When I talk to property owners about a booking site of their own, nearly all of them ask how much Booking.com really takes. There is no single number. Booking.com’s own partner help page says the exact percentage depends on your country, your property type and the agreement you signed when you joined. So your percentage is in your contract. But the percentage is only half the answer. The other half is what it is charged on, what gets added to it, and the tax that may be due on it in Lithuania.
What it is charged on
Not just the nightly rate. Commission is a percentage of the whole booking amount, which includes cleaning and service fees and the fees for no-shows and cancellations. It also covers what the guest adds through the platform before arriving: breakfast, a late check-out, an extra-person charge.
- VAT. In most countries commission is also charged on the VAT included in the price. What applies to you is in your General Delivery Terms (GDT).
- City tax. No commission is charged on it.
- Non-refundable bookings. Commission is due on non-refundable and partly refundable bookings even when the guest never arrives. It is not charged if you waive the cancellation fee, or if you mark the no-show in time and waive the no-show fee.
- 48 hours. A cancellation, no-show or other change has to be marked in the Extranet within 48 hours of the scheduled check-out. If it is not, you pay the full commission on the original booking.
The invoice is issued and paid in the calendar month after the guest’s departure.
What else comes off what you receive
Marketing programmes. Taking part in Preferred Partner, Preferred Plus or Visibility Booster means a higher commission. By how much is not stated on the pages I read. You can see your total percentage in the Extranet, in each programme’s section under “Boost performance”. If the rate on a reservation statement is higher than the one in your contract, Booking.com says you may be taking part in one of these programmes.
Genius. This is not commission but a discount for the guest: 10 to 20% of the price before taxes and charges, and it can vary between properties. Whether commission is then charged on the discounted price is not stated on the Booking.com pages I read.
Payments by Booking.com. If Booking.com collects the money from guests for you, a payment service fee is added: a percentage of the value of every completed booking that depends on where your property is. If Booking.com handles all your guest payments, it and the commission are deducted from each payout; otherwise you are invoiced for them.
VAT on the commission in Lithuania
This is separate from any VAT in your own price. A foreign business’s invoice shows no Lithuanian VAT. On a service bought from a foreign business, the buyer in Lithuania works out and pays the VAT if the buyer is a taxable person, that is, carries on an economic activity. The VAT law counts using property to earn income as one. The standard VAT rate is 21%.
Such a buyer, even one who is not a VAT payer, must register as a VAT payer for the purpose of buying services from abroad. Lithuania’s State Tax Inspectorate (VMI), answering the newspaper Respublika, gave commission paid to platforms such as Booking.com and Airbnb as an example, and said that since 1 May 2025 registration is due from the first transaction. Not registering does not remove the duty to account for the VAT.
A buyer not registered as a VAT payer pays this VAT by the 25th of the month following the month in which it had to be worked out, with a return. A VAT payer includes it in that period’s VAT return. The inspectorate also reminds owners that where the duty arose earlier and the tax was not declared or paid, it may ask for the obligations for past periods to be met, and late-payment interest may be charged in some cases.
For example, if a month’s commission invoice is €100, the VAT on it is €21. Whether that stays a cost to you or you can deduct it depends on your VAT position. If your annual turnover does not exceed €45,000, the inspectorate says you may choose the small-business scheme. What that changes in your case is a question for the inspectorate or an accountant: I am not a tax adviser, and this post is not tax advice.
How to work out your real percentage
Take last month’s commission invoice. Add up the commission, the payment service fee if you pay one, and the VAT on the commission if you do not deduct it. Divide by what guests paid for those stays. The result is the share of each euro a guest pays that does not reach you.
What to do about it
There is no need to leave the platforms: they are where guests who have never heard of you find you. If your property is in the European Economic Area, Booking.com’s terms do not require you to give it the same or a better price than on your other channels. The same terms say your prices on other channels do not affect Booking.com’s default search ranking.
So it pays for a guest who already knows you to have somewhere to book directly. On such a booking you pay no commission to a platform; what remains is the payment provider’s fee and the cost of the site itself. How such a site works and what it costs is on the Bookings page.