Booking.com collects
With Payments by Booking.com, guests pay Booking.com, which pays you out. Its commission and its payments fee are usually taken from the payout, so what reaches you is net.
Guide for hosts
Booking.com for UK hosts: commission, payments and what reaches you.
Booking.com takes its commission in one of two ways, adds a payments fee when it collects from your guests, and shows VAT on its fees. Here is how a Booking.com payout is made up, and how to record it.
Two ways guests pay
You collect
If guests pay you directly, there is no payout. Booking.com sends you an invoice for its commission instead, usually monthly, for the stays that ended the month before.
What a payout is made of
- The reservation amount - what the guest paid for the stay. This is your rent.
- Commission - a percentage set in your agreement with Booking.com.
- The payments fee - charged on reservations Booking.com collects for you.
- VAT on Booking.com's fees - shown on its statements where it is charged.
- City or tourist tax, where it applies - money to pay over, not your income.
Record the reservation amount as rent, and the commission, the payments fee and the VAT on them together as Booking.com's fees. If you are not registered for VAT, that VAT is part of what the fees cost you; if you are, ask your accountant how to treat it.
Matching payouts to your bank
Each payout carries a payout date and a statement descriptor - the reference that appears on your bank statement - and lists the reservations it pays. Match the payout to the bank line by its amount and date, then check its reservations add up to it, less the fees. A reservation paid directly by a guest will not be in a payout at all: record its payment when it reaches you, and Booking.com's invoice as a cost when you pay it.
How Stoneledger Hosts does it
Drop in Booking.com's payouts file and each payout comes in as its reservations' rent and Booking.com's fees, under the property each was for, dated the day you were paid. Columns are read by their names, so the layout Booking.com gives you still reads. Each payout is then found on your bank statement as one line. Bookings with guests who pay you directly are typed in as direct bookings.
Sources, read on 7 October 2026: Booking.com's developer documentation, Understanding payouts; the layouts of Booking.com's payout files as Stoneledger Hosts reads them. Your own agreement with Booking.com sets your commission.
More for hosts
Keep reading, or try it on your own file.
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Free Airbnb profit check
Your own file, read on your device: what you were paid, and what you made.
See what your own lets actually made.
Stoneledger Hosts reads your Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo files, takes your costs and your bank statement, and shows your true profit, property by property. Start with the free check on your own file.
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are trademarks of their owners. Stoneledger Hosts is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. This guide is general information, not tax advice; for your own circumstances, speak to a qualified adviser.