Looks like Booking.com is facing serious heat from the hospitality world. More than 10,000 hotels across Europe have joined a class action lawsuit over the platform’s old best price clause. This rule once stopped hotels from offering cheaper rates on their own websites, essentially locking them into pricing dictated by Booking.com. A 2024 European Court of Justice ruling declared the clause illegal, and now hotel groups are seeking damages from as far back as 2004.
As someone who books both through OTAs and directly, I always wondered how hotels could offer better perks but not better prices. Curious to see how this will reshape hotel pricing and if more travelers will start booking direct. Anyone else think it’s about time platforms like this get checked?
0