Booking.com
Flagged · AvoidOne of the world's largest online travel platforms, connecting travelers with hotels, vacation rentals, and experiences in nearly every country.
Last updated May 16, 2026
Reasons to avoid
Issues span:Human RightsConsumerAntitrustPrivacy
- A Guardian investigation found Booking.com listing properties on land seized from Palestinian families, including a home near Bethlehem forcibly taken from the Kisiya family by Israeli settlers in July 2024 despite the family winning their court case. The UN named Booking.com among 16 companies tied to Israeli settlement operations, and the investigation found 760 rooms listed across Booking.com and Airbnb in illegal settlements.
- The Dutch Consumers' Association proved in 2024 that Booking.com used fake discounts, incomplete prices, and fabricated scarcity alerts to manipulate consumer decisions in violation of Dutch and EU law. By June 2025, over 130,000 consumers had joined a class action lawsuit seeking more than 1 billion euros in damages.
- Spain's competition authority issued Booking.com its largest-ever antitrust fine of 413 million euros in July 2024, for abusing its dominant market position by forcing hotels to offer their lowest prices exclusively on its platform and manipulating search rankings to freeze out competing booking services.
- A 2026 data breach at Booking.com exposed customer booking details and triggered a wave of reservation hijacking scams, in which fraudsters impersonated hotels inside the Booking.com app to steal payment information from travelers. UK fraud authorities logged hundreds of victims losing a combined 370,000 pounds.
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