Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the largest online travel agencies. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, and is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings. Booking.com provides lodging reservation services for approximately 3.4 million properties, including 475,000 hotels, motels, and resorts, and 2.9 million homes, apartments in over 220 countries and territories, and in over 40 languages. It also sells flights in 55 markets and tours and activities in more than 1,300 cities.

History

In 1996, Geert-Jan Bruinsma, a student at Universiteit Twente, founded Bookings.nl. In 2000, Booking.com was formed when Bookings.nl merged with Bookings Online, founded by Sicco and Alec Behrens, Marijn Muyser, and Bas Lemmens, which operated as Bookings.org. The name and URL were changed to Booking.com, and Stef Noorden was appointed as its CEO. In July 2005, the company was acquired by Priceline Group (now called Booking Holdings) for $133 million, and was merged with ActiveHotels.com, a European online hotel reservation company, purchased by Priceline Group for $161 million in September 2004.

In 2006, Active Hotels Limited changed its name to Booking.com Limited. The integrations of Booking.com and Active Hotels helped its parent company improve its financial position from a loss of $19 million in 2002 to $1.1 billion in profit in 2011. The acquisition of Booking.com was praised by some social media as “the best acquisition in Internet history” since no other acquisition in the digital travel market had been shown to be as profitable. Between 2010 and 2012, the company launched mobile apps for the iPad, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows 8, and Kindle Fire. Since January 2013, many advertisements have dubbed "booking.com" as "booking.yeah."

In 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States decided within the '' Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V.'' case that the term "Booking.com", via the suffix ".com", had created an identity that could be differentiated from the generic verb and hence could be trademarked. In the summer of 2023, Booking.com announced the start of testing an artificial intelligence-based travel planner. AI Trip Planner is based on ChatGPT technology. It is intended to help choose a direction, plan a route, or answer specific questions. Initially, the service will be available to a limited number of users in the United States. In November 2023, Booking.com launched the ability to make cruise reservations in the United States, in partnership with World Travel Holdings.

Management history

Darren Huston was appointed chief executive officer of Booking.com in September 2011 and also served as president and chief executive officer of Booking Holdings from 1 January 2014, until his resignation on 28 April 2016 after his extramarital affair with another employee was revealed. Gillian Tans was then appointed CEO. Tans resigned in 2019, after which Glenn Fogel became CEO.

Controversies and criticism

Anti-competitive allegations

In September 2012, the United Kingdom's competition authority, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), issued a statement of objections against Booking.com, Expedia, and IHG Army Hotels alleging that Booking.com and Expedia had entered into separate arrangements with IHG which restricted the online travel agent's ability to discount the price of room-only hotel accommodation. Booking.com, Expedia and IHG proposed the OFT to change their restrictions. The OFT accepted the proposal, but it was later rejected by higher authority at a tribunal.

In April 2015, French, Swedish and Italian competition authorities accepted a proposal by Booking.com to drop its "rate parity" clause and thereby allow competitor travel agents to offer lower hotel prices than Booking.com. Booking.com further agreed to extend and apply its proposal across all EU states. Hotels are still prevented from discounting prices directly on their own websites. In April 2015, the European Union warned that Booking.com is one of several internet firms that may have reached market dominance beyond the point of no return.

In March 2017, a Turkish court halted activities of Booking.com in Turkey due to a violation of Turkish competition law in a case filed by the Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB). The ruling blocked the website in Turkey; however, website and application can be used from foreign countries to make reservations for hotels in Turkey.

Leaks of customer data

In November 2014, it was revealed that criminals were able to obtain customer details from the website. Booking.com said it was countering the fraudsters and refunding customers from the UK, US, France, Italy, the UAE, and Portugal, all of which had been affected. Since the fraud, Booking.com has made changes so data can only be accessed from a computer linked to the hotel's server. Its teams have also worked to "take down" dozens of phishing sites, as well as working with some banks to freeze the money mule bank accounts. The website was again targeted by hackers in June 2018.

On 6 April 2021, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) imposed a €475,000 fine on the company for failing to report the breach within the time frame mandated by the General Data Protection Regulation. Criminals obtained the personal data of over 4,000 customers including the credit card information of almost 300 people.

