For a fair market: letting hotels compete with Booking

A fair market is not the rule of the biggest

When Booking comes up, people split into two camps: those who want to ban and regulate everything, and those who say Booking won because it's the best and that's the end of it. We are in neither.

A fair market rewards whoever offers something better, and Booking did: a platform that works, reaches travellers everywhere and made life easier for thousands of small properties. That deserves credit.

But a market is fair while customers can choose and suppliers can compete. When a company uses its size to stop others from competing, we are no longer talking about a fair market. We are talking about a toll.

What the numbers say

According to the latest European hotel distribution study by HOTREC, the European hotel association, Booking Holdings handles about 69% of bookings made through online agencies in Europe, and together with Expedia more than 85%. In 2013 Booking had around 60%.

Over the same period, the share of bookings coming through online agencies rose from about 20% to 30% of the total, while direct bookings fell by around six points. More and more bookings go through an intermediary, and that intermediary is almost always the same one.

The problem isn't the commission, it's having no alternative

A platform charging a commission for bringing customers is reasonable. Booking generally charges from 15%, depending on each contract, and more if the hotel joins visibility programs such as Genius or Preferred Partner.

The problem starts when the hotel can't negotiate because it has no other door. If almost all your online bookings depend on one company, that company sets the terms. And the commission comes out of your profit, not your price.

In a healthy market the hotel chooses how much to sell through each channel. In the market we have today, many hotels feel they can't choose.

European regulators reached the same conclusion

It isn't just us. The European Commission designated Booking a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act in May 2024. In September 2026 the EU General Court confirmed that Booking holds a dominant position among online travel agencies for hotels, upholding the ban on its purchase of eTraveli. And in Spain the competition authority (CNMC) fined it €413 million for abuse of a dominant position, a decision Booking has appealed.

None of these decisions asks for Booking to disappear. They ask for the same thing we do: competition.

The answer is to compete, not to ban

The best answer to a dominant position isn't waiting for a regulator to fix it. It's building alternatives. For a hotel, the most powerful alternative is its own channel: a fast, clear website that ranks on Google, where guests can book directly.

Our proposal is a fairer split: the hotel brings in about 60% of its bookings itself, and Booking, agencies and other platforms complete the rest. Booking as a complement, not as the owner of your guests.

That's a fair market: the hotel competing for its own customers, with the same tools as anyone else.