Car rental commission calculator
Work out what marketplace and broker commission costs your fleet in a year, and what the same bookings would cost taken directly on your own site.
What it costs you
Booking value through marketplaces, per year
86,400
Commission paid, per year
15,552
Value moved direct, per year
25,920
What those bookings cost taken directly
1,037
Kept instead of paid away, per year
3,629
Before your plan subscription, which is a fixed cost rather than a per-booking one. Current prices are on the pricing page.
How this is calculated
Commission is charged on the booking value, so the annual figure is simply your monthly bookings multiplied by the average rental value, multiplied by twelve, multiplied by the commission rate.
The saving is the part people get wrong. Moving a booking to your own site does not make it free: it costs your card processing rate plus whatever your booking platform charges. So the saving is the difference between the commission you were paying and those two together, on the share of bookings you actually move.
The worked example above, in full
| Bookings a month through marketplaces | 40 |
| Average rental value | 180 |
| Booking value per year | 86,400 |
| Commission at 18.0% | 15,552 |
| 30.0% of that value taken direct | 25,920 |
| Cost of those bookings at 2.0% + 2.0% | 1,037 |
| Kept per year | 3,629 |
What the number does not include
Your plan subscription, which is fixed rather than per booking. The work of earning direct bookings in the first place, which is real. And the value of owning the customer relationship, which is the part operators say matters most and the part no calculator can price.
What to do with the number
If the saving looks worth having, the next question is where those direct bookings come from. These cover it:
- Getting more direct car rental bookings - the practical version of this argument.
- Turning website visitors into bookings - what has to work once they arrive.
- Why unclear pricing costs bookings - the most common reason a direct booking is abandoned.
- Car rental website builder and the car rental booking system - what taking bookings on your own site involves.
- Running a restaurant rather than a fleet? The delivery-app version of this sum, which has to account for the driver, is the restaurant commission calculator.
- Every free tool we publish is listed on free tools.
Questions
What commission do car rental marketplaces charge?
Published rates generally sit between 15 and 25 percent of the rental value, and the effective rate is often higher once optional extras and insurance products are included. Use the figure from your own statements rather than a headline rate.
Is taking bookings directly actually cheaper?
Almost always, but it is not free. A direct booking costs card processing plus whatever your booking platform charges, which together are usually a few percent rather than the high teens. The saving is the difference, not the whole commission.
What does Webkio charge on a direct booking?
A transaction fee of 2 percent on the Starter plan and 1 percent on Growth Business and Agency, on top of your own card processing rate and the plan subscription. Rentals require a paid plan, so the free tier is not part of this comparison.
What share of marketplace bookings can realistically move direct?
It varies by how much of your demand is brand-led. Operators who are already searched for by name move a larger share; those relying on marketplace discovery move less. The calculator defaults to a deliberately modest 30 percent.
Does leaving the marketplace mean losing those customers?
This is not an argument for leaving. Most operators keep the listing for discovery and work on converting repeat customers to direct booking, where the relationship already exists and the commission buys nothing.