Booking.com, Expedia or direct: what a hotel night in Amsterdam is really worth

At five independent Amsterdam hotels, a direct night brought in €37 more after commission than a Booking.com night over the past twelve months, 24% more (median per hotel). The gap held in every season: €29 from October to February, €39 from March to September. Booking.com nights were also cancelled almost twice as often: 30.6% of the nights booked through Booking.com, against 16.2% of direct nights. Even so, Booking.com grew fastest this year, while direct nights fell.

The key figures

October 2025 to September 2026, all nights of five independent Amsterdam hotels together, 45,304 room nights. Per hotel the differences are smaller, because the more expensive hotels sell a larger share direct; in the text we therefore use the median per hotel.

A direct night is worth €37 more

After commission, a direct night brought in €37 more than a Booking.com night at the median hotel over the past twelve months, 24% more. Against Expedia the difference was 11%. That held at all five hotels and in every season: €29 more from October to February, when prices are lower, and €39 more from March to September. In percentage terms the gap was even slightly larger in the low season (25%) than in the high season (20%). Booking.com keeps on average 18.7% of the price excl. VAT; with most Expedia bookings the margin is already taken off the price (Expedia Collect). For a hotel that sells 500 nights a year through its own website instead of Booking.com, €37 a night is more than €18,000.

Almost one in three Booking.com nights is cancelled

Of all nights booked through Booking.com, 30.6% were cancelled, against 22.7% at Expedia and 16.2% of direct nights. At every one of the five hotels, Booking.com nights were cancelled more often than direct nights; at the median hotel the difference was 21 percentage points. In the high season the shares were higher (Booking.com 32.9%, direct 17.9%) than in the low season (27.2% and 13.3%), but the gap stayed the same. That fits the European picture: in D-EDGE data for 2023, 42% of Booking.com revenue was cancelled, against 18% of direct revenue. Part of those guests books again: with free cancellation, guests keep checking the price and rebook when it drops. For the hotel, every cancelled night has to be sold again, often at the last minute.

Cancellations are rising

From March to September, 27.2% of all booked nights were cancelled, against 23.1% in the same months of 2025; at four of the five hotels the share went up. At the OTAs it rose from 27.1% to 31.3%. The more nights get cancelled, the less your on-the-books figure says about how the month will end. We compare March to September here because only for those months all five hotels have complete figures for both years.

Booking.com fills the last week, direct guests book early

47% of the Booking.com nights were booked within seven days of arrival, against 27% of the direct nights. Direct guests booked 66 days ahead on average, Booking.com guests 37 days; at all five hotels, direct guests booked earlier. That matters for pricing: early demand comes in through your own website, so that is where your price and availability have to be right months ahead. The last week is where Booking.com does its work, and where it gets paid for it.

And yet Booking.com grew fastest

From March to September, Booking.com sold 32% more nights than a year earlier at the median hotel and Expedia 14% more, while direct nights fell by 11%; at three of the five hotels the number of direct nights went down. Together, the share of direct nights fell from 38.6% to 34.4%. The channel that brings in the least per night and cancels most often is the one that grew fastest.

And the VAT increase?

Since 1 January 2026, VAT on accommodation is 21% instead of 9%. On OTA bookings the hotels absorbed most of it: from March to September, the price per Booking.com night excl. VAT was 9.1% lower than a year earlier at the median hotel, and per direct night 4.3% lower. Nationally, CoStar measured a net room rate about 4% lower in the first half of 2026. Booking.com and Expedia calculate their commission on the price with 9% VAT until 1 July 2027; after that, the same nights cost 11% more commission. The details are in our research on OTA commission in Amsterdam.

What to look at in your own hotel

• Net per night per channel, after commission, not the price on the extranet.
• Cancellations per channel, and whether they are rising. A free-cancellation rate on Booking.com costs more than the commission alone.
• Booking window per channel: when your direct guests book, and whether your website price is right at that moment.
• Direct nights against last year, every month, not once a year.

RevView shows all of this per channel, per month and against last year, straight from your booking system: net of commission, cancellations, booking window and length of stay. Book a 20-minute demo to see it for your own hotel.

How we measured

• Source: the reservations in the booking systems of five independent Amsterdam hotels that work with RevView, all under 50 rooms, processed by RevView on 28 October 2026. It is not a sample of all Amsterdam hotels; no hotel is named and no figure is shown for fewer than five hotels.
• Periods: the comparison between channels covers October 2025 to September 2026, with October–February (low season) and March–September (high season) also shown separately. Comparisons with last year cover March to September 2026 against the same months of 2025, because only for those months all five hotels have complete figures for both years.
• Room nights: the departure day does not count as a night; cancellations and no-shows do not count as stayed nights.
• Net per night: room revenue excl. VAT after commission, with each hotel's contract rate per channel. Booking.com and Expedia commission on the price with 9% VAT from January 2026, in line with their temporary arrangement until 1 July 2027. Expedia Collect bookings arrive net, and so do Agoda, Trip.com and HotelBeds bookings at these hotels.
• Cancellations: cancelled nights as a share of all booked nights (stayed plus cancelled), by month of stay; no-shows not included. A cancelled night may have been booked again; the data cannot tell those apart.
• Booking window: days between making the booking and arrival, averaged per stayed booking. Last minute: 0 to 7 days.
• Length of stay: nights per booking.
• External sources: D-EDGE Hotel Distribution Report 2024 (Europe, 2023, measured in revenue); Hospitality.today, 28 September 2026, on guests who rebook after a price drop; CoStar via ChefsFriends, 3 September 2026, on room rates in the first half of 2026.
• Calculated with a fixed, repeatable method: the same script runs on the same export each time, so the figures can be updated every quarter.