A Hotel Can Charge Less on Its Own Site. Europe Had to Make Booking.com Mean It.

A hotel can now offer a room for less on its own website than it does on Booking.com across the European Economic Area. That sounds like an ordinary pricing decision. For years, the harder question was whether the platform that brought hotels their customers could still make that decision costly.

On September 28, the European Commission published a new account of Booking.com’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act. The update is less about a dramatic new ban than about the mechanics underneath an existing one: rankings, discount programs and the information hotels receive about how their listings perform.

The rule was already in place

The EU designated Booking Holdings a gatekeeper in May 2024, and Booking.com’s obligations under the Digital Markets Act began on November 14 of that year. Article 5(3) of the law prevents a gatekeeper from stopping a business user from offering different prices or conditions through another channel. A hotel should be able to sell a room directly, or through a rival service, on terms it chooses.

Booking.com removed contractual price-parity clauses from its European Economic Area terms and partner programs in July 2024. The Commission’s September factsheet says Booking.com also stopped using prices elsewhere to determine its default ranking and participation in programs such as Genius and Preferred. Yet prices on other sites still mattered to eligibility for a separate promotion called the Booking Sponsored Benefit.

Reception at Hotel Esplanade, Stockholm. Photograph by JIP, 2023. Source; CC BY-SA 4.0. Used for illustration without changes.

That distinction matters because a platform can leave a hotel’s contract alone while still shaping its incentives. If a lower price on the hotel’s own site affects access to visibility or a platform-funded discount, formal freedom may be difficult to use in practice. The issue is not only whether a rule permits price differences, but whether the surrounding system quietly discourages them.

Where the new measures reach

According to the Commission, Booking.com has now stopped considering prices on other websites when deciding whether an accommodation qualifies for the Booking Sponsored Benefit. Under that program, Booking.com may show a lower price to a customer and pay the difference itself. The property still receives its set rate, and its commission is unchanged.

The company is also giving accommodation partners more information about bookings generated by that benefit and clearer explanations of its other partner programs. The Commission says external price scans will be informational rather than used to determine access to those programs, and that the labels “competitive” and “noncompetitive” have been removed. Booking.com has committed to further terms changes concerning ranking later in 2026.

A room at Hotel Esplanade, Stockholm. Photograph by JIP, 2023. Source; CC BY-SA 4.0. Used for illustration without changes.

What travelers should, and should not, infer

These changes make it easier for hotels to set a direct price without worrying that a different price elsewhere will affect eligibility for the named program. They do not establish that rooms will become cheaper. A hotel may keep prices aligned for other reasons, and a customer may still prefer an intermediary for convenience, loyalty benefits or customer service.

The Commission describes the measures as voluntary steps following regulatory dialogue and says its account does not prejudge ongoing national proceedings. That is a narrower conclusion than a declaration that every question about Booking.com’s practices has been settled.

The broader test is whether a hotel can make a meaningful choice about where and how to sell its rooms. Europe’s rule addressed the contract. This week’s update shows why regulators also have to look at the platform features that give that contract its practical force.

Sources

European Commission, September 28, 2026: Booking.com DMA compliance factsheet.

European Union: Digital Markets Act, Article 5(3).

European Commission, November 14, 2024: Booking.com compliance deadline.