Rental marketplaces and your own booking site do different jobs. A marketplace puts your equipment in front of people who have never heard of you, and takes a cut of every booking for it. Your own booking site is where you keep the full price, keep the customer, and set the rules.
The short answer: use marketplaces to get found, and your own booking site to make money. The real question is how much of your business each one should carry.
This guide compares what each channel costs, runs the math on one real booking, and shows how to use both without double-booking a machine. It replaces our earlier roundup of the best marketplaces for outdoor equipment rentals, with every fee re-checked for 2026.
It's written for rental operators (dirt bikes, UTVs, jet skis, boats, bikes and paddleboards) and for shops that also run guided rides. Full disclosure: we make Renta, and we run our own rental fleet, AlpMX Adventures in Apple Valley, Utah. The examples use AlpMX's real prices.
Marketplaces vs. your own booking site at a glance
Rental marketplaces | Your own booking site | |
|---|---|---|
What it's for | Getting found by people who don't know you yet | Keeping the profit and the customer |
What it costs | A commission on every booking, from 15% to 25% at the marketplaces below that publish a rate | Your booking software plus card processing |
Who sets the price | You set your rate, but rules vary; Viator now controls the final retail price | You |
Who owns the customer | The marketplace, with its own rules on contacting them | You |
Waivers and deposits | Depends on the platform | On your terms, if your software handles them |
When you get paid | On the marketplace's schedule, often after the trip | When your payment processor pays out |
Repeat bookings | Commission again on every trip | Full price, every time |
Best for | Tourists, new areas, filling slow weeks | Locals, repeat riders, groups and anyone who already found you |
Sources for every fee are in the sections below.
Rental marketplaces: what they cost and which ones matter
Think of a marketplace as a second front door. It brings in customers who would never have found your website, and you pay for each one with a commission. Sharetribe, which builds marketplace software, says equipment rental marketplaces usually charge 3% to 15% per transaction. The big travel and RV marketplaces charge more.
Marketplace | Best for | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
Every local rental business | Free | |
Facebook Marketplace and local groups | Local riders and word of mouth | Free to post |
Jet skis, UTVs, golf carts and other powersports | Renters pay a service fee on top of your rate; the percentage isn't published in its help center | |
Gear sold as an add-on to camping stays | 15% for private landowners | |
RVs and campervans | 20% to 25% owner fee, plus up to 20% charged to renters | |
Guided rides and tourist-facing rentals | $29 one-time listing fee, then a commission on completed bookings | |
Guided rides and tourist-facing rentals | A commission set in your supplier account | |
Renta marketplace | Operators using Renta | Included in every Renta plan, with no third-party commission |
Fees checked October 27, 2026. Here's what to know about each one.
Google Business Profile
It's free, and it's where most local renters start. Keep current photos of your actual equipment, your real hours and a direct link to your booking page, and reply to every review. It doesn't take bookings itself; it sends people to you, which is exactly what you want.
Facebook Marketplace and local groups
Also free, and strong for local reach. AlpMX posts its bikes on Facebook Marketplace. Expect messages, not bookings: you still need somewhere to take the booking, the deposit and the waiver, so always reply with your booking link.
ThrottleShare
A marketplace built for powersports rentals. Renters pay a ThrottleShare service fee on top of your listed rate, and a security deposit is a separate card hold. Its help center doesn't publish the fee percentage, so check the full breakdown when you create a listing.
Hipcamp
Hipcamp lists campsites, not rental shops. Listing is free, and private landowners pay a 15% commission. Bikes, kayaks and camping gear can only be sold as Extras on a stay, at the same 15%. Hipcamp says it doesn't support waivers or guest signatures for rentals, so it only fits if you host camping yourself.
Outdoorsy
The right marketplace for RVs and campervans, and the most expensive one here. Outdoorsy charges owners 20% to 25% of the booking subtotal, including cleaning, add-on and delivery fees, and charges renters up to 20% on top.
Viator and GetYourGuide
These are online travel agencies (OTAs) for tours and activities, and they reach tourists planning a trip. Both work best for guided rides and rentals that visitors book ahead.
- Viator charges a $29 one-time listing fee, then takes a commission only on completed bookings. It doesn't publish the commission rate. It holds the traveler's payment until the trip runs and usually pays out every two weeks.
- Viator's new terms, in effect since August 1, 2026, give Viator and its partners control of the final retail price. Your payout stays tied to the net rate you set. The same terms treat the data from your booking software as the source of truth and make you responsible for overbookings.
