Vael Creative
What does a hotel campaign have to earn?
Modeled example: at a $300 rate and the US average hotel profit margin of 37.7%, the campaign pays for itself if it fills 133 room nights that would have sat empty. Moving 334 room nights from OTAs to your own site does the same.
How commission and flow-through work
RevPAR is occupancy times the average daily rate (ADR).
Net RevPAR is what's left after booking costs such as OTA commission.
Flow-through is the share of each extra dollar of revenue that reaches gross operating profit (GOP).
A room night that moves from an OTA to your own channels keeps the commission. A room night that fills an otherwise empty room adds its flow-through.
The modeled inputs
Price of a seasonal campaign for one property: $15,000. That is the starting price for new engagements.
Average daily rate: $300. Swap in your own.
OTA commission: 15%. It sits inside the 10% to 20% range that held over two thirds of the basic OTA commission rates independent hotels reported for 2021 in six EU countries, in the European Commission's 2022 market study.
GOP margin: 37.7%. It is the US average for the first nine months of 2025 in HotelData.com's Q3 2025 Profit Report.
The arithmetic
The commission kept on each room night moved from an OTA to direct (15% of $300): $45.
The room nights to move to cover the campaign ($15,000 divided by $45, rounded up): 334 room nights.
The gross operating profit on each extra room night at the average margin (37.7% of $300): $113.10.
The extra room nights to cover the campaign ($15,000 divided by $113.10, rounded up): 133 room nights.
Written by Brian Hughes. Published September 27, 2026.