Booking Commission Fees: The Hidden Cost of Marketplace Apps

Booking commission fees are the easiest cost in your business to miss. It is the last day of the month. Your app says you took £2,400 in bookings. A solid number, so you close it feeling good. Then the platform statement lands. Ten of those bookings were new clients the marketplace found for you. At 20% of each £80 first visit, £160 is gone.

That fee is charged once per new client, not on every booking. Even so, it arrives again next month, with the next batch of new faces.

The big names all run a version of the same model. Fresha, Booksy and Treatwell list you alongside other salons and drive discovery. Then they take a percentage of each new client's first visit. On Booksy, that only applies if you switch on Boost. Returning clients carry no fee on any of the three. Fresha's help centre says the fee "does not apply to returning clients". Fresha publishes its rates by country, so you can check yours.

Booking commission fees never feel expensive at first, because there is no upfront charge. You barely notice the deduction either. It simply arrives as a smaller payout. But run the numbers over a few years and the total is larger than most owners expect.

The booking commission fees maths nobody runs

So let us do it together.

Say you charge £80 for a treatment. UK reviews of Fresha report a one-off 20% fee on a new client's first appointment. So each new marketplace client costs you £16, once. After that, their visits carry no fee.

Now assume the marketplace sends you 10 new clients a month. That is our assumption, not a platform figure, so swap in your own number.

Ten new clients at £16 each comes to £160 a month. Over three years, that is 360 first visits, or £5,760 in fees.

A flat-fee platform at £59 a month costs £2,124 over the same three years. So the gap is £3,636. However, that gap is the price of discovery. If the marketplace found clients you would never have met, it may be money well spent.

On that first visit, Fresha's reported rate is the lowest of the three. Booksy's optional Boost takes 30% of a new client's first visit, with a £5 minimum. Meanwhile Treatwell's partner pricing lists 35% on first bookings from new marketplace clients, plus VAT. At 35%, the same 10 clients cost £280 a month before VAT. Some platforms add separate card or prepayment fees as well. Remember that commission counts as an allowable expense, which softens it slightly at tax time.

Whose client is it, really?

The commission is the visible cost. However, the bigger one is structural.

When a client books on a marketplace, the platform owns the relationship.

• The booking arrives in the platform's app rather than your inbox.
• The reminder carries the marketplace logo rather than yours.
• Reviews live on the marketplace instead of your own page.
• You cannot email or text the client outside the platform without breaking the terms.
• If you leave, the marketplace keeps the data. Yet under UK GDPR you remain a controller of your own client records, so know which party holds what.

The client does not think they booked you. Instead they think they booked an app. Meanwhile that app already has the next salon ready to suggest.

The brand cost behind booking commission fees

This one resists measurement. Yet unlike the new-client fee, it never stops.

On a marketplace you appear beside your competitors. Your prices sit against theirs at the exact moment of booking. Every confirmation looks identical to every other salon nearby. So your tone, your aesthetic and your approach never come through.

You spent years building a brand people walk past three salons to reach. Then you handed the most important moment to a platform. That platform treats you as one listing among many.

What independent booking actually looks like

The alternative is not difficult. It is simply less normalised.

• Your URL. A link for your Instagram bio, so it lands on a page with your name.
• Your branded confirmation. So the client sees your logo, your tone and your colours.
• Your client list. Names, numbers and history sitting in your account, not the platform's. Should you ever need to prove ownership, HMRC expects those business records kept for five years.
• A flat fee. Around £29–£89 a month for most independent platforms, however many bookings arrive. Note the £90,000 VAT threshold once turnover climbs.
• No commission on any client. Marketplaces already let returning clients rebook free. The change is that new clients cost nothing either, because there is no marketplace. The trade-off is that you find them yourself.

The break-even is simple to work out. At an £80 first visit and a 20% fee, each new marketplace client costs £16. So four a month (£64) already costs more than a £59 plan. On the other hand, if the marketplace sends you fewer than that, it may be the cheaper channel. The National Hair & Beauty Federation offers members further business guidance.

How to switch without losing clients

Most owners stay because they fear the bookings will dry up. However, they will not, provided you work in order.

For the week-by-week version, see how to switch booking software without losing a single client.

Within three months most independent salons see no drop in bookings. Instead they see margin rise. Since Making Tax Digital began in April 2026, that margin is easier to evidence too.

You spent years getting good at your craft. The platform taking a cut of every new client does not pay you for that. You do. If a fee ever looks disproportionate, Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 governs unfair contract terms.

It's time to stop letting it be.

Common questions

Is Aasure an alternative to marketplace booking apps like Fresha or Booksy?

Yes. Aasure suits independent salons and beauty pros who want their own booking page and client list. A flat monthly fee replaces marketplace commission, with no fee on new or returning clients.

Will I lose my regular clients if I move off a marketplace?

Most regulars follow you to your own booking page within a couple of months. That is especially true after one warm message and a small thank-you for their first booking. New-client discovery slows briefly while you rebuild it on your own channels.

How much do independent booking platforms usually cost?

Most charge a flat monthly fee — typically £29–£89 depending on features — regardless of how many bookings come through. Whether that beats a marketplace depends on how many new clients it sends you. At an £80 first visit and a 20% fee, four new marketplace clients a month already cost £64.