- GetYourGuide takes a commission that's a percentage of the retail price, set in your supplier account and kept confidential (§4.1). Your prices there must be equal to or better than your own online shop (§5.4). It pays monthly, or twice a month, for a 2% processing fee (§4.2).
The Renta marketplace
Every Renta plan includes a listing on the Renta marketplace. It runs on the same calendar as your own booking site and charges no third-party commission. More on that below.
Your own booking site: what it costs and what you keep
Your own booking site is a website where customers check live availability, pick their equipment, pay, and sign a waiver without calling you. It's the cheapest place to take a booking, but nobody sends you traffic for free. You have to bring it yourself.
What it costs. Booking software plus card processing. Software ranges from free plans that add a small booking fee to flat monthly plans. Card processing on Stripe runs about 2.9% + 30¢ per payment.
What you keep:
- The full price. No commission comes out of the booking.
- The customer. You get their name, email, and phone number, and you can invite them back.
- Your rules. Your waiver, your deposit, your cancellation policy and your prices, with no parity clause telling you what to charge.
- The repeat trip. AlpMX has picked up about 70 new customers since May, and seven have already come back for another ride. On your own site, a repeat booking costs nothing extra to win.
What it takes to get found:
- Put your booking link on your Google Business Profile, your Facebook page, and every marketplace profile that allows it.
- Put your domain on your trailers, flyers, and receipts.
- Use photos of your actual equipment.
- Ask every customer for a review after the trip.
- Give each item its own page, with clear prices for half-day, full-day, and multi-day rentals.
If you're starting from scratch, How to Set Up Online Booking for Your Rental Business in 6 Simple Steps walks through the setup.
The math: what one booking earns you on each channel
Take one real booking: a full day on AlpMX's KTM 300SX, which rents for $275. Not every marketplace lists dirt bikes. The point is what each published rate does to the same $275.
Channel | What the customer pays | Fee to you | What you keep |
|---|---|---|---|
Your own site on Renta's commission plan | $275 + a 2.5% Renta fee ($6.88) | Card processing, about $8.28 | About $267 |
Your own site on Renta's flat plan | $275 | Card processing, about $8.28, plus $300 a month for all bookings | About $267 before the monthly fee |
Hipcamp (15%) | $275 | $41.25, which Hipcamp says covers payment processing | $233.75 |
Outdoorsy (20% to 25%) | $275 + up to 20% renter fee | $55 to $68.75 | $206.25 to $220 |
Viator or GetYourGuide | Depends on the listing | Every 10% of commission costs $27.50 | Depends on your rate |
Card processing uses Stripe's standard rate of 2.9% + 30¢. The $400 security deposit is a separate hold in every case and isn't counted here.
One booking doesn't look like much. A season does. Twenty marketplace bookings at 20% commission is $1,100 that never reaches you, on the same bikes and the same trail. A rider who books three times through a 20% marketplace costs you $165 in commission. Book those same three trips on your own site and the commission is $0.
That doesn't make marketplaces a bad deal. A booking you would never have gotten is worth 80% of its price. The cost only hurts when a marketplace takes a cut of customers who would have found you anyway.
When to use each, and how to run both
A marketplace is worth the commission when:
- You're new, and nobody searches for your business by name yet.
- You're in a tourist area where visitors plan their trip on Viator or GetYourGuide.
- You have units sitting idle on weekdays or in shoulder season.
- Your equipment has a marketplace built for it, like Outdoorsy for RVs.
Your own booking site should carry the booking when:
- The customer is local, or has rented from you before.
- It's a group, where every rider needs to sign a waiver before the ride.
- It's a high-value rental, where your own deposit and damage rules matter most.
- They found you on Google, Facebook or a flyer. Don't pay a commission on a customer you already earned.
A simple starting stack: your own booking site, your Google Business Profile and the Renta marketplace, all free or included. Then add one paid marketplace that matches your equipment, and judge it after a season on bookings you wouldn't otherwise have had.
How to avoid double-bookings across channels
Every extra channel is another place the same machine can be sold twice. These five rules keep that from happening:
- Keep one calendar as the source of truth. That's your booking system, not a marketplace dashboard. Viator's new terms make this official: your software's data is treated as the truth, and overbookings are on you.
- List only the units you can spare. If a marketplace can't sync with your calendar, list fewer units there than you own.
- Check every request before you accept it. ThrottleShare and Hipcamp Extras both work on requests. Confirm availability on your live calendar first.
- Add buffer time between rentals, so one late return doesn't collide with the next pickup. See Rental Inventory Management for Fleets for why fleets should track units, not time slots.
- Read the pricing rules. GetYourGuide requires its prices to be equal to or better than your own site, so you can't advertise a lower price on your own site if you list there. Viator now sets the final retail price itself.
