How we work

1A. Definitions and who we are

Some of the words here have specific meanings, so check out the “Booking.com dictionary” in our Terms of Service.

When you book an Accommodation, Booking.com B.V. provides and is responsible for the Platform but not the Travel Experience itself (section 1B). Booking.com B.V. is a company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands (registered address: Oosterdokskade 163, 1011 DL, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chamber of Commerce number: 31047344; VAT number: NL805734958B01).

1B. How does our service work?

We make it easy for you to compare bookings from many hotels, hosts, and other Service Providers.

When you make a booking on our Platform, you enter into a contract with the Service Provider (unless otherwise stated).

The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times, but realistically, it can take a few hours to update, for example, text descriptions and lists of the facilities that Accommodations provide.

1C. Who do we work with?

Only Service Providers with a contractual relationship with us will be displayed on our Platform. They may also offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform.

We don’t own any Accommodations ourselves – each Service Provider is a separate company that has agreed to work with us in a certain way.

Our Platform shows you the Accommodations you can book through us worldwide, and our search results page tells you how many of them might be right for you based on what you’ve told us.

1D. How do we make money?

We don’t buy or (re)sell any products or services. Once your stay is finished, the Service Provider just pays us a commission. A badge with a thumbs-up icon indicates that the property is part of our Preferred Partner Program – they pay us a higher commission if you make a booking.

If an Accommodation in your search results has a badge that says “Ad,” it means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

1E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

All great properties deserve to be discovered. That’s why we use “recommendation” systems to select, display, and/or rank information on our Platform in a way that’ll help you discover properties we think you’ll like.

For example, on the “Stays” landing page, you’ll find several recommendation systems, including:

• Trending destinations: Destinations you may want to travel to based on bookings made by other travelers whose searches were similar to yours.
• Homes guests love: Home properties with high review scores.
• Looking for the perfect stay? Properties (as opposed to destinations) that you may want to stay at based on bookings made by other guests whose searches were similar to yours.

Our search results are also a recommendation system. In fact, they’re the recommendation system that our customers use the most, so be sure to check out “Our default ranking and sorting options” section.

All the recommendation systems we use provide recommendations based on one or more of the following factors:

• What you tell us when you are looking to book a Travel Experience, such as destination, dates, number of guests, etc.
• The information we’ve gathered based on your previous interactions with our Platform, such as your past searches, existing reservations, etc., unless you opted out of the personalized recommendations.
• Any other information on how you currently interact with our Platform, including the country where you are while browsing.

• An Accommodation’s performance on our Platform:
  • Click-through rate: How many people click on it.
  • Gross bookings: How many bookings are made with that Accommodation.
  • Net bookings: How many bookings are made with that Accommodation minus how many are canceled.
• Information about the Accommodation’s availability, pricing scores, review scores, etc.

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book an Accommodation you like, each factor can be more or less important in different cases, depending on what we think is most likely to produce a list of properties you may want to book.

Our default ranking and sorting options

Our search results are also a recommendation system. They show all the Accommodations (hotels, apartments, etc.) that match your search. If you like, you can use filters to narrow down your results.

To check all the booking options an Accommodation offers, just select it.

When you first get your search results, they’ll be sorted (“ordered”) by “Our top picks” (called “Popularity” on our app):

• To appear high up on the page, an Accommodation needs to do well in each of these three areas:
  • Click-through rate: How many people click on it;
  • Gross bookings: How many bookings are made with that Accommodation;
  • Net bookings. How many bookings are made with that Accommodation minus how many are canceled.
• Those numbers depend on many factors, including review scores, availability, policies, pricing, quality of content (e.g. photos), and other features.
• Other things can also influence an Accommodation’s ranking – for example, how much commission they pay us on bookings, how quickly they usually pay it, whether they’re part of our Genius program or Preferred Partner (+) Program, and, in certain places*, whether we organize their payments.
• Any information we've gathered based on how you interact with our Platform (including what you tell us) will also be a factor unless you opted out of the personalized recommendations.

* Currently, this ranking factor only applies to US Accommodations booked by US-based customers.

Many of these factors help our recommendation systems decide which Accommodations might be the most appealing and relevant to you. Some play a small role in that decision, while others play a significant role – the importance of each factor can change depending on the Accommodation's features and how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, an Accommodation's click-through rate and number of bookings often play a significant role in these decisions as they directly reflect the Accommodation's overall appeal and how satisfied its guests tend to be with what it offers. A high click-through rate usually means that an Accommodation makes a good first impression on our Platform (e.g. through images, amenities, or descriptions), and getting a lot of bookings indicates that many people find it meets their requirements.

However, other factors play a role as well. For example, we might give preference to Accommodations that are part of our Genius program or offer versatile, user-friendly payment policies. After all, these factors suggest that these Accommodations understand how important service and convenience are to our customers.

Our recommendations are also influenced by how other customers with similar preferences use our Platform. For example, if “Person A” often books Accommodations in Paris, Barcelona, and Rome, and “Person B” often books Accommodations in Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid, then our recommendation system might predict that Person A would also be interested in properties in Berlin and Madrid.

