Booking.com drops parity clauses for EU hotels

On November 13, Booking.com published the changes it made to its business practices to comply with the EU’s Digital Market Act (DMA), which aims to promote fairness and competitiveness in the digital market. This includes the removal of parity requirements that previously prevented hotels from offering better rates on their own platforms.

Compliance with the DMA has had severe impacts on other gatekeepers, particularly Google, one of the DMA’s first designated gatekeepers.

According to hospitalitynet.org, when Google made changes to its online booking platform, direct hotel bookings from Google search results dropped by 30%.

Booking.com’s modifications for compliance

Booking.com published a report naming multiple changes it is making to ensure it complies with the DMA. They include:

• Eliminating parity requirements: this allows hotels to offer lower rates on their direct booking platforms compared with their Booking.com listings.
• Enhanced data sharing: this enables business…