How much do OTAs take per booking, how much hotel demand do they control, and what do they spend to win a traveller?
The big online travel agencies keep 12–15% of what travellers spend: Booking Holdings 14.5% and Expedia Group 12.3% in 2025, Airbnb 13.41%. European hotels still sell 51.3% of their nights direct, but OTAs bring 29.9%, and Booking.com alone takes 69.4% of the OTA bookings of independent hotels. To win that demand, Booking spends 4.4% of gross bookings on marketing and Expedia spends 49.9% of its revenue on direct sales and marketing.
Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Airbnb, Sabre, Tripadvisor, Trip.com, MakeMyTrip and IHG annual reports (2025) and quarterly filings (Q2 2026) on sec.gov; HOTREC European Hotel Distribution Study 2026 (survey of 1,882 hotels plus aggregated data from 831 chain hotels, reference year 2025); European Commission hotel accommodation market study (2021 data); Statistics Canada 21-10-0251-01 (2021); EU Digital Markets Act decisions and Court of Justice ruling C-264/23 · verified as of
How big the platforms are
Gross bookings are the total value travellers booked through the platform, before cancellations and before the platform's cut. Booking.com-type agency bookings, merchant bookings and Airbnb's gross booking value are all included as each company defines them.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking Holdings — gross bookings | $50,957M | one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — gross bookings | $33,928M | one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Airbnb — gross booking value | $27,247M | one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — gross bookings | $2,854.7M | India · one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Booking Holdings — room nights reserved | 325 million | one quarter · +5.3% year on year | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Airbnb — nights and experience seats booked | 148 million | one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — lodging properties on the marketplace | 3.6 million | of which 2.4 million on Vrbo | 31 Dec 2025 | sec.gov |
| Sabre — bookings through its global distribution system | 365.3 million | direct billable bookings, all travel | 2025 | sec.gov |
What the platform keeps: take rates and fees
Take rate = platform revenue as a share of gross bookings. It mixes commissions, merchant margins, payment fees and advertising, so it is the platform's average cut, not a contract commission. Hotels' contract commissions are shown separately at the end.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking Holdings | 14.5% | revenue / gross bookings | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Booking Holdings | 14.4% | revenue / gross bookings · one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Airbnb | 13.41% | revenue / gross booking value | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — B2B (partners, white label, API) | 13.6% | revenue margin | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — all channels | 12.3% | revenue margin | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — B2C (own consumer brands) | 11.3% | revenue margin | 2025 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — hotels and packages | 18.0% | India · adjusted margin / gross bookings | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — bus tickets | 10.3% | India · adjusted margin / gross bookings | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — air tickets | 6.4% | India · adjusted margin / gross bookings | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Sabre — fee per GDS booking | $6.30 | per marketplace booking, paid by the supplier | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Sabre — share of revenue paid back to travel agencies as incentives | 43.6% | distribution partners | 2025 | sec.gov |
| EU independent hotels — mean basic OTA commission | 10–20% | band disclosed for confidentiality | 2021 | competition-policy.ec.europa.eu |
| EU independent hotels — OTA contracts with extra commission at least sometimes | 22% | share of OTA relationships | 2021 | competition-policy.ec.europa.eu |
Where European hotels get their guests (share of overnights)
HOTREC survey of European hotels, 2025 stays. All-hotel rows include the aggregated data from chain hotels; chain rows are the chain properties only. Survey data with a disclosed method: shown as industry evidence, not official statistics.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All hotels — direct channels (phone, email, walk-in, own website) | 51.3% | direct total | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| All hotels — online travel agencies | 29.9% | OTAs | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| All hotels — real-time booking on the hotel's own website | 13.9% | part of direct | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| All hotels — global distribution systems | 1.9% | GDS | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Chain hotels — online travel agencies | 29.4% | chains only | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Chain hotels — chain's own website | 20.1% | chains only | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Chain hotels — telephone reservations | 17.5% | chains only | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Chain hotels — global distribution systems | 11.2% | chains only | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| IHG — room revenue through the chain's own channels and sources | 83% | one global chain | 2025 | sec.gov |
| IHG — room revenue from direct digital channels | 26% | one global chain | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Canadian hotels and motels selling through third-party websiteshistorical | 88.3% | share of e-commerce sellers | 2021 | www150.statcan.gc.ca |
| Canadian hotels and motels selling through their own websitehistorical | 81.3% | share of e-commerce sellers | 2021 | www150.statcan.gc.ca |
Who the OTA bookings go to (share of a hotel's OTA bookings, Europe)
Relative OTA market shares reported by hotels in the HOTREC survey. The smaller and more independent the hotel, the more of its OTA business runs through one platform.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking.com — 20–50-room hotels | 70.8% | highest in this set | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Booking.com — independent hotels | 69.4% | 2025 | hotrec.eu | |
| Booking.com — hotel cooperation members | 62.3% | 2025 | hotrec.eu | |
| Booking.com — 100+ room hotels | 59.3% | 2025 | hotrec.eu | |
| Booking.com — chain hotels | 56.3% | 2025 | hotrec.eu | |
| Expedia Group — all European OTA bookings | 16.6% | 2025 | hotrec.eu | |
