For properties
What Booking.com charges your property
An English-language publication about lesser-known places to stay. This page is for owners: the arithmetic first, then what we do.
What this is
The Unknown Atlas is an English-language publication about lesser-known places to stay in Portugal and Europe. We write for readers planning journeys, not for the booking market.
Properties are chosen editorially, one at a time. Before anything is published, every detail is confirmed against the property's own website: location, typology, number of rooms, access, season. We do not copy descriptions from platforms.
Inclusion is free and is never sold.
There is no paid placement and no paid ranking, and there never will be. No payment influences the decision to write about a property.
What Booking.com actually costs you
The starting figures are only a starting point. Replace them with yours and the result updates immediately. The calculation runs in your browser.
payment processing plus booking engine
comes off the rate the guest pays
extra commission on boosted nights
- Gross annual revenue
- €18,000
- What you pay per year in commission and discounts
- €2,700
- What the same revenue would cost booked directly
- €720
- The annual difference
€1,980
That is the same as 17 nights a year you work and are not paid for.
Where these numbers come from
Base commission is typically 15% in most European markets. The Preferred Partner programme adds about 3 percentage points. Visibility Booster is set by the property itself, for a date range rather than night by night. Genius discounts come off the rate the guest pays, and commission is still charged on the discounted rate.
These are the defaults we see published. The property owner should replace them with their own real figures, because they know them and we do not.
Sources
What we offer
Without overselling, and with nothing hidden between the lines.
- A page in the collection, free, whether or not you ever reply.
- If you want it, the link on your page points to your own direct booking page instead of your homepage.
- We will tell you how your page is performing whenever you ask, and we will come back to you unprompted once the numbers are worth reporting.
- Corrections made the same day.
We are a young and small publication. We would rather say that than imply otherwise: the traffic we send today is modest and grows slowly.
We may later offer optional paid tools. They will always be separate from the editorial decision to include a property.
Write to the editor
If you would like your property considered, leave an email. The figures you entered in the calculator are sent with the message, so we know your scale before replying.
Questions owners ask
- What does it cost to appear in the collection?
- Nothing. Inclusion is free and is not for sale, now or later.
- So how do you make money?
- Today, through small commissions from booking platforms when a reader chooses to book through one of our links. We do not run advertising. In future, possibly through optional paid tools. Never through including a property.
- I am already on Booking.com. Why would I need this?
- You do not. Booking.com brings you demand; an editorial page brings readers who already know what they are looking for and can book directly with you. They are different things, and most properties use both.
- Who are you?
- The Unknown Atlas is an independent publication edited by Duarte Pereira. We do not accept payment for editorial coverage, and every detail is confirmed against the property's own website before publication.
- Can I ask to be removed?
- Yes. One email and the page comes down, no questions asked.