Posted by: The Operations Team
Date: June 2025
Managing holiday bookings is a complex process—especially when you’re dealing with multiple platforms, different fees, and trying to keep everything crystal clear for our property owners. That’s why Jason Treeby has been working closely with the SuperControl team this month in a series of workshops to improve the way we generate and deliver monthly agency commission statements.
The goal? To semi-automate the commission reports—making them faster, more efficient, and most importantly, more accurate.
But it’s not as easy as pressing a button. Let’s break down why.
Understanding the Challenge
💸 Multiple Booking Sources, Multiple Payouts
We receive bookings through a variety of channels:
- Booking.com
- Airbnb
- Sykes
- Direct Bookings
While SuperControl already links to these platforms, the amount a guest pays isn’t the same as what we receive. Each platform deducts different fees before paying us—these include:
- Commission fees
- Card processing charges
- Channel manager fees
So, when trying to automate reports, the challenge starts with accurately pulling what we actually receive, not just what the guest was charged.
🧾 How We Calculate Owner Payouts
Here’s how we handle owner statements:
- We calculate the total rental income.
- Deduct our 20% agency commission.
- Then subtract any expenses, such as:
- Cleaning fees
- Hot tub maintenance
- Card payment charges
This gives us the owner’s final payout.
But here’s the catch: SuperControl calculates commission differently. They deduct commission after removing all the lodge expenses—which doesn’t align with how we operate.
📉 The Problem With the Reports
Because of this mismatch in calculation order, the reports generated by SuperControl aren’t just hard to follow—they’re confusing even to us. If we can’t confidently read and verify them, we certainly can’t expect our owners (many of whom just want simple, transparent breakdowns) to make sense of them either.
🔧 What’s Happening Now?
The SuperControl team is going back to the drawing board. Their current focus is:
- Fixing how income is pulled from platforms like Booking.com
- Improving how reports present information
- Aligning calculations with how our business model actually works
💼 Busy Week of Workshops
This week has been full-on: back-to-back Devon Holidays development workshops, homework sessions, and constant testing.
We’re not just aiming to get the monthly invoicing process right, but also making sure everything in the owner portals is clear and correct.
🚀 What’s Next?
This work is ongoing, but we’re making real progress. Automating the commission process won’t just save time—it’ll give you clearer, more reliable information each month. We’ll continue updating you as we go.
Got questions?
Feel free to reach out to the team—transparency and clarity are what we’re working toward, and we’re always happy to help.