Can I set a different commission for two sources of the same type?

Not on the sources. Commission belongs to the source type, so every source of that type carries the same percentage. If you pay Booking.com 15 percent and another OTA 18, make a second type with its own rate and point that source at it. Give it a name that says what it is, because the type name is what your reports will show.

What does switching a source type off actually do?

Less than the wording suggests. The sources using it keep their type and their commission, bookings keep arriving, and the type is still offered in the Source picker when somebody creates a source. Treat it as a note to your team that the channel is no longer in use, and as the safe alternative to deleting a type you may still need in reports.

If I change a commission, are past bookings recalculated?

No. The new percentage applies from the moment you save it, and bookings already taken keep the commission they were worked out with. That is what you want, because otherwise last month's figures would move. It also means somebody comparing two months needs to know a rate changed, and nothing on this screen will tell them, so note the date in the description.

How do I find out which sources use a type before I delete it?

This screen will not tell you, so go next door. On the booking sources list, add the Source Type filter, tick the type in question, and read the count beside the heading. If it is more than nothing, switch the type off rather than deleting it.

Should Direct be zero percent or left empty?

Zero. Both behave as nothing payable, but a dash looks like a field somebody forgot, and six months from now nobody will know whether the rate was nil or unrecorded. Typing 0 is the difference between a decision and an omission.

Source types and their commissions

A source type is a category of business with a commission rate attached. OTA at 15 percent, Travel Agent at 10, Direct at nothing. You define a handful of them once, and then every booking source you set up points at one, which is how Prostay knows what a booking through Booking.com costs you without anybody typing a rate on the booking.

So this is a small screen with a long reach. Five rows here decide the commission on every reservation your property takes. The sources themselves are the list next door, covered in Reading the booking sources list.

The screen

The Source Types screen for The Marlowe Hotel, with a count of 5 beside the title, a search box, and a table of five types: OTA at 15 percent, Travel Agent at 10, Corporate at 8, Direct at 0 and GDS at 12, each with a toggle in the Active column and a three dot menu at the end of the row. — Five types, five commission rates. Every booking source on your list points at one of these rows.

The heading. The grey number is how many types match your search. Most properties end up with between four and eight.
The search box. Matches the type name, and runs as you type. The cross at its right clears it, which the search on the sources list does not have.
The table. One row per type, with the switch that turns it off on the left and the menu that edits it on the right.
The pager. Rarely does anything on this screen, because five types fit on one page of ten.

The six columns

The source types table in full: six columns headed Active, Source Type Name, Source Code, Description, Commission % and Actions, with the five types listed and the GDS toggle in the last row switched off. — The commission column is the only figure on this screen that changes what a booking is worth.

Column	What it holds
Active	A switch, and it acts the moment you touch it: no confirmation, no Save. What it changes is covered further down, and it is less than you would expect.
Source Type Name	What the type is called. This is the name that appears in the Source Type column of the sources list, in the Source picker when you add a source, and in the type filter. The only column that sorts.
Source Code	A short code for the type, yours to choose. Sources have their own codes, so this one is for grouping rather than for identifying a particular partner.
Description	A line for whoever comes after you, explaining what belongs in this type. It appears nowhere else in Prostay, which makes it exactly the right place to write down the rule you agreed.
Commission %	The percentage this type costs you. A dash means nobody has set one, which is not the same as zero.
Actions	Edit and Delete. Unlike the sources list, every row here has both.

What the commission percentage does

It records what you have agreed to pay the channel, as a percentage of the booking. It is the difference between what a booking is worth and what you keep, and Prostay uses it to work out the commission and the net revenue that the production reports show against each source.

Two things it does not do. It does not change the room rate the guest pays: raising the OTA commission from 15 to 18 does not raise your prices, it lowers what you keep. And it is not per source. Every source of a given type carries that type's rate, so Booking.com and Expedia at 15 percent cannot be split into 15 and 18 by editing the sources. If you genuinely pay two different rates, that is two types.

Adding a type

The top of the Add Source drawer, headed Create a new source type with its code and commission, holding four empty fields: Name marked with an asterisk and prompting for a source type name, Source Code, a four line Description box, and Commission %. — Four fields, one of them required. There is no Active control here: a new type arrives switched on.

Press Create New. The Add Source panel opens from the right.
Name it. The only required field, and Save Changes stays greyed out until it has something in it. Use the name you want to see on reports.
Give it a code and a description. Both optional, and both worth filling in. The description is the only place the rule for this type can live.
Set Commission %. A number, without the percent sign. Leave it empty only if you genuinely do not know yet, and come back.
Press Save Changes. The panel closes and the type appears in the table, switched on.

Changing a type

The top of the Edit Source drawer open on the OTA type, headed Update this source type, its code and commission, with Name reading OTA, Source Code reading OTA, a description about online travel agencies such as Booking.com and Expedia, and Commission % reading 15. — The same four fields, filled in from the row you picked. Changing the commission here changes what every OTA source is worth.

Edit in the row menu opens the same four fields with the type loaded. Save Changes is greyed out until you actually change something, so opening a type to read it cannot save it by accident.

Renaming a type renames it everywhere at once, because the sources read the name off the type rather than keeping their own copy. Rename Travel Agent to Tour Operator and the four sources using it show the new name the next time the list loads.

The Active switch

The last two rows of the table. Direct is switched on with a commission of 0 percent. GDS below it is switched off and still shows its source code, its description and its commission of 12 percent. — GDS is switched off. Nothing else about the row changes, including its commission.

The switch takes effect immediately. There is no confirmation and no save, so a mis-click is a change, and switching it back is the undo.

What it does is narrower than the word suggests. Switching a type off does not detach the sources using it, does not change their commission, and does not stop bookings arriving against them. It also does not remove the type from the Source picker when somebody adds a booking source, or from the Source Type filter on the sources list.

The Source dropdown open inside the Add Booking Source drawer, listing all five source types: OTA, Travel Agent, Corporate, Direct and GDS. GDS is offered even though it is switched off on the Source Types screen. — The picker on a booking source lists every type you have defined, switched off or not.

So treat the switch as a note to your own team rather than as a control. It says "we are not using this any more", it keeps the row and its history, and it is the right thing to reach for instead of Delete when a channel goes quiet. If you need to stop people choosing a type, the reliable way is to make sure no source uses it and to say so in the description.

How a type reaches your bookings

The chain is short, and knowing it tells you where to make a change.

A type carries the commission. Set here, once.
A booking source points at a type. Chosen in the Source field when the source is created, and changeable afterwards on the source itself.
A reservation is attributed to a source. Picked in the reservation's source field, or set by the channel the booking arrived through.
The reports read back up the chain. Production by source, and the commission and net revenue on it, all come from the percentage in step one.

Which means a commission is corrected in one place and appears everywhere, and it also means a source pointed at the wrong type is quietly wrong on every booking it takes. When a figure looks off, check the source's type before you doubt the report.

Deleting a type

Delete in the row menu asks for confirmation once, in a dialog that does not name the type and does not tell you how many sources are using it. Nothing on this screen shows you that count, so work it out first: open the sources list, filter Source Type to the type in question, and read the number beside the heading.

Things that catch people out

What you see	Why
A switched-off type still offered when adding a source	The switch does not filter the picker. It is a label for your team, not a control.
Editing a source does not let you change its commission	Correct. Commission lives on the type. Change it here, or point the source at a different type.
Two sources you pay differently show the same commission	They share a type. Two rates means two types, however similar they look.
A dash in Commission %	Nobody set a value. It behaves as nothing payable, but it reads as an oversight, because usually it is one.
Save Changes greyed out on a type you just opened	It wakes up when you change a field. On the add panel it also needs a name.
A renamed type showing its old name on a source	Reload the sources list. The name is read from the type each time the list is fetched.