By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Platform fees vary by market, listing type and fee model and change often, so check the platform's own fee page for your listing rather than any third-party table. Structures differ — split fee, host-pays or commission on booking value — so compare what actually reaches your account per booking, not headline percentages; direct bookings instead carry our 5% direct-booking commission.
Why we will not print a table of rates
Platform fees change, they vary by market and listing type, and several platforms run more than one fee model at once. A table published today is wrong within a year, and a wrong fee table in an income model is worse than no table.
What is stable, and worth understanding, is the shape of each structure — because that is what determines whether two quoted percentages mean the same thing.
For your own listing, the platform's own fee page is the only source worth using.
The three shapes
Split fee. The platform takes a smaller percentage from the host and adds a service fee on top of the price the guest pays. Your headline rate looks low; the guest's total is higher than your nightly rate, which matters when they compare you against a direct booking.
Host-pays. The platform takes a larger percentage from the host and shows the guest a total closer to your nightly rate. Your headline rate looks worse and your listing prices better.
Commission on the booking value. A straightforward percentage of what the guest pays, invoiced or deducted, which is closer to a traditional travel-agent model.
The same property can therefore show a different price to a guest on two platforms while earning you the same, or show the same price and earn you different amounts.
What this does to your model
The practical consequence is that your nightly rate and the guest's price are not the same number, and an income model has to be explicit about which one it is using.
Ours assumes the rate you enter is pre-commission, and says so, because that is the honest default. If you build a model on what the guest pays and then apply a management fee to it, you have overstated your income by the platform's cut.
The income calculator takes commission as an input for this reason rather than assuming a figure.
Payment processing is separate
Card and payment processing costs sit alongside platform commission rather than inside it, and they apply to direct bookings too.
Under our agreements, platform commission and card processing are paid by us and recharged to you at cost, itemised on the monthly statement. Nothing is marked up.
A booking taken through our own channels rather than a platform carries a 5% direct-booking commission instead of the platform's cut — materially cheaper, and not free. Our direct bookings guide sets out the real size of that difference.
Why being on several platforms still wins
Commission is a cost of reaching guests you would not otherwise reach. A property listed on one platform is cheaper per booking and gets fewer bookings, and empty nights cost more than commission does.
The audiences genuinely differ — Booking.com skews later-booking and more international, Vrbo towards families and longer stays, corporate channels towards guests who never open a leisure app. In the shoulder months, when a single platform's demand thins, that mix is what fills the calendar.
We list across 15 platforms rather than three, and the case for it is strongest in exactly the months an owner is most worried about.
Platform fee structures change and vary by plan, market and listing type. Check the current rate on the platform's own fee page for your listing rather than relying on any third-party figure, including this one.