Channel manager without commission: what each vendor's own page states

"No commission" gets used loosely in this market, and a few vendors still charge something per booking under a different name. This page quotes what six vendors say about commission and booking fees on their own pricing pages, checked on 11 November 2026.

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Updated 2026-11-11

Flat fee or commission: two different ways to pay

A channel manager's price is built from two separate decisions: how much you pay for the software itself, and whether anything extra is taken when a guest actually books. The first is usually a flat monthly or per-unit subscription. The second, when it exists, is a percentage of the booking value or a fee charged on each reservation.

A subscription that scales with your room count still counts as a flat-fee model, because the amount you owe depends on how big your property is, not on how many bookings you take in a given month. A commission or booking-fee model is different: the bill moves with your sales, so a slow month costs less and a busy one costs more.

Neither model is automatically cheaper. A commission plan can look free to start and still cost more at high booking volume than a flat subscription would. A flat plan can feel expensive in a quiet month and cheap in a busy one. The only way to compare the two fairly is to run your own booking numbers through each vendor's stated terms, not just read the headline.

What each vendor's own pricing page states about commission and booking fees

Quoted directly from each vendor's pricing page, read on 11 November 2026.

Vendor	Pricing model	What it states about commission or booking fees
Beds24	Pay-as-you-go, scales with unit count, plus separate add-on fees	"Beds24 never charges commissions on bookings."
Cloudbeds	Tiered plans (Flex, One, Experience, Enterprise); price on request	"Connect to any channel in our marketplace with ZERO added commissions from us."
Lodgify	Four fixed plan tiers, priced per property	"0% booking fee" on every plan card; separately, "a transaction fee of 1% applies to payments your guests make online through a payment gateway such as Stripe or PayPal."
Sirvoy	Three named plans (Free, Starter, Pro), priced per room	"0% Commission & Fees — 100% commission free" on its pricing page.
Smoobu	Three named plans, priced per unit	Professional Flex "offers all the benefits of Professional Prepaid with a 0.9% commission fee per booking. All our other plans are commission-free."
Prime Host	Flat per-property fee from $59/month plus a per-room amount, annual billing	No commission or per-booking fee on any plan.

Fees that look like commission but aren't labelled one

Lodgify states 0% booking fee on every plan, which rules out a commission on the reservation itself. It separately charges a 1% transaction fee, but only on guest payments it collects online through a payment gateway such as Stripe or PayPal. A booking paid by bank transfer or in person carries no such fee on Lodgify's own page. That distinction matters: a transaction fee tied to a payment method is not the same promise as a flat subscription with nothing extra at all.

Smoobu's three named plans split the same way. Professional Prepaid and Teams Pro+ are commission-free per its pricing page. Professional Flex is the one plan that carries the 0.9% figure, described on Smoobu's own page as a booking commission, and it is not self-serve — the page directs you to contact Smoobu rather than sign up directly for that plan.

Beds24 and Sirvoy both state flatly that they charge no commission at all, on any plan. Cloudbeds states the same about its own channel manager and booking engine specifically — "zero added commissions from us" — while leaving its subscription price itself as quote-only, which is a separate question from whether a commission exists.

When a commission-based plan can still make sense

Very low or seasonal booking volume

If a property only takes a handful of reservations some months, a small percentage of each one can add up to less than a flat subscription would cost in that same month.

You want the lowest possible starting cost

A commission-based plan is sometimes the entry point a vendor offers before you commit to a flat-fee tier, so it can suit a property that is still testing a channel manager before scaling up.

You already accept that cost moves with revenue

Some owners prefer a bill that rises and falls with bookings rather than a fixed number every month regardless of how the season is going.

Where Prime Host fits — and where it doesn't

Prime Host's own pricing, for comparison with the facts above.

What Prime Host charges

A flat fee from $59 per property per month plus a per-room amount, on annual billing; monthly billing costs 20% more and can be cancelled any month.
No commission and no per-booking fee at any room count, published on the pricing page with a calculator rather than a quote request.
A free trial and a public live demo that needs no sign-up, so you can see the pricing calculator and the product itself before talking to anyone.

Where it doesn't fit

Prime Host is a channel manager with a booking calendar and a direct booking engine, not a full front-desk system — there is no night audit, key-card integration or point of sale.
The booking engine cannot take card payments yet and handles one room per booking.
It is a newer product with a smaller customer base than the established vendors in the table above, which matters if a long track record is part of your decision.

How to work out what a commission actually costs you

1
Pull your last 12 months of bookings
Total revenue and booking count, broken down by month if your volume is seasonal rather than steady.
2
Apply the stated commission to your real numbers
0.9% of your actual monthly booking revenue, not a rounded estimate, gives you the true monthly cost of a plan like Smoobu's Professional Flex.
3
Compare that figure to the flat-fee alternative
Line the commission total up against what the same vendor's (or a different vendor's) flat-fee plan would cost for your room count, on the same billing period.
4
Re-check at your busiest month, not your average one
A commission plan's cost scales with your best month too — make sure the plan still makes sense when bookings are highest, not just when they're typical.

Sources

Beds24 pricing — beds24.com/pricing.html
Cloudbeds channel manager — cloudbeds.com/channel-manager/
Cloudbeds pricing — cloudbeds.com/pricing/
Lodgify pricing — lodgify.com/pricing/
Sirvoy pricing — sirvoy.com/pricing
Smoobu pricing — smoobu.com/en/pricing
Prime Host pricing — primehostpartners.com/en/pricing

Vendor facts were read from each vendor's own website on 11 November 2026. Prices and plans change — confirm on the vendor's page before you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Does any vendor on this page charge a true percentage commission on every booking?

Only one plan among the vendors checked: Smoobu's Professional Flex, at 0.9% per booking, according to its pricing page. Smoobu's other two plans, and Beds24, Cloudbeds, Lodgify and Sirvoy, all state 0% commission on every plan they list.

Is Lodgify's 1% fee a commission?

Lodgify's own pricing page calls it a transaction fee, not a commission, and states it applies only to guest payments collected online through a payment gateway such as Stripe or PayPal. It states 0% booking fee on every plan.

Does Prime Host charge a commission or a per-booking fee?

No. Prime Host's published pricing is a flat fee per property plus a per-room amount, with no commission or per-booking fee at any room count.

Why would a vendor offer a commission-based plan at all if it also offers flat-fee plans?

Smoobu's pricing page positions Professional Flex as carrying the same features as its flat-fee Professional Prepaid plan, with a 0.9% fee per booking instead of a fixed monthly price — effectively a different way to pay for the same product.