OTA Systemsby Multisystems
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Reclaim· 6 min read

The No-Show Commission Trap — and How to Get Out of It Every Month

Expedia charges commission on guests who never arrive. Here's exactly what the trap looks like, why it persists, and the five-minute monthly habit that shuts it off.

Every hotelier on Expedia has been there: a guest books a non-refundable rate, doesn't show up, and the next monthly invoice still charges commission on a stay that didn't happen. The room wasn't resold. The guest wasn't billed. The commission line is still there.

18–25%
Of the monthly reclaim queue
No-show commission on a typical indie property — the single most common reclaim category we see.

Why the trap persists

Because Expedia's contract puts the burden of declaring a no-show on the hotel, not the platform. If you don't open Partner Central → Accounting → Reconcilable Bookings and mark the reservation as a no-show before the 4th of the following month, the commission stays charged. Expedia has no financial incentive to police it for you.

The five-minute monthly fix

  1. 01

    Pull

    Pull the no-show list from your PMS for the previous month.

  2. 02

    Reconcile

    Reconcile it against the Expedia reservations table.

  3. 03

    Mark

    Open each one in Reconcilable Bookings and click Mark as No-Show.

  4. 04

    Evidence

    Upload the folio as evidence if prompted.

What trips hoteliers up

'No-show' in Partner Central is stricter than common sense — the definition is narrow, and misfiling a close call wastes a dispute slot on a claim that will be denied.

Is a no-show

Guest didn't arrive. Room remained untouched by housekeeping. No check-in recorded. No contact from the guest. Booking was not cancelled.

Is NOT a no-show

Guest arrived three hours late. Guest checked in at 11:45 pm the day of their booking. Guest cancelled at 11:30 pm the day of arrival — that's a late cancellation, different workflow.

If you're trying to batch this, start by filing everything where you're unambiguously certain — the guest called the next morning asking for a refund, the room was untouched by housekeeping, no parking-lot camera footage shows their car. Move the ambiguous ones to a separate queue and work through them with your front desk manager.

Sources & references
  • Partner Central policy — Reconcilable Bookings
    Expedia Group · 2026

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