles — complete with photos, responses to reviews, updated hours, and services — consistently outrank competitors with neglected profiles.
ProBoost Agency specializes in exactly this work for Moroccan tourism businesses. Our clients typically see 3–5× increases in organic traffic within six months, with direct booking conversion rates improving by 40–120% following website and SEO improvements.
The end goal isn't to eliminate OTA distribution — these platforms have genuine reach advantages for new guests who've never heard of your property. The goal is to rebalance the mix so that 40–60% of your bookings come direct, dramatically improving profitability while maintaining the volume OTAs provide.
Properties that achieve a healthy direct booking ratio report: better cash flow (direct bookings are settled faster), stronger guest relationships (you own the communication), higher lifetime guest value (direct guests rebook more often), and significantly lower effective customer acquisition costs.
For a property currently generating €200,000 in annual revenue through OTAs at 15% commission, shifting 40% to direct bookings saves approximately €12,000 per year in commissions alone — without a single additional booking.
Everything you need to know about OTA fees, direct bookings, and how to keep more of your revenue.
ProBoost Agency helps Marrakech hotels, riads, Airbnb hosts, and tour operators increase direct bookings through SEO, Google Maps optimization, and website improvements.