01
Find the commission on the invoice
Commissions rarely appear under the word commission. Look for a service fee, a platform fee, a booking fee, a transaction fee, or a line whose amount changes every month. Then check whether it is charged to the club on the invoice or added to the player’s price at checkout, where the club never sees it.
Do this for 3 months, not one. A percentage on a quiet month looks harmless. The same percentage on the busiest month of the year is the number that matters.
- A line that changes with booking count or booking value
- A fee added to the player’s checkout total
- A minimum monthly charge that applies even in quiet months
- A per-booking fee described as covering card processing, which is a separate cost
02
Turn the percentage into a yearly figure
Multiply the monthly commission by 12, then adjust for the busy season. A club that does most of its revenue between October and March should weight those months. The result is what the commission costs per year, and it is the number to hold next to a flat fee.
Then add growth. If the club plans to open a fifth court or add evening classes, the commission grows with them. A flat fee does not. Run the calculation for the club you expect to be in 2 years, not the club you are today.
03
Who pays it: the club or the player
Some vendors charge the club. Others add the fee to the player’s price at checkout, so the club’s invoice looks clean and the player pays more than the club’s published price. That second model still costs the club, because the player sees a higher price and compares it with the club down the road.
Ask the vendor directly: what does a player pay at checkout for a court the club lists at a given price, and where does the difference go? The answer belongs in writing.
05
Comparing against a flat fee
A flat monthly software fee is the same in the busiest month and the quietest. It is easy to budget and easy to compare. Lobby charges a flat monthly fee and takes 0 percent of booking revenue, and Stripe’s card-processing fee is paid to Stripe separately. The comparison is then simple: the annual commission figure against 12 months of the flat fee.
- Annual commission at current volume
- Annual commission at expected volume in 2 years
- 12 months of the flat fee, with any yearly discount
- Card-processing fees, which apply under both models and cancel out
06
When a commission is the right deal
A commission is a fair deal when the vendor is sending you players you would not otherwise have. A new club with empty weekday afternoons may be glad to pay a share of bookings it did not have to market for. The deal turns bad when the club is paying a percentage on its own regulars, who would have booked anyway. Tagging a month of players by how they found the club tells you which case you are in.