ARTICLE 1 OF 6 · THE BASICS
How Booking.com becomes the silent co-owner of your property
Imagine renting out your holiday home — and a company in Amsterdam gets a say in what you actually receive for it. That is exactly what happens when you list your property on Booking.com without understanding the mechanics behind it.
Most owners on La Palma know Booking.com simply as a distribution channel: you list the property, guests book, and eventually money arrives. What often gets overlooked is how much control over your own price you actually give up in the process — and how much is really left over at the end.
A concrete example
We came across this example by chance, while checking availability in the Booking.com app for a property we ourselves offer. With us, the week costs €540. In the Booking.com app, for exactly the same period (17–24 November), a crossed-out “original price” of €549 is shown, reduced with Genius Level 3 to €450.
Even the displayed “original price” of €549 already sits slightly above our direct price. But the real story is the Genius price: €450 looks like a bargain to the guest compared to the crossed-out €549 — yet it is already €90 below our regular price. Let’s look at what’s left of that for the owner:
| Item | Amount | Difference |
| Price with us (direct price) | €540 | — |
| “Original price” on Booking.com (crossed out) | €549 | + €9 |
| Actual price on Booking.com (Genius 3) | €450 | − €90 |
| Less commission (approx. 15%) | ≈ €382 | − €158 |
| Less credit card fees | ≈ €369–376 | − approx. €164–171 |
In the end, the owner is left with only about €369–376 through Booking.com — almost 32% less than the €540 direct price that same guest would have paid with us. The guest thinks they’ve snagged a great deal (“€99 off!”). In reality, the owner alone has funded the entire discount, plus the commission.
How Booking.com takes over pricing control
The mechanism behind this is known in the industry as “rate parity.” For years, Booking.com contractually required owners not to offer a lower price on any other channel — not even their own website — than on Booking.com itself. The goal: Booking.com should always be the cheapest option, or at least equally cheap.
The problem: even though the base price had to stay identical, Booking.com could still lower the final price the guest actually pays through its own discount programmes, such as Genius. That discount is not paid by Booking.com — it is paid by the owner.
As a result, it is effectively no longer the owner who decides what the property costs, but an algorithm that grants discounts in the background to keep guests on the platform.
What the courts have said
This practice is no longer just a matter of opinion. In September 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Booking.com’s so-called best-price clauses violate EU competition law. Since then, more than 15,000 hotels across Europe have joined a class action seeking compensation for lost revenue between 2004 and 2024. In Spain, the competition authority CNMC additionally imposed a record fine of €413 million on Booking.com.
What applies to hotels affects holiday-home owners under the very same logic: here too, the platform effectively determines the price — except that among small, individual owners, there is often no one who fully understands this mechanism, let alone challenges it.
What this means for you
- Before listing your property on Booking.com, you should know exactly what actually ends up in your pocket — not just what the guest pays.
- A simple calculation of “price minus commission” is not enough. Discount programmes like Genius need to be factored in as well.
- You only keep control if you build your direct sales — through your own website and local partners — strong enough that Booking.com never needs to become your main channel.
💬 Do you actually know what your property earns after Booking.com — or do you only know the price the guest sees?
Part 1 of a 6-part series. Next: the Genius programme — and who really pays for the discount.