Booking, Airbnb or Direct: How Much Each Reservation Really Costs in Genoa

The question every property owner should ask before setting the nightly rate

Before deciding how much to charge per night in your Genoa apartment, there’s a more urgent question: which channel will that booking come through, and how much will it cost to receive it? The answer is never “zero” — not even when you think you’re managing everything independently. In 2026, the short-term rental distribution landscape has changed structurally, and ignoring commission mathematics means working with lower margins than you think.

This article analyzes in detail the three main channels — Booking.com, Airbnb and direct booking — with their real costs updated to 2026, and frames them within Genoa’s tourism market context. The goal isn’t to declare a winner: it’s to provide you with the tools to build a conscious strategy, based on numbers and not impressions.

The real cost of OTAs: what stays in your pocket

Booking.com: the 15% nominal that becomes more

Booking.com’s commission averages 15% per booking, but can range between 10% and 18% based on location, property type and contractual conditions. For most apartments in central Genoa, the percentage applied sits toward the higher end of the range — in 2025 the standard commission remains around 15%, with possible variations up to 18% based on location and promotional choices.

But the nominal 15% isn’t the real cost. Booking.com’s standard commission is approximately 15% per booking. If you don’t have a VAT number, 22% VAT is added to this commission, raising the real cost to roughly 18.3%. To this you can add the costs of any additional visibility programs. The key phrase is effective commission, very different from nominal commission: an OTA can have a 15% nominal commission, but the real impact can rise if you add visibility programs, discounts needed to compete, marketing contributions and payment costs.

In practical terms: on a €500 booking in Genoa, Booking.com retains between €75 and €90 gross, before you even calculate income taxes. This percentage is the marketing cost you pay to Booking in exchange for the enormous international visibility offered by the platform — a visibility that, especially for those starting from scratch, is real and difficult to replicate independently.

Airbnb: the shift to the single 15.5% model

The most significant change in 2025-2026 regarding commissions concerns Airbnb. The host-only fee model has become mandatory for hosts managing their listings through management software (PMS or channel manager). From 2025 Airbnb began applying a new simplified commission model, introducing a flat 15.5% fee for most hosts.

Until recently, Airbnb applied the so-called “split-fee” model: until 2024 many property owners used the split commission, with a lighter structure: the host paid around 3% while the rest was applied to the guest. The new model eliminates this split: today the full 15.5% weighs on the property owner’s margin.

Those who don’t use management tools connected to Airbnb can still remain in split-fee mode, paying around 3% as a host while the guest bears a commission between 14% and 16%. In practice, however, those relying on a professional manager — who uses a channel manager to coordinate multiple platforms — don’t have this option.

Attention: even the 15.5% isn’t the final number. The exact formula is: (Nightly Rate + Cleaning Fees) × 15.5% + VAT (22% on commission). The 15.5% becomes ~19% with VAT. For a host on flat-rate taxation without a VAT number, this means Airbnb’s real commission approaches 19% of the booking subtotal.

Strategically, this move aligns Airbnb’s commission structure with that of its main OTA competitors, like Booking.com, which have historically adopted the single-commission-on-host model.

The margin table: a direct comparison

To make the impact concrete, let’s consider a typical booking in central Genoa: nightly rate €120, 3-night stay, no cleaning fee included in the subtotal. Gross revenue: €360.

Note: estimates include VAT on commission for hosts without a VAT number. Direct booking cost includes an estimate of channel acquisition cost (SEO, advertising, booking engine).

The Genoa context: growing demand that justifies the strategy

Reasoning about margins makes sense only if there’s sufficient demand. In Genoa, the picture is favorable. 2024 marked a new record for tourism in Liguria, with visitor numbers growing compared to the previous year according to the Regional Tourism Observatory data.

2025 has confirmed the positive trend. At the individual provincial level, Genoa saw an increase in presences of +6.79% in June 2025 compared to the same month in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, the Regional Tourism Observatory recorded an increase of 2.83% in terms of arrivals and +0.6% in terms of presences compared to the same period in 2024.

