OTA Commission Rates Compared: What the Major Platforms Actually Charge (2026)
Major OTAs charge attraction operators between 15% and 35% commission per booking, with most platforms clustered in the 20–30% band. Viator charges 20–25%, GetYourGuide defaults to 30%, Klook ranges from 15–25%, and Airbnb Experiences charges a flat 20%. Those are the headline numbers. They are not the full story.
Rates as of July 2026, payout details updated October 2026. Commission structures change. Verify against current platform supplier agreements before signing or renegotiating.
| Platform | Headline commission | Effective rate (incl. programmes) | Payout timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viator | 20–25% base | 25–35% with Accelerate | 21 business days after the travel month ends |
| GetYourGuide | 30% default | 25–30% (negotiated for volume) | 5th business day of the month after booking; bi-weekly adds 2 points |
| Klook | 15–25% | 15–25% | Not widely published |
| Airbnb Experiences | 20% flat | 20% | Within 24 hours |
| Booking.com Attractions | 20–25% | 20–25% | Standard Booking.com terms |
| TUI Musement | 15–35% reported (sources disagree) | Negotiated: the operator proposes a rate | Monthly, on supplier invoice |
| Tiqets | 20–30% reported (not published) | Negotiated per venue; may differ by sales channel | 21 business days after the sale month ends |
| Google Things to Do | 0% | 0% | N/A, direct to operator |
The table shows the headline numbers. The sections below explain what it cannot.
In this comparison: How commission works · Hidden costs · Who negotiates · Worked example · The 0% option
The commission rate in your contract is the floor. By the time promotional programmes, payout timing, and ancillary fees are factored in, the rate most operators actually experience is meaningfully higher. On Viator, operators in competitive markets are routinely paying 28–35%.
On GetYourGuide, the 30% default is negotiable for volume operators but not automatically offered. Klook is often the most competitive headline rate available, though the structure varies significantly by region. Our Klook vs GetYourGuide comparison weighs that against audience and contract terms.
This OTA commission rates comparison covers what eight major platforms actually charge, where the headline figures mislead, and what the difference means for distribution decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Viator’s base commission is 20–25%, but the Accelerate programme pushes the effective rate to 25–35% in most competitive markets
- GetYourGuide defaults to 30% commission, but negotiates to approximately 25% for operators with consistent booking volume
- Airbnb Experiences charges a flat 20% with no promotional upsell and pays out within 24 hours, the most transparent structure of the major platforms
- Klook’s 15–25% range is often the lowest available headline rate, with regional variation
- Viator pays 21 business days after the travel month ends; Airbnb pays within 24 hours, a real working capital cost that the commission percentage alone does not reflect
- Google Things to Do charges 0% commission and is used by fewer operators than the booking volumes justify
How OTA commission works
OTA commission is deducted at the point of booking. The platform collects the full consumer price from the traveller, then pays the operator the net amount after removing its commission.
On a £100 booking at 25% commission, the operator receives £75. The calculation is straightforward. What is less straightforward is which price the commission is applied to, how the rate is structured, and what sits alongside it.
Two broad models operate in this space. The commission model (used by GetYourGuide, Booking.com Attractions, Airbnb Experiences and most Klook contracts) is the most common: the operator sets the retail price and the OTA takes a percentage. The net rate model (standard in wholesale deals and used in some Klook contracts) works differently: the operator provides a net price and the partner marks it up to the consumer-facing price as it chooses. Viator now sits between the two. Since 1 August 2026, operators supply a net rate and a recommended retail price, and Viator and its partners can set the final price. The economics can be equivalent, but the practical difference matters for anyone concerned about who controls the price the traveller sees.
For a full breakdown of both models, see OTA commission models for tour operators. For the distinction between net rate and gross rate in practice, see net rate vs gross rate in tourism.
The cost beyond the headline percentage
Viator: the Accelerate gap
Viator’s headline commission is 20–25% of the gross booking value, with 25% the rate most operators now report. The platform introduced Accelerate (now Accelerate 2.0) as a system for operators to voluntarily increase their commission above the base rate in exchange for improved visibility and promotional placement.
