Booking.com under pressure: Hotels defend themselves against best price trap

Image: hans engbers / shutterstock.com

An uprising of the small hotels - and it's a tough one

Platforms like Booking.com make traveling easy. Choose a room, click, book - done. But behind the scenes, things are boiling over. More than 15,000 hotels from Europe have now joined forces and are clearly saying: no more.

The lawsuit is directed against a system that has been annoying - some even say damaging - many hotel operators for years. Specifically, it is about so-called best price clauses. These state that anyone listed on Booking.com may not offer a lower price anywhere else - not even on their own website.

The price brake that nobody wanted - except Booking

What sounds like a fair offer was actually a real trap for many hotels. Because Booking.com collects hefty commissions for every booking - often between 15 and 25 percent. And yet hotels were not allowed to offer their rooms at a lower price if they were booked directly.

That sounds absurd? The courts thought so too. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2024: These clauses are anti-competitive. They hinder fair competition and harm smaller companies in particular, which are already struggling with tight margins.

Now the hotels want compensation. And the number of those who have joined the lawsuit is growing. A particularly large number come from Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece and the Netherlands.

Amsterdam becomes a stage - and Booking.com sits in the front row

The lawsuit is to be filed this year in Amsterdam, where Booking.com has its European headquarters. The hotel association Hotrec got the ball rolling - and according to President Alexandros Vassilikos, the response has been huge: "The dominant gatekeeper must change its behavior and take responsibility for its misconduct."

Sounds clear. And it will be exciting to see how Booking.com reacts when, instead of individual voices, thousands suddenly say: "Enough is enough."

Our opinion: Market leaders who behave like monopolists should not be surprised

Booking.com was a practical helper for a long time - but at some point, the platform evolved from an intermediary to a clock generator. If you don't keep up, you're kicked out or end up on page 10 - at least that's how many hotels felt.

And now it turns out that the method was not only inconvenient, but apparently unlawful. The ruling from Luxembourg speaks for itself. The fact that thousands of companies are now suing together is a strong sign.

It's about time. Platforms are allowed to have power - but not without limits. When they start writing the rules themselves, it gets dangerous. And uncomfortable. Not just for hotels - but also for free competition.