The Shit List / Travel / Booking.com · full spec sheet · jump to the Wall ↓
Severity
65 / 100▲6
SEVEREpeak 66ranked #7 of 42people’s rank #2 · preview
Case 007 · Travel · Admitted 2019
The Enshittification of Booking.com
The Enshittification of Booking.comBooking.com has faced repeated regulatory action over sales tactics, including 2019 UK competition authority undertakings on pressure selling and hidden charges and EU-coordinated commitments to stop misleading urgency and discount displays. Competition authorities have targeted its treatment of hotels: Spain imposed a record 413 million euro fine in 2024, the EU designated the platform a Digital Markets Act gatekeeper, and more than 10,000 European hotels joined a damages action over its former rate-parity clauses. The company has also drawn criticism for months-long payment failures to hosts in 2023 and data protection lapses, including a fine for late breach notification and a 2026 breach of customer data.
First symptom
Feb 2019
Symptoms on file
8
Categories
4
Prognosis
Severe
2 privacy · 1 quality · 3 pricing · 2 lock-in
Alternatives
Google Hotelsfree
Compares rates across booking sites and the hotel's own website side by side, making it easy to book direct and skip platform commissions baked into room prices.
HotelTonightfree
Last-minute hotel deals in a simple app with upfront total pricing and no countdown-timer pressure tactics.
The Paper Trail
| Date | Category | Symptom · rating · source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-02 | pricing | UK CMA secures undertakings over pressure selling and hidden chargesBooking.com was among six booking sites that gave the UK Competition and Markets Authority legally binding commitments to stop pressure-selling tactics such as misleading availability and popularity claims, to make discount claims accurate, to display all compulsory charges in headline prices, and to disclose how commissions affect rankings. The CMA had found examples of sites placing sold-out hotels in search results to rush customers into booking.↳ GOV.UK (Competition and Markets Authority) |
| 2019-12 | pricing | EU action forces changes to urgency messaging and discount displaysFollowing dialogue with the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities, Booking.com committed to stop presenting time-limited offers that remained available after the timer expired, to ensure advertised discounts represented genuine savings, to clarify that availability counts referred only to its own platform, and to display total prices clearly. The changes were required to be in place by June 2020.↳ European Commission |
| 2021-03 | privacy | Dutch regulator fines Booking.com for late data breach notificationThe Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Booking.com 475,000 euros for reporting a data breach 22 days after learning of it, far beyond the GDPR's 72-hour requirement. The breach exposed personal data of more than 4,000 customers, including around 300 credit card numbers, after criminals obtained hotel staff login credentials.↳ The Record |
| 2023-10 | quality | Hosts worldwide left unpaid for months amid 'back end' problemsHundreds of Booking.com hosts from Denmark to Brazil reported waiting months for payouts the company attributed to back-end system upgrades, with around 3,000 hosts joining a Facebook group about missing payments and Denmark's economic affairs minister calling the situation 'unacceptable.' The delays persisted while the company reported 1.2 billion euros in quarterly profit.↳ DutchNews.nl |
| 2024-05 | lock-in | EU designates Booking.com a Digital Markets Act gatekeeperThe European Commission designated Booking.com a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act for its online intermediation service, concluding it is an important gateway between businesses and consumers. The designation gave the company six months to comply with DMA obligations, including bans on self-preferencing and restrictions it imposes on business users.↳ European Commission |
| 2024-07 | lock-in | Spain imposes record 413 million euro abuse-of-dominance fineSpain's competition authority CNMC fined Booking.com 413.2 million euros, the largest antitrust fine in Spanish history, for imposing unfair terms on hotels since 2019 and restricting competition from rival online travel agencies. Findings included price-parity obligations that barred hotels from undercutting Booking.com on their own sites while the platform reserved the right to lower their prices itself.↳ TechCrunch |
| 2025-04 | pricing | More than 10,000 European hotels join damages claim over rate parityOver 10,000 European hotels joined a collective action seeking compensation from Booking.com for rate-parity clauses that barred them from offering lower prices on their own websites between 2004 and 2024. The action followed a European Court of Justice ruling that such clauses were not necessary for the platform to function.↳ Belga News Agency |
| 2026-04 | privacy | Booking.com confirms hackers accessed customer dataBooking.com confirmed that hackers accessed customers' personal data, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and booking details, and said it was notifying affected customers. The incident added to a history of security lapses involving the platform and its hotel partners.↳ TechCrunch |
The Wall
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<a href="https://enshittification.xyz/booking-com"><img src="https://enshittification.xyz/badge/booking-com.svg" alt="Booking.com on the Enshittification Index"></a>The Enshittification Index · 42 case files · no source, no entry · updated Jun 2026
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