| Booking Holdings and Expedia Group combined — all European OTA bookings | 85.4% | 2025 | hotrec.eu | |
| Booking Holdings and Expedia Group combined — chain hotels' OTA bookings | 94% | chains only | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
What platforms spend to win a booking
Marketing is the largest cost line of an OTA. Expedia reports performance marketing as 'direct selling and marketing'; MakeMyTrip books discounts and loyalty as a reduction of revenue (customer inducement costs), separately from marketing.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking Holdings — marketing expenses | $8,186M | performance and brand marketing | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Booking Holdings — marketing as a share of gross bookings | 4.4% | 2025 | sec.gov | |
| Booking Holdings — marketing as a share of gross bookings | 4.7% | one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — direct selling and marketing | $7,349M | search engines, metasearch, brand | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — direct selling and marketing as a share of revenue | 49.9% | 2025 | sec.gov | |
| Trip.com Group — sales and marketing as a share of net revenue | 25% | one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Airbnb — sales and marketing as a share of revenue | 21% | $2,588M | 2025 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — customer inducement costs | $106.8M | India · one quarter · deducted from revenue | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — marketing and sales promotion | $48.8M | India · one quarter | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
What hotels complain about
HOTREC survey, European hotels, 2025. Rate undercutting means an OTA shows the hotel's room cheaper than the hotel itself; multi-sourcing means the room is resold through other OTAs without the hotel's direct contract.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotels reporting that OTAs undercut their rates | 51% | all respondents | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Undercutting hotels — gap of 6–10% below the hotel's own rate | 58% | hotels affected by undercutting | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Hotels reporting OTA multi-sourcing of their rooms | 44% | all respondents | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Cancellation rate — bookings via Booking.com | 19.0% | share of bookings | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Cancellation rate — direct bookings | 9.1% | share of bookings | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Hotels using a channel manager | 66% | all respondents | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
| Hotels still updating online channels manually | 23% | all respondents | 2025 | hotrec.eu |
Where the growth is
Year-on-year changes reported by the platforms. Partner (B2B) distribution and India grow fastest; hotel metasearch shrinks.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expedia Group — B2B gross bookings | +20% | partner and white-label channel | 2025 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — B2C gross bookings | +3% | own consumer brands | 2025 | sec.gov |
| MakeMyTrip — gross bookings, constant currency | +19.9% | India | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
| Expedia Group — booked room nights | +6% | Q2 2026 | sec.gov | |
| Booking Holdings — room nights | +5.3% | Q2 2026 | sec.gov | |
| Tripadvisor — hotels (metasearch) revenue | −23% | Q2 2026 | sec.gov |
EU rules that change the hotel–OTA bargain
Booking.com is a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act: parity clauses that kept hotels from selling cheaper on their own websites no longer apply to it in the EU.
| Metric | Value | Segment | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking.com designated a gatekeeper under the EU Digital Markets Act | in force | obligations apply from 14 November 2024 | since Nov 2024 | digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu |
| Booking.com may not stop hotels from offering lower prices or better conditions on their own websites or other channels (DMA anti-parity obligation) | in force | hotels may undercut Booking.com on their own website | since Nov 2024 | digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu |
| Hotels get real-time access to the data their Booking.com business generates | in force | data access and portability | since Nov 2024 | digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu |
| Court of Justice C-264/23: wide and narrow price-parity clauses of accommodation platforms must be assessed under EU competition law on their own | in force | preliminary ruling of 19 September 2024 | since Sep 2024 | curia.europa.eu |
Why the OTA numbers look inconsistent
Three different things are called 'OTA share' and 'commission'. First, a platform's take rate (12–15% for the global OTAs) is revenue divided by everything booked, including flights, cars and cancellations-adjusted stays; it is lower than the commission a hotel signs because flights and partner channels earn less and because it is averaged across contracts. The hotel-side contract rate is the European Commission's 10–20% band for independent hotels, and that is 2021 data. Second, the share of demand: HOTREC measures overnights in European hotels that answered its survey, which over-represents independent and small properties; IHG measures room revenue of one global chain; Statistics Canada counts how many hotels use a channel at all, not how much they sell through it. Third, the period: platform figures are 2025 and Q2 2026, the hotel survey is 2025 stays, and the Commission and Canadian figures are 2021. Use the platform rows for the economics of an intermediary, and the HOTREC rows for what an independent European hotel experiences.
Booking Holdings — 10-K 2025 and 10-Q Q2 2026 · Expedia Group — 10-K 2025 · HOTREC European Hotel Distribution Study 2026 · European Commission — hotel accommodation market study
Methodology
Every number on this page is a fact node in the God of Startups Atlas — a knowledge graph where each metric carries its source URL, reporting period, evidence tier and the verbatim quote it was taken from. Tier 1 means official or statutory sources (company filings with the US SEC, the European Commission, Statistics Canada); tier 2 means industry research with a disclosed method (HOTREC's hotel survey with its sample and weighting). Values are shown in the currency the source reports; nothing is converted, estimated or modelled. Regulation rows are verified rule records from the European Commission and the Court of Justice.
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