Edinburgh business travel · NovaBid
How independent UK hotels reduce OTA commission on business bookings
Nobody running a 30-room hotel wants to hear that the answer is a new marketing department. This is the list a front-of-house manager can actually work through: what each route to corporate bookings costs, what it asks of a small team, and where the commission really goes.
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How can an independent UK hotel reduce the commission it pays online travel agencies on business bookings?
By moving repeat business travel off the OTAs and onto channels where the commission is lower or zero: corporate rates agreed directly with local employers, a booking engine on your own site, a channel manager so direct rates stay competitive, and marketplaces where you price a business trip yourself rather than paying a listing to bring it. NovaBid is one of those: independent Edinburgh hotels reply privately to business trip requests, the guest pre-pays, and the hotel pays 12% (10% for founding partners) only on a booking that has been paid. Neither Booking.com nor Expedia publishes its commission rate, so compare against the figure in your own extranet.
The booking pattern we hear about
Your real OTA rate is not one number. It is the base rate in your contract plus whatever visibility programme you were nudged into, plus the payment product fee, and it lives in your extranet under Finance rather than anywhere a guest can see it.
Business travellers are the guests most likely to come back, and the most likely to have been sent to you by a search, which means the return visit can be paying commission for the second time.
Corporate accounts are the cheapest channel and the slowest to build. A sales manager is a cost most independents cannot carry; the desk is busy and the follow-up never happens.
Cutting your OTA presence is not the answer either. For most independents it is still where first-time guests find you.
How NovaBid fixes it
01
Read your own rate first
Before changing anything, find the effective commission you paid last quarter on business bookings: the extranet statement, plus any programme uplift, plus payment fees. That is the number every other route on this page has to beat. Most hotels are surprised by it.
02
Corporate rates with the employers within a mile
Every independent has offices, a hospital, a campus or a venue nearby that sends people to hotels every week. A short letter to the office manager with a fixed corporate rate, a named contact and a simple way to book costs nothing and pays for years. The difficulty is not the offer, it is the follow-up. Put it in the diary.
03
A booking engine on your own site, and a channel manager behind it
A direct booking should never be harder or dearer than the same room on an OTA. A booking engine (Eviivo, Guestline, Mews, Cloudbeds, Hop and others sell them) and a channel manager keep your rates and availability consistent everywhere, so a business that found you once can book direct next time. Pay attention to what the engine charges per booking; it is usually far below OTA commission but not zero.
04
Membership rates and direct-booking reasons
Late checkout, a free coffee, a better room on a second stay. Not discounts that undercut your published rate, which your OTA contract may restrict, but reasons a returning business guest books direct. Check your own agreement before you promise anything price-related.
05
GDS and consortia, with eyes open
A GDS connection reaches travel management companies and large corporates, and the consortia programmes bring RFP season. Both carry set-up and per-booking costs, and both are built for volume. For a hotel under 50 rooms the arithmetic often does not work; for one near a business district with a strong corporate mix it can.
06
A marketplace where you price the trip
The newest route. A business posts a trip (rooms, dates, what it needs) and hotels reply with private offers; the business picks one and pays up front. You set the price for that trip rather than publishing a rate for everyone, the guest is prepaid, and commission is charged only on a booking that happens. NovaBid runs this for independent hotels in Edinburgh: no listing fee, no subscription, 12% commission, 10% for founding partners, released to you at confirmation through Stripe Connect. It replaces nothing on this list; it adds business bookings you would not otherwise have seen.
Pricing
10% commission for founding partners, 12% standard. Only on a paid booking.
No listing fee, no subscription, no charge for offers that are not accepted. Your share is released at the moment of booking, and Stripe settles it to your bank usually within 7 days.
Frequently asked
How do small hotels get corporate clients without paying high commissions?
Two routes cost almost nothing and work: a corporate rate offered directly to the employers nearest you, and a direct booking engine so returning business guests do not go back through an OTA. A third, a bidding marketplace such as NovaBid, brings trip requests to you and charges commission only on bookings that complete. What all three need is someone to own the follow-up.
What is an alternative to OTAs for boutique hotels wanting direct corporate bookings?
Corporate accounts with local employers, your own booking engine, and a business-travel marketplace where you price the trip yourself. Each reaches a different kind of business traveller. The corporate account reaches the repeat visitor, the booking engine catches the returning guest, and the marketplace reaches companies you have never met that have a specific trip to place.
Should an independent hotel leave Booking.com?
Almost never. For most independents it is still the largest source of first-time guests, and business travellers who found you there can become direct bookers next time if you give them a reason. The goal is to stop paying commission on the second, third and tenth stay, not to stop paying it on the first.
What commission does NovaBid charge hotels?
12% standard, 10% for founding partners, charged only on a booking that has been paid. No listing fee, no subscription, no charge for offers that are not chosen. Your share is released at confirmation through Stripe Connect, and Stripe settles it to your bank on your account schedule, usually within seven days.
Does NovaBid work with my PMS?
A booking arrives by email in a format the front desk can key into any reservation system in under a minute, with a per-guest line for each room. Direct PMS connections are being built, starting with Mews, and will be announced when they are live rather than before.
Is NovaBid open to hotels outside Edinburgh?
Not yet. Edinburgh independents first, with a founding cohort capped at ten properties. If you run an independent elsewhere in the UK and want to hear when your city opens, email hello@novabid.co.uk and say which city.
Written by Thomas Mellot, founder of NovaBid. He trained as a chef in France and worked front of house in Edinburgh hotels, as Chef de Rang at the Caledonian and the Balmoral. He built NovaBid after watching independents lose business travel to platforms that never set foot in the building. More about NovaBid.
Last reviewed 13 September 2026. We correct these pages when the facts change; tell us if something here is wrong.
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