How booking fees can quietly cost your business £60–£100+ every month

When you take payments online, there's one fee you expect: payment processing. Most platforms use providers like Stripe, which typically charge around 1.5% + 20p per transaction for UK cards. That's standard — and it applies no matter which system you use.

Where things start to change is when a booking platform adds its own fee on top of this. Some platforms add an additional 1–2% per booking on top of the standard Stripe charge.

This is often bundled together with the Stripe fee, so it's not always obvious what you're paying for. It can look like the total is simply the cost of taking payments, when in reality part goes to Stripe and part goes to the platform.

Here's what that looks like in practice. Say you run regular sessions and take 150 bookings per month, each at £10. Stripe's standard fees come to around £52.50 per month — that's expected. But if your platform adds 1.5% per booking on top, that's another £22.50 per month.

If your subscription is £35 per month, your total platform cost becomes £57.50 per month. What looks like a £35 platform is actually costing significantly more once booking fees are factored in.

And as your business grows, that gap widens. Take the same example but with 300 bookings per month instead of 150. At 1.5% per booking on a £10 session, the platform fee alone becomes £45 per month. Add that to a £35 subscription and you're paying £80 per month — more than double what the headline price suggested.

The core issue is that these fees scale with your business. More bookings means more fees. More success means higher costs. You're effectively paying more to your platform because your business is doing well.

At Kimshi Simple, the approach is different. You pay your monthly subscription and Stripe's standard processing fees. There's no additional percentage per booking sitting on top of that.

We also show you exactly what you're paying in Stripe fees, so you can see where your money goes and what your true costs are. No bundling. No hidden percentages. No surprises.

That matters for two reasons. First, your costs stay predictable — your platform doesn't get more expensive as your booking volume grows. Second, you keep more of your revenue, which is where it should be.

A small percentage per booking doesn't look like much at first. But over time, and especially as your business grows, it adds up in ways that aren't always obvious from the pricing page. Understanding exactly how your booking platform charges is one of the most practical things you can do for your monthly costs.