Configuring channel commissions

Booking channels charge a commission fee to market your listings. Guesty displays the commission fees collected by each connected channel and the options available to configure the commission.

Commission types per channel

Access channel commission settings

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click .
3. Hover over the relevant listing and click .
4. In the left-side menu, click Pricing & Policies and select Commissions.

Channel collect (Pre-deduct)

"Channel collect" displayed to the right of the channel name indicates the channel pre-deducts and collects commission directly from the guest payment before transferring the remaining balance to you. In this scenario, nothing is configured in Guesty.

When a reservation is made, if the channel provides Guesty with the pre-deducted commission amount, it appears in the reservation's guest folio breakdown, as shown in the last section below.

Commission calculated by channel

"Commission is calculated by [channel]" means that the channel charges commission separately from guest payments and bills you directly. Configuring the commission in Guesty is not supported. If you are taxed on the channel commission, you can set a PMC tax amount. If you do not need to set the tax then no action is required.

Update PMC tax

Step by step:

1. At the top right click Edit.
2. Under the relevant channel, enter the tax percentage.
3. At the top right click Save.

Commission configured in Guesty

Similar to "commission calculated by channel", these channels charge their commission separately from guest payments and bill you directly.

If a channel is displayed as "0% of accommodation fare", configure the commission both in Guesty and in the channel to avoid discrepancies. Add a PMC tax if relevant.

Configure commission for channels

Step by step:

1. At the top right click Edit.
2. Under the relevant channel, enter the commission percentage and select which items to include in the calculation.
3. If relevant, enter PMC tax percentage.
4. At the top right click Save.

Vrbo limitation

The commission for Vrbo in Guesty is calculated based on total payout, including taxes. Changing this is not possible.

Vrbo's channel commission fee is 5%, however Vrbo does not send Guesty channel commission information per reservation.  See full details about how "pay per booking" is calculated in Vrbo's help center article.

The fee is charged 48 hours after booking unless a cancellation is received. If the fee was already charged when the reservation was canceled, it will be refunded.

If you are on "pay per subscription", which is a fixed fee, we recommend setting the Vrbo channel commission in Guesty to zero on the account or per listing, depending on your settings in Vrbo.

Configure commission for direct booking sources

In addition to connected channels, you can configure a commission amount for manual sources, such as the Guesty Booking Website or a 3rd party channel that is not connected to Guesty.

For manual channels, you can choose to pre-deduct the commission displayed in the reservation's guest folio as shown in the last section below.

Step by step:

1. At the top right click Edit.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click Add manual channel.
3. Select the relevant channel from the dropdown.
4. Enter the commission percentage and select which items to include in the calculation.
5. If relevant, enter PMC tax percentage.
6. Toggle on Pre-deduct to automatically add a "host fee" line item in the guest folio.
7. At the top right click Save.

How channel commission appears in a reservation

In all cases, the channel commission amount is displayed in the "Payout" summary in each reservation:

If the channel commission is pre-deducted, it will also appear in the guest folio, as a "host channel fee" line item with a negative value:

x