Markup per channel: charge more where you pay a commission
By GuestChat Team ·
Each booking site keeps a different share of what the guest pays. If you publish the same price everywhere, you earn quite a bit less on some of them than on others for the same night and the same work. The Markup per portal setting exists to make up for that, without you having to keep two calendars.
What it does, exactly
It publishes a higher price on the booking sites that charge you a commission. It does not change the price in your calendar: your price stays as it is, and that booking site publishes it raised by the percentage you choose. With 0, it publishes your price as is.
Put another way: the calendar holds your real price, and each booking site gets that price plus its markup.
Where to set it
In the Calendar, Settings tab, Markup per portal block. Only the booking sites you have connected for that property show up, and next to each one you see how the price would be published. You save it with Save and publish.
Further down there is a Markup per portal (all) setting to apply it to all your properties at once. If you don't have any booking site connected yet, the dashboard tells you there is nothing to apply a markup to.
How to work out yours
There is no single number that is right for everyone. The one that works for you comes from your own data:
- Open Analytics and, under Income, look at the commission each channel has charged you over the last few months.
- Compare it with the total of that channel's bookings: that ratio is what it costs you to sell there.
- Set a markup that makes up for it, without overdoing it. A price that stands out as expensive in the booking site's search sells less.
The hidden advantage: your website
Your own website charges the calendar price, night by night. If you publish with a markup on the booking sites, booking direct is automatically cheaper for the guest, without you having to invent discounts. It is the best argument for the "Why book direct" section of your website.
What the markup does not touch
- Extra charges (cleaning, service, pets, extra guest) are separate, with their own settings.
- Bookings already made keep their price.
- If an external tool is in charge of the price, that tool is the one publishing; check how it fits with whatever you have set up there.
Common mistakes
- Setting the markup and also raising the price by hand on the booking site. You end up charging the commission twice.
- Using the same markup on every booking site. The whole point is to match it to what each one charges.
- Forgetting it on a new property. If you set the markup per property, review it every time you add an apartment, or use the "(all)" one.
Checklist
- Markup worked out from your real commissions, not from a number you heard somewhere.
- The price published on each booking site checked.
- Your website saying that booking direct is the better deal.
- A review every season: commissions and your mix of channels change.