Direct or OTA, which is really eating your margin? Enter your mix and see the true cost, not just headline commission.
Distribution Cost Analyser
Quick start
1
Your business
Input period
Revenue & flat costs, hourly rate stays per hour
Total Annual Revenue
All channels combined
€
Staff Hourly Rate
For calculating time-based costs
€/hr
Average Booking Value
Used to estimate bookings from revenue, for support cost calc
€
2
Your OTA Distribution
3
Your Direct Channel Costs
Direct Share of Revenue
Auto-calculated: 100% minus your OTA mix above
-%
Direct Hidden Costs
Payment, support, website & marketing
â–¼
Adjust estimates based on your metrics.
Payment & Support
Payment Processing Fee
% of direct revenue
Payment Failure Rate
% of direct revenue
Declined cards and failed payments, your own gateway doesn't have an OTA's fraud-screening scale behind it.
Customer Service Time
hours per 100 bookings
Staff time on guest questions, check-in coordination, and billing, scaled to your estimated bookings from revenue ÷ average booking value.
Website & Marketing
Optional, most operators won't have a number for every one of these. Fill in only what you actually track; leave the rest blank.
Booking Engine / Website Fee
€per year
Your booking-engine or connectivity fee, SiteMinder, Cloudbeds, Lodgify, or similar. The closest direct equivalent to an OTA's commission.
Direct Booking Incentive Discount
% of direct revenue
Any "book direct and save" pricing you run to compete with OTA rates, the direct-side equivalent of an OTA's promo programs.
Website Hosting & Maintenance
€per year
Domain, hosting, theme/plugin licences, the occasional developer invoice.
Ads / Paid Marketing Spend
€per year
Google Ads, Meta Ads, and metasearch bidding (Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor) aimed at your own site.
SEO Cost
€per year
Agency retainer or tool subscriptions (Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc.) for organic visibility.
Email Marketing Tool
€per year
Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or similar, newsletters and remarketing to past guests.
Content Creation Time
hours per month
Staff or freelance time on photos, copy, and updates for your site and social channels.
Your Distribution Costs
What This Means
The practical takeaway, and what to do with it.
Building that plan is the work I do with operators. If you want to talk it through: rbisschoff@gmail.com
Opportunity Simulations
Three simulations: direct marketing room when an OTA share decreases, margin saved by moving volume to a cheaper OTA, and what extra marketing spend could create at your current rate.
Channel Risk Score
How concentrated your revenue is in a single OTA, derived from your mix above, no extra inputs.
Cost per Channel
Real cost rate per channel, broken into what's driving it, sorted from cheapest to most expensive. This is the one for deciding which channel is actually worth pushing volume toward.
Cost Breakdown
Building that plan is the work I do with operators. If you want to talk it through: rbisschoff@gmail.com
Built by Roger Bisschoff, 15 years in European hospitality distribution. Operator Series
Roger Bisschoff
Commercial growth consulting for short-term rental, vacation rental, and serviced apartment operators
I look across an operator's whole commercial picture, revenue, distribution, guest experience, owner retention, tech stack, to find where the real growth opportunity is.
Engagements are project-based: a focused review of one commercial area, or ongoing advisory support as needed. No fixed retainer required to start.
Mapeverything→identifythe opportunity→quantifyits value→directwhat to do first
