Skip to content
Akkrev
Get started

What OTA commission costs UK hotels when AI agents can't book direct

UKUpdated By Akkrev

When an AI agent can't book a UK hotel's own site, it books an OTA at 15 to 25% commission. Here's how to estimate what that costs your hotel each year.

Every booking an AI agent makes through an online travel agency instead of your website costs commission, typically 15 to 25% of the booking value. AI bookings are still small for most hotels, but they’re growing fast, and the hotels agents can’t book direct are building a habit that’s expensive to break.

A simple way to estimate it

You need three numbers:

  1. Your average booking value. For example, two nights at £160 = £320.
  2. Your OTA commission rate. Say 18%.
  3. How many bookings a year come from guests using AI. Most hotels don’t know yet. Start with a small share of your total and adjust as you learn more.

Cost per lost direct booking = £320 × 18% = £57.60.

If 100 bookings a year come through AI agents and they all go via OTAs, that’s £5,760 in commission. At 500, it’s £28,800.

Why the number grows

Net Affinity and Smarthotel’s AI Barometer found AI assistant traffic to hotel websites grew almost 200% between March and August 2026, with the UK growing fastest, up 287%. Personal agents that book on a guest’s behalf, such as Meta’s Muse and Instinct, launched in 2026. As agents take on more of the booking itself, the question isn’t whether they’ll book your rooms, but where.

The hidden costs

Commission is the visible cost. There are others:

  • The guest relationship. OTA bookings often come with masked emails and limited guest data, making it harder to win the repeat stay direct.
  • Parity pressure. Once agents learn your rooms are reliably bookable on an OTA, they keep going there.
  • Mistakes. Agents that can’t read your direct site properly sometimes book the wrong room type or miss your policies, and your team handles the fallout.

Why AI bookings may cost more than average

AI-sourced bookings may skew towards higher-value stays: guests who hand a booking to an agent are often planning a longer break, a special occasion or a family trip, with several conditions to check. If those bookings go to an OTA, the commission per booking is higher than on a typical short stay.

There’s also a timing effect. Guests who use agents tend to plan with more lead time, and early bookings at good rates are exactly the ones hotels most want direct.

A note on the estimate

The figures above are an illustration. Your real number depends on your rates, commission terms and how many of your guests use AI. The point isn’t the exact figure; it’s that the cost scales with something you can’t currently see, which is why testing whether agents can book you is the first step.

Commission isn’t the only line on the bill

Some OTA programmes charge more for better placement, and many hotels pay for metasearch ads to win back bookings that start on comparison sites. If AI agents learn to book through OTAs by default, hotels may find themselves paying both commission and marketing costs to reach guests who would have been happy to book direct.

How to find your real number

Ask an agent to book your hotel on your own site. If it can’t, every agent booking for your hotel today is an OTA booking. Our free agent check shows where agents get stuck, and the AI Booking Audit puts a number on it for your hotel.

What this means for AI recommendations

When AI recommends your hotel but links an OTA, the guest still books through the OTA. AI visibility only pays off fully when the assistant links your own website.

Questions

How much commission do OTAs charge UK hotels?

Typically 15 to 25% of the booking value, depending on the OTA, the hotel's contract and any visibility programmes it has joined.

Sources

Related