If an Accommodation in your search results has a badge that says “Ad,” it means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

If you would prefer us not to order your search results in our default way, you can sort them in other ways, such as:

• Homes & apartments first: Homes and apartments appear higher than hotels and other types of Accommodation.
• Price (lowest first): Accommodations with lower prices appear higher up.
• Genius discount first: Genius Accommodations appear higher than other Accommodations.
• Property rating (high to low): Accommodations with more stars* and/or higher quality ratings* appear higher.
• Property rating (low to high): Accommodations with fewer stars and/or lower quality ratings appear higher.
• Top reviewed (called “Best reviewed” in our app): Accommodations with higher review scores* appear higher. If you find any instances where this isn’t the case, it’s because we also factor in reliability (i.e. number of reviews). For example, an Accommodation with 1,000 reviews and an average score of 8.2 could appear higher than an Accommodation with 5 reviews and an average score of 8.3.
• Distance from (X): Accommodations that are closer to X (e.g. the city center) appear higher on the page. (When we say “close,” we mean “close in a straight line.”)
• Property rating: Accommodations with more stars appear higher up. The ones with lower prices appear higher within each segment (5 stars, 4 stars, etc.).
• Best reviewed and lowest price: Accommodations with higher review scores appear higher. Within each 0.5 segment (between 10 and 9.5, between 9.5 and 9, etc.), the ones with lower prices appear higher.

* Check out “Star ratings, review scores, and quality ratings” (section 1J).

Keep in mind that whatever sorting option you choose, the factors described in “Our top picks” may still influence things. For example, those factors might act as “tiebreakers” between two or more Accommodations that would otherwise appear in the same spot. However, the “Our top picks” factors are purely secondary because they’re only used where we need to decide which of two properties to put first.

Personalized recommendations

Some of our recommendation systems go beyond your search parameters and filters and make personalized recommendations based on how you have interacted with Booking.com systems such as destination postcards, nearby destinations, and our search results. If you’re based in the EEA, you can change your settings so our recommendation systems do not provide personalized recommendations. To do so:

• On our desktop or mobile site: Select “Manage personalized recommendations” in the footer.
• On our app: Select “Manage personalized recommendations” in the banner.

Even if you do that, we may still retain some information about you so that we can provide you with our services and give you a more convenient experience, such as setting your language preference on our Platform based on where you are. This could be information that you provided (e.g. your phone number, email address) or that we gathered based on how you interact with our Platform.

Your preference on personalized recommendations will apply to any device you have signed in to your Booking.com account. If you’re not signed in to your account, your preference will not apply to other devices, and it’ll be saved as part of your “cookies.” When that cookie expires, so will your preference.

1F. Reviews

Each review score is from 1 to 10. We use a weighted review system, which means that the more recent the review, the bigger the impact on the total review score calculation.

In addition, guests can also give separate “subscores” for specific Travel Experience aspects such as: location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value, and free Wifi. Guests submit their subscores and overall scores independently, so there’s no direct link between them.

You can review an Accommodation that you booked through our Platform if you stayed there or arrived at the Accommodation but didn’t actually stay there. To edit a review you already submitted, contact our Customer Service team.

We have people and automated systems that specialize in detecting fake reviews submitted to our Platform. If we find any, we delete them and, if necessary, take action against whoever’s responsible.

Anyone who spots something problematic can always report it to our Customer Service team, and our Fraud team will investigate.

Ideally, we would publish every consumer review we receive, whether positive or negative, unless it breaches our Content Standards and Guidelines.

To make sure reviews are relevant, we may only accept reviews that are submitted within three months of checking out, and we may stop showing reviews once they’re 36 months old or if the Accommodation has a change of ownership.

An Accommodation may choose to reply to a review.

When you find multiple reviews, the most recent ones will be at the top, subject to a few other factors such as what language a review is in, whether it’s just a score or contains comments as well, etc. To make sure the most helpful reviews appear first, each factor can become more (or less) important, depending on how our Platform changes over time, for example.

If you would prefer us not to order reviews in our default way, you can sort them based on other factors, such as:

• Newest first
• Oldest first
• Highest scores
• Lowest scores

We sometimes show external review scores from other well-known travel websites, and we make it clear when we’ve done this.

Reviews may contain translations powered by Google, not Booking.com. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

1G. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers. We may finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.

When you make a booking, you agree to pay the cost of the Travel Experience itself and any other taxes and fees that may apply (e.g. for any extras). Taxes and fees may vary for different reasons, such as the Service Provider’s location, the kind of room selected, and the number of guests. The price description indicates whether any taxes and fees are included or excluded.

You’ll be able to find more information about the price while you’re booking.

Our Platform provides descriptions of any equipment and facilities that Service Providers offer based on what they tell us. It also tells you how much extra they’ll cost, if anything.

1H. Payments

There are three ways you might pay for your Booking:

• The Service Provider charges you at the Accommodation.
• The Service Provider charges you in advance. We (or our affiliate) will take your Payment Method details and forward them to the Service Provider.
• We organize your payment to the Service Provider in advance. We (or our affiliate) will take your Payment Method details and make sure the Service Provider is paid.

