ART-025
The Commission Leak
Where a Guesthouse's Money Actually Goes
An audit of the booking-platform economy, built as a working calculator. Set the rooms, the nightly rate, the occupancy and the platform tier — LekkeSlaap at 17.25%, Booking.com up to about 25% — and the page computes the commission a typical Garden Route guesthouse quietly pays out in a year.
It exists because percentages hide. '15% commission' sounds like a rounding error until it is translated into rand per year for your own five rooms — at which point it becomes a number worth building a direct-booking page over.
What to take from it: when an argument rests on a number, hand the reader the calculator instead of the conclusion. A figure they computed with their own inputs is one they will defend for you.