How to build a booking website and reduce marketplace commission
The short answer
Keep the marketplaces for discovery, but give customers a reason and a way to book with you directly: a fast site that answers their real questions, shows live availability and takes payment online. Most of the work is not the booking form — it is being found. Pages that honestly answer what customers search for, in the languages they search in, bring visitors from Google and AI assistants. Track every direct booking so you know what the channel is worth before you invest further.
Why marketplaces are both useful and expensive
Booking marketplaces bring customers you would never reach alone. But they also take a commission on every sale, decide how your product is displayed, and own the relationship with the customer. Some limit what you can do with customers’ contact details, which makes repeat business harder.
The goal is rarely to leave marketplaces altogether. It is to stop paying commission on customers who would have found you anyway — and to own the relationship with the ones who come back.
What commission really costs
Work it out on your own numbers. As an illustration only: if a marketplace takes 20% of a €100 booking, each booking you move direct is worth €20 more to you, minus your card processing fees. Move fifty bookings a month and that is roughly €1,000 a month, before counting repeat business. Check your actual commission rate in your agreement — they vary by platform and category.
What a direct booking channel needs
1. A fast, simple way to book and pay
Customers should be able to choose a date, see availability, pay by card and get an instant confirmation — on a phone, in a couple of minutes. Offer a human option too, such as WhatsApp or phone, for people who want to ask first.
2. A reason to find you, not just the marketplace
This is where most direct-booking projects fail. A booking form nobody visits sells nothing. Visitors find you when your pages answer the questions they actually ask, more honestly and specifically than anyone else: what’s included, when tickets go on sale, where to sit, whether it suits children. Search engines — and increasingly AI assistants such as ChatGPT — favour pages like that.
3. Their language
If your customers come from several countries, pages in their languages win searches your competitors don’t even contest.
4. Live availability
If availability depends on something outside your control — match tickets, venue capacity — automate the checking so you only sell what exists.
5. Measurement
Track direct bookings and their value from day one, and which pages and channels produced them. Without it you cannot tell whether the channel is working, or what it is worth compared with the commission you are no longer paying.
Build or use a booking platform?
| Booking software subscription | Custom booking site | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | Fast | Weeks, starting small |
| Cost | Monthly fee, sometimes per-booking fees | Build cost, low running cost |
| Fits unusual products | Sometimes awkward | Built around your product |
| Content and search | Often limited | Designed for it |
| Customer data | Usually yours, check terms | Yours |
A subscription is often the right start. A custom site makes sense when your product doesn’t fit the templates, when search visibility is central to the strategy, or when per-booking fees add up.
What this looked like for Málaga Football Tours
Málaga Football Tours sold matchday experiences mainly through marketplaces, with no way to book on their own site. We built a four-language booking site with direct card payment, a page for every home fixture, honest ticket guides and weekly reporting. In the 60 days from 2 August to 30 September 2026 the site recorded €8,575 in direct online bookings, 51,028 Google Search impressions and 1,128 visits. The case study explains how.
Start small
Launch the booking flow and a handful of genuinely useful pages, measure direct bookings for a couple of months, and expand what works.