New conditions for hotels cooperating with Booking.com are being brought by the additional transparency measures adopted by the platform throughout the European Economic Area, following the regulatory dialogue with the European Commission, with HOTREC, the European organization representing the hospitality sector, welcoming the changes while noting, however, that their impact in practice remains to be seen.
At the center is hoteliers' freedom to pursue a different pricing policy by sales channel, with the new interventions clarifying the role played by prices outside Booking in the platform's ranking and commercial programs.
The changes concern, among other things, the Booking Sponsored Benefit (BSB, that is, the program through which Booking can offer the traveler a lower price by funding the discount itself), the Genius, Preferred and Preferred Plus programs, as well as the information provided to hoteliers about ranking and prices identified on other sales channels.
The aim is for partner businesses to have a clearer picture both of the criteria for participation in Booking's programs and of the way in which they can shape their commercial policy outside the platform.
In any case, these changes are also of particular interest for the Greek market, especially since the Competition Commission's investigation remains open into Booking's practices in the online hotel booking market. The company has submitted a commitments proposal, while separately the front of financial claims by hotel businesses regarding the so-called “parity clauses” is also underway.
What changes now for hotels
The starting point of the changes lies in the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Booking was designated by the European Commission as a “gatekeeper” (editor's note: a platform with a pivotal role in connecting businesses and consumers) in May 2024 and since November of the same year has been subject to the relevant obligations.
For hotels, the critical issue is that they must be able to freely set their prices and terms depending on the sales channel. Thus, a hotel may, for example, offer a room for 150 euros on Booking and for 140 euros on its own website, without being obliged to give the same lower price on the platform as well.
Booking had already removed contractual parity clauses in the European Economic Area from 2024. The question, however, was whether a different price outside Booking could have other consequences for an accommodation within the platform.
It is this question that the new clarifications essentially answer. Booking makes it clear that a hotel's prices on other channels are not used for its basic ranking, that is, the order in which it appears in search results. Therefore, if an accommodation offers a room more cheaply through its own website, that specific price is not a factor in its position in the results.
Booking now provides more information in the Partner Hub, its information platform for partner accommodations, regarding how the basic ranking works, explicitly clarifying that external prices are not a factor in this specific mechanism. The relevant clarifications are expected to be reflected later in the year in Booking's general terms as well.
A corresponding clarification is provided for the Genius, Preferred and Preferred Plus programs. The prices an accommodation offers outside Booking are not used as an eligibility criterion.
At the same time, hoteliers will have more detailed information about the participation criteria and benefits of the programs, the so-called “performance score,” the way in which their performance is compared with that of other accommodations at a geographic level, and the cases in which their participation may be suspended.
The change in BSB
The main new intervention concerns the Booking Sponsored Benefit (BSB), that is, the program through which Booking can offer the traveler a lower price by funding the discount itself. The accommodation continues to receive the amount corresponding to the price it set, while the agreed commission does not change.
Until now, Booking took into account the prices it identified for the same accommodation on other channels in order to assess its potential eligibility for BSB, something that now stops. In practice, if a hotel offers a lower price on its own website or on another channel, that specific choice will not be used as a criterion for its possible inclusion in the program.
At the same time, hotels gain more detailed information about the application of BSB, even at the level of an individual booking, so that they have a clearer picture of how the program affects the accommodation's bookings.
The way in which the prices Booking identifies outside the platform are presented to hoteliers is also changing. From the Extranet, that is, the electronic platform through which partner accommodations manage their presence on Booking.com, the labels “competitive” and “non-competitive” for external prices are being removed.
These specific indications could create the impression among hoteliers that their price on other channels was being assessed by Booking as more or less competitive. Price checks on other channels may continue to appear in the Extranet, but they will have an informational character.
HOTREC's position
HOTREC, the European organization representing the hospitality sector, records Booking.com's additional interventions following the regulatory dialogue with the European Commission for compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
It attaches particular importance to Booking's decision to no longer take into account the prices accommodations offer outside the platform when assessing their potential eligibility for the Booking Sponsored Benefit (BSB). At the same time, hoteliers will gain more detailed information about the operation of the program, even at the level of an individual booking.
HOTREC also points to the strengthening of transparency around Genius, Preferred and Preferred Plus, as well as the clarification that external prices are not used either in the basic ranking of accommodations or as a criterion for participation in these specific programs.
In the same direction is the removal from the Extranet of the labels “competitive” and “non-competitive” for prices identified on other channels, in order to avoid the impression that accommodations are expected to align their prices.
The European organization nevertheless maintains a wait-and-see stance regarding the practical result of the changes. As it notes, the hotel sector will need time to assess their implementation and above all the extent to which businesses can in practice freely exercise their own pricing and commercial policy on each sales channel.
HOTREC states that it will continue to monitor the implementation of the measures, gathering data from the European hotel sector and maintaining dialogue with the European Commission.
The Greek investigation
At the same time, the investigation by the Greek Competition Commission is underway, which began after the complaint by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels in 2022 regarding practices in the online hotel booking market.
The Commission is investigating a possible abuse of dominant position by Booking and has expressed “serious preliminary concerns” about practices which, in combination, have the potential to exclude competing Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) from entering or expanding in the Greek market. In this context, Booking submitted a commitments proposal, which was put to public consultation in July 2026.
The commitments move in three directions. Among other things, regarding ranking, Booking proposes to inform hotels more clearly about the factors that determine their position in the results, clarifying that prices and availability outside the platform are not used in the default mechanism.
For Preferred and Preferred Plus it proposes the abolition of the Performance Score as an eligibility criterion for Greek accommodations, while any new criteria will not be able to be based on external prices or availability.
For the Booking Sponsored Benefit (BSB), it proposes to stop using the prices it identifies on other channels as an eligibility criterion and to provide more detailed data to hoteliers about the bookings and discounts to which the program is applied.
Hoteliers' claims
A separate front consists of the financial claims of hotel businesses against Booking over the so-called “parity clauses,” which restricted hotels' ability to offer through their own channels lower prices than those on the platform.
A point of reference was a 2024 decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, according to which it had not been proven that these specific clauses were objectively necessary for the operation of online booking platforms. In Greece, about 1,000 hoteliers had moved in this direction by November 2025, while at the European level the participants exceeded, according to data from the hotel sector, 15,000.
The Competition Commission clarifies, however, that the new European measures do not affect or prejudge the Greek case, with the Authority's Plenary expected to decide in the coming months whether it will accept Booking's commitments.