One more rule worth knowing: GetYourGuide's terms bar steering its customers to other sites to avoid its commission (§5.1). Win repeat bookings the honest way, with a great trip and a booking site that's easy to find.
How Renta handles your booking site and marketplace listing
We built Renta so your own booking site does most of the work, and the marketplace listing comes along for free.
- Your own booking site, on your own domain. Renta gives you a storefront on your domain. If you already have a WordPress or Webflow site, add Renta's booking widgets to it instead.
- A Renta marketplace listing, included. Every plan lists your fleet on the Renta marketplace, with no third-party commission.
- One calendar for every booking. Storefront, widget and marketplace bookings all land on the same calendar, with buffer time between rentals.
- The rates riders expect. Half-day, multi-day and weekly pricing, add-ons with stock limits, and delivery and pickup.
- Waivers for every rider. In a group booking, each rider signs their own waiver. Minors get a guardian signature, and every waiver is saved to the customer record.
- Deposits on your terms. Take the full payment or a deposit with the balance scheduled, and reschedule or refund within your own rules.
- Fewer no-shows and more reviews. Automatic reminders, reminders for unsigned waivers, and a review request after the trip.
- Reports by channel. See bookings by date and channel, and revenue by item and tour, so you know which front door is earning.
What it costs:
Plan | You pay | Riders pay |
|---|---|---|
Commission plan | $0 a month | A 2.5% Renta fee at checkout |
Flat plan | $300 a month, or $3,000 a year | No Renta fee |
Card processing is Stripe's, about 2.9% + 30¢ per payment, and payments go straight to your own Stripe account. There's no contract and no setup fee. The two plans cost about the same at roughly $12,000 a month in bookings. Below that, the commission plan is the better deal; above it, the flat plan saves your riders money.
Frequently asked questions
Should I list my rentals on a marketplace or use my own booking site?
Use both, for different jobs. Marketplaces help new customers find you, in exchange for a commission. Your own booking site keeps the full price and the customer. Send everyone who already knows you to your own site.
What is OTA marketing?
OTA marketing means selling through online travel agencies such as Viator and GetYourGuide, which list tours and activities for travelers. You pay a commission on each booking. OTA advertising goes a step further: on Viator, raising your commission through Viator Accelerate buys ad placements that show your listing to more travelers.
How much commission does Viator take?
Viator doesn't publish a standard rate. You set a net rate, Viator takes its commission only on completed bookings, and you can choose a higher commission to get more ad exposure. Listing costs a one-time $29 fee.
How does Viator work for rental and tour operators?
You list your product and set a net rate. Viator and its partners set the final retail price shown to travelers. Viator holds the traveler's payment until the trip runs, and usually pays out every two weeks.
How much does GetYourGuide charge?
GetYourGuide takes a percentage of the retail price, set in your supplier account. Its terms require you to keep the rate confidential, so you won't find a public number.
Can I charge more on a marketplace than on my own site?
It depends on the marketplace. GetYourGuide requires prices equal to or better than your own online shop. Viator now sets the final retail price itself. Read each marketplace's terms before you set prices.
How do I avoid double-bookings when I list on several marketplaces?
Keep one calendar as the source of truth, list only the units you can spare, and check every marketplace request against your live calendar before you accept it.
What's the cheapest way to take bookings online?
Your own booking site. On Renta's commission plan, you pay $0 a month, riders pay a 2.5% fee at checkout, and Stripe processing runs about 2.9% + 30¢ per payment.
Related guides
- How to Set Up Online Booking for Your Rental Business in 6 Simple Steps: get your own booking site live.
- How to Start an Equipment Rental Business: Step-by-Step Plan and Startup Costs: where marketplaces fit in your first season.
- Tour Booking Software: How Online Reservations Work for Guided Rides and Adventure Tours: taking tour bookings on your own site.
- All-in-One Rental Software: Booking, Inventory, Payments, Waivers and Pricing in One Place: why one system beats five.
- The Complete Guide to Seasonal Pricing for Rental Businesses: fill slow weeks before you pay a commission to fill them.
- How to Reduce No-Shows in Your Rental Business With Two Automated Messages: protect the bookings you already have.
Keep more of every booking
Marketplaces are worth paying for when they bring you riders you'd never have reached. Everyone else should book on your own site, at full price.
Renta gives you that site on your own domain, a Renta marketplace listing at no extra commission, and one calendar for both. On the commission plan you pay $0 a month, riders pay 2.5% at checkout, and payments go straight to your own Stripe account. It's free to start, with no credit card required.