The premise is that a higher commission signals stronger conversion likelihood, which the algorithm rewards with better placement. The platform has reported that participating operators see around 15% uplift in bookings. The methodology behind that figure is not made public.
What is visible in practice: in high-demand markets and competitive categories, the operators ranking in prominent positions are predominantly at elevated commission tiers. An operator entering at the base rate in a city with 50 walking tour options will not be competing on an even footing with operators who have entered Accelerate at 28–32%.
I watched this happen with an operator I worked with directly. They held Viator’s base 20% commission for years with a strong five-star review record, and their listing sat on page two of search results for their category in a competitive city. Three weeks after they opted into Accelerate at 28%, they were on the first page, with nothing else about the listing changed. The commission rate was the only variable that moved.
Viator also introduced a $29 per-product listing fee in August 2025. For an operator with four experiences, that is $116 per year. For an operator managing 25 experiences, it is $725. At scale, this is a fixed cost that sits on top of commission and does not appear in the headline rate.
GetYourGuide: the bi-weekly calculation
GetYourGuide offers two payout schedules. Monthly payouts are at the standard negotiated commission rate. Bi-weekly payouts add 2 percentage points to your commission on every future booking.
Operators managing cash flow with seasonal patterns frequently choose bi-weekly payouts. The extra 2% is often worth the improved cash position. But the rate most often quoted by the platform is the monthly option. The rate most operators in practice pay is the bi-weekly one.
A simple example: an operator negotiates a 27% commission rate with GetYourGuide and opts for bi-weekly payouts. Their effective rate is closer to 29%. The 30% headline default is not the rate they escaped from; 29% is the rate they achieved through negotiation.
Settlement timing as a working capital variable
Payout timing does not appear in any commission comparison table. It should.
Viator pays 21 business days after the end of the travel month, so a tour delivered in early May is paid in late June. Airbnb Experiences pays within 24 hours of the experience completing. GetYourGuide pays bi-weekly or monthly.
The cost of Viator’s settlement window is not theoretical. An operator with 300 Viator bookings per month at £70 average has roughly £21,000 in outstanding receivables at any point. For a small operator covering wages and supplier costs monthly, that float has a real financing cost, whether they are drawing on an overdraft, deferring supplier payments, or simply not investing cash that is sitting idle.
When comparing Viator’s 20–25% base commission to Airbnb’s 20% flat rate, the settlement timing alone shifts the real comparison significantly.
Rate parity clauses
Most OTA contracts include rate parity provisions. GetYourGuide’s terms, for example, require the same or better price, availability and conditions on the platform as on the operator’s own online channels. Wide clauses that also cover other OTAs draw competition-law suspicion in the UK and EU, so the narrow form is now the norm. On Viator, since August 2026, the risk runs the other way: Viator and its partners can sell your experience below your direct price. Our guide to OTA rate parity compares each platform’s clause, and the OTA contract terms guide covers what else to check.
The practical effect: once you list at a given price on a major OTA, you have constrained your ability to offer a cheaper price or a seasonal promotion on your own website. The commission percentage you agreed is visible in your contract. The pricing constraint that travels with it is less often considered at the point of signing.
Which platforms will negotiate on commission
Most will, to varying degrees, under specific conditions. The conditions matter more than the general principle.
Viator takes the position that commission is standardised. In practice, account managers have some discretion, particularly for operators delivering high volume in markets where Viator is building inventory depth. The leverage points are conversion rate (above platform average), booking volume, and listing quality score. High-performing operators who initiate the conversation from a position of evidence have options.
Operators who threaten to leave without the numbers to back it up do not. The $29 product fee is not negotiable for most operators.
GetYourGuide is more explicit that commission is negotiable above certain thresholds. The 30% default is openly a starting point. Operators who demonstrate consistent annual booking volume (typically 500 or more bookings per year), strong review scores, and low cancellation rates have moved to 25–27% through direct negotiation with account managers. The business case needs to be made in writing with your own data.
