Rental cars, flights, cabs and excursions can also be compared and booked via the portal of Booking Holdings, which is based in Connecticut in the USA. In addition to Booking.com, the company also owns the travel search engine KAYAK, as well as the platforms Priceline (service provider for discounted travel), Agoda (online hotel booking platform), Rentalcars.com (comparison site for rental cars) and Open Table (reservation and guest management for restaurants).

Despite a slump in revenue of more than 50 percent in 2020, the Group recovered quickly from the consequences of the pandemic and already exceeded pre-crisis levels in 2022. In 2023, Booking Holdings generated a sales volume of 21.37 billion euros. This economic strength is mainly due to the dominant market position of the Booking.com brand. In Europe in particular, Booking.com benefits from the so-called network effect. The large user base makes Booking.com increasingly attractive for hotels, as they can reach a large number of potential guests here. At the same time, the platform is attracting more and more customers, as they know that they can find a wide range of accommodation on Booking.com. Another reason for OTA Booking.com's market dominance is the company's high marketing spend of 6.9 billion in 2023, which corresponds to more than 30 percent of total revenue.

According to the AHGZ, 29.6 percent of all overnight stays across Europe were booked via online booking portals (OTAs). Although this share is as high as 31.2 percent in Germany, an overall decline of 4.9 percentage points can be observed compared to 2021. A study by Hotrec shows that Booking Holdings is the leading OTA provider, with a Europe-wide market share of 71.0 percent and 72.3 percent in Germany – a share that has grown steadily over the last ten years.

Its virtually unique position in the market makes Booking.com the most important booking and comparison portal for travelers and therefore the most important sales channel – especially for smaller hotels with a low number of direct bookings. The portal gives them access to international markets and helps them achieve greater visibility and a wider reach. Brand-independent hotels are particularly reliant on OTAs, as they lack a brand-owned, internationally visible distribution system and often have a limited marketing budget. By advertising on these platforms, hotels can increase their visibility among potential guests while saving resources. At the same time, Booking.com takes care of the entire booking process, from payment to communication with guests, which reduces the workload for hotel operators. The problem here is that hoteliers “lose” a customer in the database – the contact details remain with Booking.com. In addition, hoteliers have to pay a commission to Booking for each booking, the amount of which depends on their dependence on the OTA. Brand hotels that are less dependent on Booking.com and already sell a significant proportion of their room contingent via other distribution channels pay significantly lower commissions than private hotels that sell the majority of their room contingent via Booking.com.

However, Booking's market dominance also brings disadvantages. Due to its strong market position and the resulting pressure on hoteliers, the company has repeatedly made negative headlines in recent months. Whether through “rate parity clauses”, “allegations of fraud” or “illegal communication techniques”, the company appears to be exploiting its market power and imposing sometimes unfair terms and conditions on hotels.

In September 2024, the European Court of Justice ruled in favor of hoteliers in the antitrust dispute, thereby establishing legal certainty with regard to best price clauses within the EU. Accordingly, best price clauses cannot be regarded as ancillary agreements. These clauses oblige hotels to offer the same or a better price on OTA platforms than via other booking channels, such as their own website.

Motel One founder Dieter Müller criticizes in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung that Booking.com is increasingly tying hotel guests to the online provider through its apparent membership program, even though the platform itself does not own any hotel rooms, but merely sells them. By passing on part of the commission directly to travelers in the form of membership discounts, the OTA makes it more difficult for hotels to promote direct bookings via their own websites. Does this leave the hotel industry with the logical answer of offering their rooms exclusively via their own platforms and no longer via Booking.com?

Expedia and HRS, also well-known competitors on the German market, offer an alternative to Booking.com with an aggregated share of a solid 30 percent. In addition to these, the Chinese company Trip.com is also planning to significantly expand its market presence in the coming years and thus become a serious competitor to Booking.com.

The Chinese Trip.com Group, formerly Ctrip, which also owns the flight search portal Skyscanner, is focusing on artificial intelligence in order to increase efficiency and offer its customers personalized offers. For its growth strategy, the company is focusing primarily on strategic partnerships with global providers such as Amadeus and Rail Europe as well as on the growing domestic and international travel behavior of Chinese customers. Trip.com also plans to target older audiences and capitalize on the potential of senior markets, which was accompanied by a 90 percent increase in users over the age of 50 compared to 2019. The provider continues to focus on direct traffic growth and improved cross-selling to optimize its marketing spend.

The fact is, however, that whether Booking, Expedia or Trip.com, the share of direct booking revenue has decreased, while OTA revenue has increased. This shift indicates an increasing reliance on OTAs, which generally charge high commission rates. One of the main reasons for the growing importance of OTAs is the recent changes to Google search results for hotels, which have led to organic results being pushed further down and therefore less visible. Does this mean that independence from Booking.com & Co. is still out of the question?

The elimination of best price clauses will create fairer competitive conditions between OTAs and hotels' direct booking channels. As a result, hotels can at least rely more on direct bookings and thus reduce their dependence on third-party platforms and generate a larger share of their revenue directly.

However, hotels need a clear strategy for this: first, all relevant key figures such as website traffic, booking turnover, sales mix and acquisition costs must be thoroughly analyzed in order to make informed decisions about the best sales channel. Investing in paid advertising, especially for the hotel name, is more important than ever to increase visibility in search queries and attract qualified visitors. For smaller businesses in particular, expert partners are essential to provide valuable insights and help optimize SEO and marketing strategies to respond effectively to the dynamic online competitive environment.

In conclusion, Booking.com remains the most important OTA, but growing competition and new legal regulations are strengthening the position of the hotel industry. In an increasingly digital world, hoteliers should use these opportunities to thoroughly analyze their distribution strategies and regain more control over pricing and distribution channels in the long term. This does not mean turning their backs on Booking.com & Co. completely. Private hotels in particular, which do not have the necessary marketing framework for an independent international positioning, benefit from the reach of an OTA. Nevertheless, it is crucial to avoid dependence on a single platform and to align your own sales channels flexibly with your business objectives.