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EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

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Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#51

Post by carlosjobim »

rurban wrote: post #49
carlosjobim wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing predatory that I know of booking.com's practices. I know that hackers have a categorical hostility towards any large company (but not towards large governments or large banks of course), but could you explain what Booking.com does wrong? Are they supposed to provide a central search engine with availability and reviews and a large customer base for free to any hotel owner? And when any guest makes a…

Ask any hotel manager if he likes booking.com or if he prefers independent or direct booking. It's a racket

I used to be a hotel manager. Now I work in almost direct competition to booking. Booking is not a racket, you are free to not use them if you don't like them and you are free to take rooms away from booking if you want to limit how much they can sell. The hotel has compete control of how they use booking.

Your job as a hotel manager is to do what you can to increase direct reservations and reduce booking.com's share of your total reservations. But the reality is that most are too lazy or incompetent to make guests comfortable to book directly instead of through booking. Some hotels are even so donkey brained that they offer better rates on booking than on their own website. Then cry to regulators?

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#52

Post by dzhiurgis »

carlosjobim wrote: post #38
belorn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the keypoints of the DMA, this change should require that: Booking.com can not prevent hotels from providing booking through other sites. booking.com can not prevent hotels from advertising special deals without giving booking.com a cut. booking.com must give hotels tools to independent verify advertisements that hotels are paying for. Booking.com must give hotels access to booking data in real time, and must pr…

Number 1: Booking.com has never prevented hotels from providing booking through other sites. Number 2: Booking.com has always demanded that any room sold by them cannot be cheaper anywhere else. Every third party seller demands this. Hint: You don't have to sell all of your rooms through booking. This rule could destroy booking.com depending on how it is enforced, since hotels could then just use them as a free adver…

How would you regulate them if at all?

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#53

Post by carlosjobim »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #52
carlosjobim wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Number 1: Booking.com has never prevented hotels from providing booking through other sites. Number 2: Booking.com has always demanded that any room sold by them cannot be cheaper anywhere else. Every third party seller demands this. Hint: You don't have to sell all of your rooms through booking. This rule could destroy booking.com depending on how it is enforced, since hotels could then just use them as a free adver…

How would you regulate them if at all?

The purpose of regulation should be to combat harmful business practices and not to try to destroy a company that grows too big for the tastes of EU politicians. Does Booking.com use their size to harm competitors in any harmful way? Not that I know. Do they abuse their customers or accommodation partners? Not that I know. Regulators should show some evidence before making hostile moves, it seems they are just acting on ideology and not in the interests of the customer. But EU rulers and their worshippers among the population do live in a kind of fantasy land of 300 page PDFs, while ignoring very tangible problems.

Booking.com should of course have to make good on any promises or deals they make with guests and with hotels, which they seem to do.

If there's one thing that regulators should take a look at, it is the practice of selling non-refundable hotel nights. Booking.com does it together with hotels who able such offers and the whole industry does it at a limited scale, and have always done it. But the way I see it, there is no reason that a hotel shouldn't be able to always refund any room if it is cancelled at least one month before the stay. You should always be able to find another occupant for the room within one month. The only reason hotels sell non-refundable rooms is with the hope of double dipping when somebody has mistakenly reserved it without paying notice that it was non-refundable. I can see no argument against mandating a one month free cancellation for all hotel bookings on land.

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#54

Post by allarm »

gruez wrote: post #45
rightbyte wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is destroying business. Middle men like Hotels.com etc are destroying business by adding a hidden extra booking fee from the consumers.

Would you rather be forced to scour a dozen hotel sites individually to find a place to stay? Arguably "Middle men like Hotels.com etc" are providing a valuable service by allowing consumers to comparison shop in one place. Unless you think such sites should be government funded, it's only fair that they charge a fee for their service.

> Would you rather be forced to scour a dozen hotel sites individually to find a place to stay?

Yes.

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#55

Post by gorbypark »

moi2388 wrote: post #31
gorbypark wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in this case booking.com was founded in Amsterdam and were purchased by an American company at some point and they aren't there just for tax reasons. I guess it is possible it is the reason they stay there, though!

No this happens a lot. The only reason is tax benefits. They do need an office with alike 10 employees and a flower in it though (to ensure there are actually people there lol), but that’s about it. So they either stay in NL, or do some sandwich with London or Dublin. It helps that the main Dutch party VVD is completely corrupt and only in there to enrich themselves.

Can't speak for their corporate structure, but according to this blog post about their new campus, they have 6,500 employees in Amsterdam alone. https://news.booking.com/bookingcom-officially-opens-new-cam....

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#56

Post by personomas »

gruez wrote: post #44
personomas wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to get into the specifics of DMA on this one case. DMA is like a labyrinth of legal disaster, I'm not even going to get started lost in it right now.

In other words, "just trust me bro"?

No, that's not what I'm saying. Just because I clarify my position doesn't meant that I'm asking you to believe me or trust it.

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#57

Post by personomas »

allarm wrote: post #54
gruez wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you rather be forced to scour a dozen hotel sites individually to find a place to stay? Arguably "Middle men like Hotels.com etc" are providing a valuable service by allowing consumers to comparison shop in one place. Unless you think such sites should be government funded, it's only fair that they charge a fee for their service.

> Would you rather be forced to scour a dozen hotel sites individually to find a place to stay? Yes.

And you're still welcome to, and that's the thing. The existence of Booking.com doesn't prevent that.

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#58

Post by personomas »

jeltz wrote: post #47
personomas wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No DMA will and does destroy business.

But does it destroy any non-predatory businesses? If other people here are correct it should be trivial for Booking to comply since they are already almost compliant.

Yes. And it causes gazillions in legal costs for everyone.

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#59

Post by pjc50 »

personomas wrote: post #56
gruez wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, "just trust me bro"?

No, that's not what I'm saying. Just because I clarify my position doesn't meant that I'm asking you to believe me or trust it.

You haven't even clarified!

Re: EU commission designates Booking.com as a digital gatekeeper under DMA

#60

Post by personomas »

pjc50 wrote: post #59
personomas wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's not what I'm saying. Just because I clarify my position doesn't meant that I'm asking you to believe me or trust it.

You haven't even clarified!

I'm announcing my position. Call it what you want.

Just because I make an argument on HN, doesn't mean I need to back it up with books of explanation.

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