Klook varies by region. In some markets the standard rate is lower than either Viator or GetYourGuide by default. In others, regional account managers have commercial flexibility that the headline rate does not reflect. Klook’s appetite to negotiate tends to be higher for operators bringing unique or large-scale inventory that the platform lacks in a given destination. A lower rate only matters if Klook’s audience matches yours, so check whether Klook suits a European attraction before you negotiate.
Booking.com Attractions, TUI Musement, and the smaller platforms are generally more willing to discuss terms than the market leaders because they are competing more actively for quality inventory. The trade-off is lower booking volumes, which changes the return on distribution effort.
I’ve sat in on more than one of these conversations, and account managers only engage once you bring data, not complaints. On one case, we built a one-page brief for an operator sitting at the 30% default: eighteen months of volume, a cancellation rate under 2%, and review scores above 4.8. The account manager came back within a week at 26%. Preparation moved the number.
What the commission percentage actually costs
The rate percentage is abstract until it is attached to numbers.
A worked example: an operator runs half-day kayaking tours at £85 per person, listed on Viator. They enter Accelerate at 27% to remain competitive in a popular coastal market. Viator listed three of their experiences at the August 2025 product fee of $29 each.
Per booking at 27% commission: the operator receives £62.05. The annual $29 product fee across three experiences costs approximately £0.09 per booking at 1,000 annual bookings. Real per-booking net: approximately £61.96.
Gross revenue from Viator at 1,000 bookings: £85,000. After Accelerate commission and product fees: approximately £62,000. Effective rate: approximately 27.1%.
Now consider the same operator at GetYourGuide on a negotiated 25% rate, monthly payout:
Per booking: £63.75. On 1,000 bookings: £63,750. Effective rate: 25%.
The 2-percentage-point difference in commission rate is worth approximately £1,750 per year at this volume. At 2,000 bookings, it is £3,500.
The more significant variable is gross margin. If this operator runs at 40% gross margin before distribution costs, their net on Viator bookings is approximately 13%. At GetYourGuide’s 25%, the net margin on OTA bookings rises to approximately 15%. That is not a negligible difference when OTA bookings represent 40–60% of total revenue.
The zero-commission option most operators are not using
Google Things to Do lists tours, experiences, and attractions with 0% commission. The operator receives 100% of the booking value through their own booking system.
The requirement is integration. The booking platform needs to be connected to Google’s Reserve with Google API, which most major systems support (Bokun, FareHarbor, Rezdy, Checkfront, and others).
Google Things to Do is not a replacement for Viator or GetYourGuide. The discovery volumes differ, the booking intent of search traffic differs from intent on a dedicated experiences platform, and operators with strong OTA presence still benefit from OTA distribution even at 25–30% commission.
What Google Things to Do offers is an additional distribution layer at zero marginal cost once the integration is in place. For operators who have already connected their booking system to OTAs via a channel manager, adding Google is typically a configuration step, not a new project.
Fewer operators use it than the economics would suggest.
Conclusion
Commission rates across the major OTAs range from 0% (Google Things to Do) to 35% effective (Viator with Accelerate in competitive markets). The headline rate is the beginning of the comparison, not the end.
Airbnb Experiences offers the cleanest structure: 20% flat, paid within 24 hours. GetYourGuide’s 30% default is a negotiating position. Viator’s 20–25% base understates what most operators in visible positions actually pay.
Klook’s 15–25% range is often the most competitive headline rate of the major platforms. None of them tell the full story without factoring in payout timing, promotional participation, and any fixed fees.
The calculation worth doing before your next distribution review: take your actual bookings on each platform, apply the real rate you are paying (including Accelerate or equivalent), and subtract the cost of working capital tied up in each platform’s settlement window. Commission is a cost. Treat it like one.
For a detailed breakdown of how Viator’s commission structure works and what Accelerate costs in practice, see Viator commission rate: what operators actually pay.
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