Brand hijacking accusations by German hotelier

In February 2015, an open letter published by German hotelier Marco Nussbaum, co-founder and CEO of the "prizeotel" budget-design hotel brand, was highly critical of Booking.com's "brand hijacking" activity, in which the company bids significant sums of money to be the top listing on Google Search for several hotel brands.

Charging commissions on prices including VAT

In July 2019, luxury-hotel chain Aldemar, invoking "practices y Booking.comthat go against the laws of the market," terminated its participation in Booking's offerings. The Greek Hotels Association denounced the practice of Booking.com of charging its percentage fee on the VAT-inclusive full-room price. The company responded that according to the terms of its bilateral agreements with hotels "everywhere," each party to such an agreement is free to walk away from it.

In November 2023, Booking.com agreed to pay roughly 94 million euros to settle a VAT/tax dispute in Italy.

Inclusion of listing in Israeli settlements

On 12 February 2020, the company was included on a list of companies operating in West Bank settlements involved in activities that "raised particular human rights concerns" published by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The company was categorized under "the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements".

In September 2022, the company added a warning to its listings in Israeli settlements, although the language was toned down at the request of the Israeli government.

Criticism of manipulative sale techniques

In 2019, following dialogue with the European Commission and national consumer (CPC) authorities, Booking.com committed to clarifying marketing statements to consumers regarding time-limited offers, the amount of rooms available to book, price comparisons, and the type of vendor offering the accommodations. Changes were also made to make sure that sponsored listings were flagged and that the total price was presented to consumers.

Booking Holdings Inc was sued by Texas for allegedly engaging in deceptive trade practices in citing hotel room prices in 2023.

Criticism over request for Dutch aid during COVID-19 pandemic

In April 2020, Booking.com drew criticism when it applied for government aid from the Dutch government's relief programme for business affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, while paying billions to shareholders, with $6.3 billion in cash on its balance sheet. In response, on 22 May, Booking.com announced that it would not seek further wage subsidies from the Dutch government, and instead look for long term answers. The company laid off 25% of its global workforce.

Flaw in OAuth login process

In November 2022, Salt Labs discovered flaws in the login process of Booking.com. The flaws could have enabled a bad actor to take over guest accounts. Salt Labs note that Booking.com resolved the vulnerability promptly.

Guests contacted by fraudsters, posing as hotel staff

In 2023, the BBC's Watchdog discovered that guests had been contacted by fraudsters over the official Booking.com messaging system, spoof emails, and WhatsApp resulting in financial loss and leaked customer data. Guests complained that it was very difficult to contact Booking.com about this issue, citing poor customer service. The fraudsters direct guests to replicas of the Booking.com website containing the reservation data and personal details of the guest and ask them to make a payment, a temporary transfer of funds or card validation.

In November 2023, the BBC highlighted that the practice had become so lucrative that cyber criminals were offering up to $2,000 (£1,600) for login details of hotels.

Payment delays

In 2023, Booking.com was accused of leaving accommodation hosts thousands of pounds out of pocket because of payment delays. Hosts from Scotland, England, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Netherland, Denmark, Croatia, Hungary, Cyprus, Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia say they were affected. The company blamed "unforeseen technical issues". The payment scandal has received the most press coverage in Hungary in July, August and September 2023. New details of the payment scandal have been front page news on the most respected and trusted Hungarian news sites for several weeks.

The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) found it necessary to request an expedited investigation against the Booking.com regarding their undergoing debt case toward the Hungarian accommodation providers. At the same time the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ) offered legal aid to the ones affected in the matter and sent a questionnaire to Hungarian accommodation providers to assess the extent of the problem. Hungary's competition watchdog GVH raided the Budapest office of Booking Holdings on 6 September 2023 as part of a probe into the online accommodation booking and service market in Hungary in context of the expedited investigation.

Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking.com, apologized in a letter on 7 November 2023 to those hosts who were affected by the payment scandal.

Cancellation and relisting at higher prices

Booking.com has been accused of cancelling hotel reservations and relisting the same hotel rooms at the same dates for much higher prices.

See also

* Expedia
* Holiday cottage
* Kayak
* Vacation rental

References

External links

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{{Travel ticket search engines

1996 establishments in the Netherlands
2005 mergers and acquisitions
Booking Holdings
Companies based in Amsterdam
Dutch travel websites
Hospitality companies established in 1996
Internet properties established in 1996
Multinational companies headquartered in the Netherlands
Online travel agencies
Travel and holiday companies of the Netherlands