Cost per acquisition (CPA): what each booking costs, by where it came from

1. 1Choose the period, usually a month, and list every place bookings came from: each booking site, your own website, Google, travel agents and companies, and phone, WhatsApp and walk-in.
2. 2For each, add up what it cost you for that month's bookings: for a booking site, the commission and the tax on it; for your website, the booking engine's fee, the payment charges and any adverts; for a travel agent, the agent's commission.
3. 3Count the bookings from each, and the room nights.
4. 4Divide each source's cost by its bookings for the cost per booking, and by its room nights for the cost of each night sold.
5. 5Divide each source's cost by the room revenue it brought and multiply by 100, to see what share of each rupee it took.

• Booking sites: the commission at your contract's rate, any programme that raises it, the tax on the commission, and any discount you give only there, such as a price for the site's members. Agoda, for one, says its pay is either a share of the price or a markup on the rate you load, depending on your location and payment model, shown in its Partner Portal under Finance, Contracted compensation.
• Your own website: the booking engine's fee, the payment company's charges, and what you spend on adverts that bring guests to it.
• Google: free booking links cost nothing. Google says hotel partners pay no fee for them and that clicks on them are free. Its paid hotel adverts are placed by an auction, so count what you spent on them in the month.
• Travel agents and companies: the agent's commission, and any rate you lowered to win the company's travellers.
• Phone, WhatsApp and walk-in: little beyond the staff already on duty, though a call that ends with “please book online” can end on a booking site.
• Every source: a booking cancelled after you paid to win it still cost you, so count costs against the bookings that stayed.

The same cost reads three ways, and each answers a different question.

• Per booking: what it costs to win one guest, the way advertisers count it. HSMAI's glossary works it out as the total spend divided by the bookings, and Google Ads calls the amount you would like to pay for each one a target cost per action.
• Per night sold: sets it against your average room rate.
• As a share of the revenue: what part of each rupee the source took, which sets a booking site's commission and your website's costs side by side.

A long stay costs a booking site's commission on every night but a click on your website's advert only once, so per booking and per night can rank your sources differently. Read both.

• Know what a booking from each source leaves you after its cost, and keep it in mind when you price. OneHorizyn's page on booking-site commission works out one booking.
• Give guests a reason to book on your website: a lower price or something extra there, shown where they compare.
• Check that no booking site sells your room for less than your website does. A guest who finds it cheaper there books there, and you pay commission on a booking you could have had.
• Keep the booking sites. They find guests you would not reach yourself. The aim is to win back the guests who already know your name, not to leave the sites.
• Ask guests who first came through a booking site to book direct next time: the second booking costs you far less.
• Set a ceiling for adverts: spend no more to win a booking than a booking site would take for it.

• The value of a guest. A source with a high cost per booking can still be worth it if it brings guests on nights nobody else does.
• Where guests really found you. A guest who saw you on a booking site and then booked on your website makes your website look cheaper than it was.
• Anything steady about fixed fees. A booking engine's monthly fee is the same for ten bookings or a hundred, so its cost per booking falls as your website sells more.
• Cancellations. A source whose bookings often cancel costs more for each guest who stays than its figure shows.