Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, May 30, 2025, is below. Booking.com features prominently (again) in our Update this week as investigations into, and claims against, the major online travel agent increase (these things seem to come in waves). I hope you enjoy.
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- European Hoteliers Unite in Claims Against Booking.com. The national hotel associations of 25 European countries announced this past week plans to bring a class action against Booking.com. Seeking to leverage the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) September 2024 ruling that Booking.com’s parity provisions violated EU competition law, the hoteliers seek the recovery of portions of commissions paid during 2004 – 2024. The claims will be led by Stichting Hotel Claims Alliance and are expected to be filed in a Netherlands court. In response, Booking.com has stated that it is unaware of the announced claims and disputed the precedential value of the ECJ’s decision.
- Greek Authorities Investigating Unnamed Online Hotel Accommodations Booking Service. On Friday, Greek competition authorities announced that it was “prioritizing” an investigation into an “undertaking” operating in the market of online accommodations booking services. The investigation was triggered by a complaint and is reported to be at an “advanced” stage.
- Hopper Ads UK Bank to HTS Powered Channels. UK bank, Lloyds, announced a new partnership with HTS (Hopper’s B2B division) to power Lloyd’s new travel booking portal, Lloyd’s Travel Booking. The portal, the first by a UK bank, offers cardholders access to flights and accommodations as well as HTS’ other fintech offerings – price protection, price prediction, etc.
- Generative AI’s Impact on Hospitality. If you’ve not joined one of Phocuswright’s recent webinars (The New Age(nts) Trend Series) on generative AI, I encourage you to do so. This past week’s episode focused specifically on AI and distribution. The recent episode is available here.
- “The Machine” – Booking.com. Like many of you, I’ve heard many stories of the tell all book about Booking.com’s rise to prominence in the online travel world. Although Skift was kind enough to recently share some of the book’s many highlights, I’m still searching for an English translation of the book. If anyone ever finds an English translation, please let me know.
Have a great week.