Booking platforms: what you pay for a booking you would have had anyway

Booking platforms can fill an experience venue faster than anything you build yourself. They charge a share of every reservation for it — and that share is paid on guests who would have come regardless.

Two kinds of booking that look identical

In the platform’s report they are one line. In reality they are two different things.

The first group did not know you, and the platform brought them. The commission there is earned — it is a sale that would not otherwise have happened.

The second group already knew you, searched for you by name, and ended up on the platform because it appeared before you did. For those you are paying for a customer you already had.

How to tell them apart

The simplest indicator is the ratio between how many people searched for your brand by name in a period and how many bookings arrived through platforms. When the second number grows faster than the first, demand is moving rather than growing.

A second signal: look at how high your own page ranks for a search on your venue’s name. If three platforms sit above it, you are paying commission on your own name.

What can be done

The most effective moves are the least dramatic: having your own booking available at the moment someone is reading about you. A business profile with a working link, a quick reservation that does not require creating an account, a price on your own channel that is no worse than the platform’s.

Price parity is often contractually limited — before changing anything, read what you signed.

Where the line sits

Platforms are not an adversary to be shaken off. They are resellers reaching an audience you cannot reach yourself. The point is knowing how much of that commission buys reach, and how much buys your own name back.