This page explains where the other 20 percent goes, and three routes to take it back.
Drag the numbers to match your villa. The arithmetic is simple and you can check it against last month's OTA report.
2026 OTA commission rates
Commission paid out per year
IDR 394,200,000
IDR 2,190,000,000 × 18%
Back in your pocket per year
IDR 118,260,000
If 30 percent of bookings move to directCommission figures follow the 2026 OTA rates we publish. Airbnb 15 percent, Booking.com 18 percent, Agoda 20 percent, Expedia 22 percent.
Most SEO offers do not separate them. That is why clients feel misled by month three.
Brand SEO
Villa Jelita Ubud
You are the only one entitled to that name. Google simply needs telling that your site is its official home.
Only people who already know you arrive. This captures demand rather than creating it.
This is what we guarantee in writing on every package: page 1 for your business name within 60 days.
Generic Keywords
private pool villa Ubud
You are up against Booking.com and Airbnb, with millions of pages and decades of domain authority. A single villa does not win that in months.
If you do win, it is fresh demand with no commission paid to anyone. The highest value, and the longest road.
Nobody honest promises this in 60 days. Those who do are usually measuring brand SEO quietly and calling it a win.
Brand SEO plugs the leak. Generic keywords add water. If you can only fund one, plug the leak first, because the result shows in two months instead of two years.
Both are legitimate. What is wrong is thinking one replaces the other.
| SEO | SEM (Paid Ads) | |
|---|---|---|
| When you see the first result | 2 to 6 months | The same day |
| Cost per click | IDR 0 | Paid per click, rising in high season |
| What happens when you stop paying | Traffic continues, fading slowly | Traffic stops that same day |
| Who you reach | People already searching | People searching, plus people who had not thought of it |
| Speed of testing an idea | Slow, one change takes weeks | Fast, one idea is tested in 7 days |
| Biggest risk | Waiting months and still losing to the OTAs | Burning budget on the wrong creative |
Use ads to buy time while SEO grows. Use SEO so that one day you are no longer dependent on ads.
Not all at once. The ones on top plug the leak, the ones below add volume.
First
Without it, every click you pay for still ends on an OTA page and still gets cut. This is the foundation, not an accessory.
Commission per direct booking drops to 0
Second
A guest who sees you on Airbnb and then types your name into Google must land on your site, not back on the OTA listing.
Captures already-interested guests, for free
Third
Posting regularly is not only for followers. It is your creative warehouse: a video that performs organically almost always performs as an ad.
Social proof plus ad creative tested for free
Fourth
Meta creates demand among people not yet thinking about Bali. Google captures demand that already exists. Both only make sense once the three steps above are in place.
Booking volume rises, but you pay per click
The simplest structure that still gives an honest answer. Anything more complicated usually splits the budget until nothing learns.
1 Campaign
One objective only. Do not mix traffic and conversions.
1 Adset
One audience, one budget. A split budget makes the algorithm learn twice as slowly.
8 Creatives
4 videos and 4 photos, all inside the same adset so they compete under identical conditions.
Video × 4
Photo × 4
Below five, you cannot tell whether the winner is genuinely better or merely lucky. Above ten, each creative gets too few impressions to judge.
Video wins on reach, photos often win on cost per result for accommodation. Test one format only and you will never learn which suits your villa.
Meta needs roughly a week to exit the learning phase. Changing the budget or switching off an ad on day three restarts that phase from zero, and the first three days of spend are gone with no data to show for it.
Switch off whatever costs more per result than the average, let the winners run, then make four new creatives resembling the winner. That is one cycle. Repeat it weekly.
Four things decide whether an offer is worth buying. A direct booking site moves all four the right way.
The value of an offer
The bigger, the more valuable
The smaller, the more valuable
So there are only two ways to raise value: grow the two above the line, or shrink the two below it. A direct booking site moves all four the right way at once.
Not more visitors. More rupiah left after commission, from the same number of bookings.
Brand SEO is guaranteed in writing within 60 days, and commission not paid is not a projection. It is a difference you can reconcile against your OTA report.
A landing page or business website is live in 7 working days. A booking engine takes 21 to 30 days, with a preview you can look at on day 7. The first direct booking usually lands in month one rather than in the second quarter.
You send photos and room details. Copywriting, SEO, ad setup, and calendar integration sit on our side.
Send your villa name, unit count, and average nightly rate. I will reply with the commission going out this year and what realistically comes back.
