Will my supplier charge me for all the searches my customers run even when nobody books?

No, most suppliers do not send you a bill for searches, but nearly all of them watch how many you make. What they care about is the balance between searching and booking, often called the look to book ratio. If thousands of searches go through your connection and almost nothing turns into a booking, the supplier is paying to answer questions that never earn them anything, and sooner or later they will raise it with you.

What usually happens is not a charge but a limit. The supplier may slow your connection down at busy times, cap how many searches you can send in a minute, or in the worst case suspend the connection until you talk to them. That is why a booking site that looks fine in testing can start returning slow or empty results once real traffic arrives, particularly if search engines or price comparison bots are hitting your pages.

The rules differ from one supplier to another, so this is always worth asking about before you go live rather than after. Some are relaxed with new accounts and expect the ratio to improve as you grow. Others set a firm expectation from day one and write it into the agreement. Caching results for a short while, keeping your search form sensible and blocking automated traffic all help keep the numbers healthy.

When you sign with a supplier, ask them plainly what search ratio they expect and what happens if you fall short of it, then keep an eye on your own search and booking counts once real customers start using the site.