Booking commission in Colombia: what it charges, VAT, withholding and the RNT

What Booking charges in Colombia

Booking doesn't publish a rate for Colombia. The commission is a set percentage of the booking total, depending on country, property type and agreement; yours is in the extranet, under Finance. Booking states that commission is often charged on the total guest payment, which can include extra fees, cleaning charges and VAT depending on local law. The rate is locked at the moment of booking, even if it changes later.

Preferred Partner and Visibility Booster add a percentage on top of the base commission. Booking says preferred partners get 65% more views and 20% more bookings on average, and that only up to 30% of eligible properties in each area can join.

The Colombian context makes every point count. According to Cotelco, hotel occupancy in 2025 was 56.7%, just 0.4 points above 2024; DANE measures it at 50.5%. The sector's real revenue fell 2.9%, and hotels with up to 50 rooms hovered around 46% occupancy. With those numbers, a commission of 15% or more on every booking is not a detail.

• How much commission Booking charges, and what gets added →

The commission has carried VAT in Colombia since 2018

The 2016 reform changed the rule: services provided from abroad are deemed provided in Colombia and carry 19% VAT when the user has tax residence, domicile or place of business in the country. Booking's intermediation for a Colombian hotel falls there. DIAN set the procedure in October 2018: foreign providers register in the RUT, file every two months and can pay in dollars to a Treasury account. The obligation has applied since 1 July 2018.

There are two routes for that VAT. One, the foreign provider charges and declares it itself. The other, voluntary and only for providers DIAN names by resolution in a list, has card issuers withhold it at payment. We found no public DIAN list of registered providers, so we can't tell you how Booking.com BV is registered. What the law does spell out is who must pay depending on your situation.

• Booking and VAT in Argentina: how it works next door →

Who pays that VAT depends on your RUT

If your property is VAT-registered, the Tax Statute makes you a withholding agent when you buy taxed services from someone with no residence or domicile in Colombia. The withholding is 100% of the tax: you compute 19% on Booking's commission, declare it in your withholding return and, in general, claim it as input VAT, because your activity is taxed. Booking shouldn't add VAT to your invoice. In practice it costs you cash flow, not tax.

If your property is not VAT-registered, you're not a withholding agent. In that case, according to DIAN, the foreign provider has to comply itself: register, charge you 19% on the commission and declare it. For you it's a cost, with no credit. A June 2026 ruling repeats it: if the provider isn't on the card-withholding list and its clients aren't required to withhold, the provider files under the simplified procedure.

What to check: your monthly commission invoice. If you're VAT-registered and Booking adds 19%, you'd be paying the tax twice. If you're not registered and nothing is added, ask your accountant how it's documented.

• Booking commission in Chile: the same logic with SII →

The 10% withholding: significant economic presence

Since 1 January 2024 Colombia levies income tax on foreign companies with significant economic presence: those selling goods or digital services to users in Colombia, with deliberate and systematic interaction in the market, and income of at least 31,300 UVT. The law presumes that interaction if they have 300,000 or more users in Colombia, or if they show prices in pesos or allow payment in pesos. Among the digital services the rule lists are online intermediation platforms.

The foreign company has two options: have 10% of the total value of each payment withheld, or file in Colombia and pay 3% of gross income, asking not to be withheld. Who withholds, in order: first the withholding agent buying the service, meaning your hotel if you are one; otherwise the card-issuing bank; otherwise the payment gateway. There are two exceptions: the provider swears it doesn't meet the conditions, or it has opted to file and its RUT shows it. If you should have withheld and didn't, the commission isn't deductible.

We found no public statement from Booking on which option it chose in Colombia, and in April 2025 DIAN's acting director acknowledged grey areas in VAT and withholding for these platforms. The concrete question for your accountant: do I have proof that Booking files under significant economic presence? If not, am I withholding 10%?

• Booking commission in Mexico: VAT, withholdings and SAT →
• Booking vs. Airbnb commission →

No RNT, no listing

Law 2068 of 2020 defines platforms as tourism service providers, with duties of their own: active registration in the National Tourism Registry (RNT), a field for each property to show its RNT number, not publishing or removing listings of anyone without an active RNT, handing information to the Ministry of Commerce, the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio and DIAN, and paying Fontur's tourism levy on their commissions. Decree 1836 of 2021 regulated it.

For you: the RNT is a prior, mandatory requirement to operate, it's free through the chamber of commerce and renews every year. Operating without it is an infringement; the Superintendencia sanctions under consumer law and can cancel the registration for up to five years. Your own Fontur levy is the same rate as the platforms', 2.5 per thousand of operating income; hotels contributed COP 17,275 million in 2024, 12% of the total.

In July 2026 the Ministry of Commerce published for comment a draft decree that would go further: an individual RNT for each tourist home, the number visible on every listing and six-monthly checks by the platforms, with removal of listings without a valid registration. When we wrote this it was still a draft. Worth checking whether it has been issued.

• How to appear on Google Hotels without paying commission →

Foreign tourists don't pay VAT at your hotel

Hotel services to residents abroad that are used in Colombia are VAT-exempt, with a bimonthly refund right, when sold by a hotel registered in the RNT. DIAN confirmed it in 2025 and 2026: what counts is the residence of whoever uses the service, not whoever pays; an agency or a company can pay. You have to verify non-residence with documents, a passport with entry stamp or a migration-movements certificate, keep a copy and keep a register of sales to non-residents with their invoices. In 2025, 33.7% of the country's guests were international.

An open point: we found no DIAN ruling specifically on foreign guests' bookings collected through Booking. Ask your accountant how to document those bookings so you don't lose the exemption.

• Alternatives to Booking: filling the hotel without depending on one platform →

What to do this month

Check your RUT and your commission invoice: if you're VAT-registered, withhold and claim the credit; if Booking adds 19%, write to them. Ask your accountant about the 10% withholding and Booking's proof. Confirm your RNT is active, renewed and visible on the listing. And build the register of non-resident guests with their documents.

Then look at how much of all this disappears with a direct booking. A booking on your own website pays no commission, no VAT on the commission, no withholding, and doesn't depend on a platform checking your RNT. On Booking you compete for position partly with commission: Preferred Partner charges more to show you higher. On Google you can't pay to rank better locally: your profile, your reviews and your website count.

We're not accountants; this is for asking the right questions. To see what Booking costs you a year with your own numbers, use our calculator.

• Booking commission calculator →
• Hotel websites: free diagnosis →
• Hotel booking engines: what to look for →