The foreign component is particularly dynamic and relevant for short-term rentals: among expanding markets, regional data indicate significant growth in presences from China — estimated at around +40% compared to the previous year according to regional sources — while for other emerging markets such as India and Turkey, disaggregated data at the provincial level are not yet available in official form. International travelers tend to book further in advance through global OTAs, which confirms the role of Booking and Airbnb as indispensable acquisition channels for reaching distant markets.

On the specific front of short-term rentals in Genoa, the Liguria region’s short-term rental market shows signs of structural growth: the Liguria Region recorded almost 4 million presences in tourist accommodation from January to September 2025, with over 39,000 furnished apartments registered in the regional territory. According to data from the Genoa Chamber of Commerce, the average annual occupancy rate of Airbnb accommodations in the city stood at 35.02% in 2023 — a figure that frames the real potential of the local market and underscores the importance of structured management to maximize occupancy periods. In the city of Genoa, homes promoted online with the short-term rental formula number several thousand, a contained number compared to the potential of the residential stock, which limits competitive pressure compared to other Italian cities.

On the supply side nationally, the market shows signs of maturation: online listings are in slight decline compared to the peaks of previous years, according to industry operator estimates. The average national occupancy of short-term rental apartments has remained at levels slightly lower compared to the 2023-2024 biennium. Liguria lost occupancy in the summer of 2025, but nonetheless increased rates — a signal of positioning toward a higher-quality segment.

Direct booking: real value and hidden cost

Direct booking is often presented as the ideal solution: no commissions, full autonomy. The reality is more nuanced. The most frequent mistake is comparing OTA commission with zero. Direct booking also has an acquisition cost — SEO, paid campaigns, CRM, marketing automation, brand search, content, website, CRO — but it is a cost that, if well managed, tends to produce cumulative effects, not just transactional ones.

The advantage of the direct channel is therefore not the absence of cost, but the nature of that cost. Unlike mediated channels, the direct channel allows you to build brand awareness, customer loyalty, and above all to collect valuable customer data — elements that make it the most strategic in the long term. When a guest books directly, the property acquires name, email, and preferences: this information is a resource for return campaigns, discount codes for the second stay, for building a loyal customer base that reduces acquisition cost over time.

On the direct channel there is also a relevant regulatory element: price parity is abolished in Italy, making it legally possible to offer lower prices on your own website compared to OTAs. This opens the possibility of a differentiated pricing strategy: base rate on OTAs (which includes the commission in the published price), slightly lower rate on the direct channel, to reward those who book without intermediaries.

There is also the so-called “Billboard Effect”: it is the phenomenon whereby presence on OTAs increases direct bookings. The tourist sees the property on Booking, searches the name on Google, finds the direct website with a better price, and books there. The OTA did the visibility work, but the conversion happens without commission. It is not an automatic strategy — it requires that the property has a recognizable website and a functioning booking system — but it is concretely feasible.

According to industry analysis, optimal advertising spend for the direct channel corresponds to a maximum of 5-6% of generated revenue. If this percentage is significantly exceeded, you approach the effective cost of intermediate bookings, reducing interest and margin. In other words, the direct channel is only worth it if managed with discipline: a website that doesn’t convert, a poorly calibrated Google Ads campaign, or a failure to collect contacts nullify the theoretical savings on commission.

Building a channel mix: the optimal strategy for a Genoa residence

The right question is not “Booking or Airbnb or direct?” but “in what proportion should I use them?”. There is no single choice between OTAs and direct sales, but a well-calibrated strategic mix can significantly increase profit margin and commercial independence. OTAs have an irreplaceable role in acquiring new customers — especially international profiles unfamiliar with the property — but making them your only channel means paying the same cost every time for the same customer.