If you cancel a booking or don’t show up, any cancellation/no-show fee and any refund will depend on the Service Provider’s cancellation/no-show policy.

1I. Host type

We ask Service Providers, wherever they are in the world, to tell us if they’re acting as a “private host” or as a “professional host,” as defined by EU law.

EU consumer law says we have to tell you this. So if you’re in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, you might find that some Accommodations in our search results have a “managed by a private host” label and a description of what that means. All other Accommodations, to the best of our knowledge, are managed by “professional hosts.”

This label has no relevance in terms of tax, including VAT and other “indirect taxes” that relate to added value, sales, or consumption.

1J. Star ratings, review scores, and quality ratings

Star ratings look like 1–5 yellow stars next to the property’s name.

We don’t assign star ratings. Depending on local regulations, they’re assigned either by the Service Providers themselves or by independent third parties (e.g. organizations that rate hotels). Either way, star ratings show you how Accommodations measure up in terms of—among other things—value, facilities, and available services. We don’t impose our own standards for star ratings, and we don’t review these star ratings, but if we become aware that a star rating is inaccurate, we’ll ask the Service Provider to either prove they deserve it or adjust it.

Review scores look like a blue square with a white number from 1 to 10. We don’t assign review scores. Our customers do. Be sure to refer to “Reviews” (section 1F).

Quality ratings look like 1–5 yellow squares next to the property’s name. We assign quality ratings to certain Accommodations on our Platform. Each rating is based on 400+ features falling into five major categories:

• Facilities / amenities / services
• Property configuration (e.g. unit size, number of rooms, occupancy)
• Number and quality of photos uploaded by the Service Provider
• Average review score (and subscores that customers find particularly helpful, such as cleanliness)
• Overall historical booking data (e.g. to assess the Accommodation’s star ratings)

We use these features to identify statistical patterns and carry out machine learning analyses. This automatically calculates a quality rating between 1 and 5.

1K. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens

If you have any questions or something doesn’t go according to plan, be sure to contact us. You can do this by accessing your booking, our app, or our Help Center, where you’ll also find some useful FAQs. We handle complaints as soon as possible, treating the most urgent ones with the highest priority.

You can help us help you as quickly as possible by providing, if available:

• Your booking confirmation number and PIN, your contact details, and the email address you used when you booked your stay
• A summary of the situation you need assistance with, including how you’d like us to help you
• Any supporting documents, such as bank statements, photos, receipts, etc.

Whatever the issue, we’ll do what we can to help you.

What happens if a booking is mispriced?

Sometimes (very rarely), you might spot an obviously incorrect price on our Platform. If that happens, and if you make your booking before we correct the mistake, your booking may be canceled, and we’ll refund anything you’ve paid. We’ll remove any obvious pricing errors we find as soon as we become aware of them.

Do we ever remove Service Providers from our Platform altogether?

Absolutely. We can do so if, for example, we find out they breached their contractual obligations or provided an inaccurate description of their Accommodation and failed to correct it when we asked them.

For more information, check out “What if something goes wrong?” (A16) and “Applicable law and forum” (A20) in our Terms of Service.

1L. Overbooking

Once your booking is confirmed, your Service Provider is required to honor it.

If the Service Provider is “overbooked,” they’re responsible for finding a solution as soon as possible. We provide them with guidelines as well as practical support.

If they can’t give you the option you booked, and can’t offer you a suitable alternative:

• You’ll be able to cancel your booking at no cost (with a full refund of anything you’ve paid)
• We can help you find an alternative Accommodation in a similar category and price on our Platform. If the alternative is more expensive, we’ll refund you the difference after your stay, once you send us the invoice from the alternative Service Provider.

When it comes to refunds:

• If your Service Provider organized your payment, we’ll try to make sure they refund you as soon as possible.
• If we organized your payment, we’ll refund you ourselves. In 90% of cases, the money will be in your account within five business days, counting either from:
  • The cancellation of your original booking, or
  • The verification of the invoice you sent us to show that you stayed somewhere else.

2. Attractions

• 2A. Definitions and who we are
• 2B. How does our service work?
• 2C. Who do we work with?
• 2D. How do we make money?
• 2E. Our recommendation systems
• 2F. Reviews
• 2G. Prices
• 2H. Payments
• 2I. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens

3. Car Rentals

• 3A. Definitions and who we are
• 3B. How does our service work?
• 3C. Who do we work with?
• 3D. How do we make money?
• 3E. Our recommendation systems
• 3F. Reviews
• 3G. Prices
• 3H. Payments
• 3I. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens

4. Flights

• 4A. Definitions and who we are
• 4B. How does our service work?
• 4C. Who do we work with?
• 4D. How do we make money?
• 4E. Our recommendation systems
• 4F. Prices
• 4G. Payments
• 4H. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens

5. Private and public transportation

• 5A. Definitions and who we are
• 5B. How does our service work?
• 5C. Who do we work with?
• 5D. How do we make money?
• 5E. Our recommendation systems
• 5F. Reviews
• 5G. Prices
• 5H. Payments
• 5I. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens