Is Listing Your Court on a Booking Platform Worth It?
An honest look for Sri Lankan court owners: what a booking platform actually does for you, what commission is fair, and whether you lose your direct and cash customers.
Listing your court on a booking platform is worth it when the platform brings you new bookings you wouldn't have won on your own — and doesn't tax the customers you already have. The fear owners have is real: some platforms insert themselves between you and your regulars and take a cut of everything. The right arrangement does the opposite — it fills empty hours with players who found you through search, while your cash and direct bookings stay entirely yours.
Does a booking platform take my customers?
It shouldn't. A good platform charges commission only on the demand it generates — the player who searched "futsal court near me" and discovered you. Your walk-ins, your regulars, and the bookings you record yourself are not the platform's to tax. If a platform charges on your own cash bookings, that's the warning sign.
What commission is fair?
Fair means a commission only on platform-sourced bookings, with no setup fee and no monthly licence. You're paying for demand you didn't have to find. If the platform also wants a monthly fee and a cut of your own customers, you're subsidising it — not the other way around.
Will I lose my direct and cash bookings?
Not if the system is built for how you actually work. On CricBook you keep taking cash exactly as you do now, record it in the same calendar, and pay nothing on it. The platform's job is to add bookings on top of yours and keep the whole calendar accurate — not to get between you and your regulars.
What do I actually get out of it?
- New players who find you through search and AI answers instead of word of mouth.
- Fewer empty hours, because your live availability is visible to people looking right now.
- One calendar for cash, walk-ins and online — no double-bookings.
- One monthly settlement instead of reconciling a notebook.
The honest test
Ask any platform two questions: Do you charge on my own cash bookings? and Is there a monthly fee on top of commission? If the answers are no and no, listing is close to pure upside — the platform only earns when it brings you business you didn't have.
See exactly how it works in CricBook's court booking software, or list your venue and we'll set it up with you on one call.