A balanced distribution model for a residence in the heart of Genoa could follow this logic:

• Booking.com and Airbnb as primary acquisition channels — to ensure international visibility and fill low/medium season periods with new guests. Essential for those entering the market or operating a property without an established brand identity.
• Direct booking as a loyalty tool — to re-acquire previous guests at significantly lower marginal cost. A guest who has already stayed and books directly is the most profitable guest bar none.
• Diversification across at least two OTAs — to reduce dependence on a single platform and reach different demand segments. Booking.com tends to attract a more generalist audience, while Airbnb captures a segment more oriented toward local experiences.
• Differentiated pricing by channel — leveraging the end of rate parity to make the direct channel structurally more convenient for guests, while keeping OTA prices competitive in comparative searches.

Real profits come when the customer returns and books directly. OTAs are not a fixed cost but an acquisition channel that can become the entry point to a long-term relationship.

The professional management factor

For a property owner who does not professionally manage their property, the multi-channel strategy presents a practical problem: it requires expertise, time and tools. A channel manager to sync calendars across platforms, a booking engine on the website, a dynamic pricing strategy, review management, guest communication — these are all activities with a cost, whether direct or in labor hours.

This is where the choice between self-management and professional property management comes into play. The professional manager is not simply a “middleman” with platforms: they build a distribution system, set rates dynamically, manage the guest relationship before, during and after the stay, and — over time — develop a database of loyal customers that reduces OTA dependence.

Hospitality industry studies indicate that building a structured direct channel can generate significant margin increases compared to exclusive OTA dependence, with effects that amplify over time as the loyal guest database grows. This data refers to the hotel sector, but the logic applies equally to short-term rentals: the progressive development of a direct channel generates increasing margins over time, not just savings on individual commissions.

Tax implications: a variable not to be overlooked

Margin calculation doesn’t end with OTA commissions. Operating costs for short-term rentals include platform commissions (Airbnb 3% host + 14% guest in split-fee, Booking 15-18%), cleaning and linen changes (€30-60 per turnover), utilities and maintenance. As of 2024, the flat tax on short-term rentals is 21% for the first property and 26% from the second onward. The flat tax is calculated on gross income, not net after commissions: meaning you pay taxes on the share withheld by OTAs, with no possibility of deducting it (under the flat tax regime).

Many owners may find themselves with margins shrinking to less than half of the booking, especially when the entire activity goes through digital platforms. This highlights the importance of an honest preliminary calculation that includes commissions, taxes and operating costs before setting the nightly rate.

Practical implications for those considering monetizing their property

Summarizing the picture for a Genoa property owner considering entering the short-term rental market in 2026:

• OTAs are necessary but not sufficient. Relying exclusively on Booking or Airbnb means visibility but compressed margins — between 15% and 19% of each booking goes to the intermediary, before taxes.
• Airbnb has changed the game. The result of the new single 15.5% commission is greater uniformity of commissions globally and simpler guest calculation, but with a slight percentage increase for many hosts compared to previous levels. Hosts who haven’t yet updated their pricing structure risk working with lower margins than expected.
• The Genoa market is growing, but requires professionalism. With rising tourism demand — +6.79% of stays in the province in June 2025 (source: Liguria Region) — the potential is there, but it’s better leveraged with structured and multi-channel management.
• Direct booking is a medium-term goal, not a starting point. First you need to build reputation and visibility through OTAs, then gradually convert loyal guests to the direct channel.

The short-term rental market in 2025-2026 is characterized by rising rates and slightly lower occupancy compared to previous peaks, with bookings increasingly concentrated in the weeks immediately before the stay. In this context, those who can cover multiple channels — and also reach the direct booking and advance booking segment — have a structural advantage over those dependent on a single platform.

If you’re considering monetizing your apartment in Genoa, the first step is to clearly understand the cost structure — commissions, taxes, operational management — and build a distribution plan that doesn’t stop at the first available portal. Contact us for an analysis of your property’s potential and the most suitable channel mix.