Overview
When you add an affiliate to a sellable activity, you'll see a Commission field. This article explains what that field does, when you should enter a commission rate, and when you should leave it at 0% — particularly for OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) like Viator, GetYourGuide, and Expedia.
What the Commission Field Does
The Commission field controls one thing: whether Singenuity calculates a commission amount for that affiliate in your Sales Report.
If you enter a rate (for example, 15%), the Sales Report will calculate and display what that affiliate earned on each sale.
If you leave it at 0%, the commission column will simply never calculate anything for that affiliate. Nothing else about the booking changes.
💡 Leaving commission at 0% is not an error. It just means you've chosen not to track that affiliate's commission inside Singenuity — usually because you reconcile it elsewhere.
Why Most Operators Use 0% for OTAs
OTAs typically collect payment from the guest, keep their commission, and remit the remainder to you. This creates a reporting problem if you mirror the OTA's retail price and commission rate in Singenuity: taxes and fees are calculated on the full retail price, which inflates your reported revenue beyond what you actually receive.
Example: The Problem
Say Viator sells your ticket for $100 with a 25% commission, and your tax rate is 10%:
Viator collects $100 from the guest and keeps $25.
You should receive $75.
But if you set the Singenuity price to $100, Singenuity adds 10% tax on top and reports the total as $110 — which doesn't reflect what lands in your account.
The Sales Report would correctly show Viator earned $25 in commission, but your revenue figures would be overstated.
Example: The Fix
To make Singenuity's reporting match what you actually receive, do the math ahead of time and enter your net payout as the price:
Set the price in Viator to $100 (guests still pay full retail).
Set your commission in Viator to 25% (you receive $75).
Set the price in Singenuity to $68.18 — after the 10% tax is added, Singenuity reports the total as $75, matching your actual payout.
Set the Commission field in Singenuity to 0%.
💡 Quick formula: Singenuity price = your net payout ÷ (1 + tax rate). In this example: $75 ÷ 1.10 = $68.18.
When You SHOULD Enter a Commission Rate
Local affiliates — hotels, concierges, visitor centers, and other partners that aren't OTAs — usually work differently. You typically collect the full amount from the guest and pay the affiliate their commission afterward. In that case:
Enter the affiliate's actual commission rate in the Commission field.
The Sales Report will track what each local affiliate has earned, making payouts easy to calculate.
Common Use Cases
OTA collects payment and remits your net payout (Viator, GetYourGuide, etc.) → 0% — enter your net, pre-tax payout as the price.
Local affiliate (hotel, concierge) you pay commission to after the sale → enter the actual commission rate.
You reconcile all affiliate commissions outside of Singenuity → 0% — the field simply won't calculate.
You want total gross revenue visibility rather than commission tracking → 0%.
Conclusion
The Commission field is a reporting tool, not a payment mechanism. Use it when you want Singenuity to track what an affiliate has earned (typical for local affiliates), and leave it at 0% when the affiliate handles the money before it reaches you (typical for OTAs) — just remember to enter your net, pre-tax payout as the activity price so your reports match reality.
Related articles: Affiliates, Sales Report, Connecting Viator to Singenuity.