10,000 Hotels Are Taking Booking.com to Court

Booking.com might soon be swapping “Book Now” for “Lawyer Up” as over 10,000 hotels across Europe are dragging them to court. The accusation? Two decades of acting like that mate who insists on splitting the bill evenly after ordering lobster and three cocktails.

The hotels, led by Hotrec (fancy name for the big union of hotels, cafés and restaurants), say Booking.com forced them into “best price” deals. Translation: if you put a room on your own website for €100, you couldn’t make it cheaper there than on Booking.com – meaning more cash for them, less for you. In some cases, hotels claim they were left with €75 from a €100 booking. That’s barely enough for a steak dinner in Dublin these days.

The lawsuit covers 2004–2024, and comes hot on the heels of a European Court ruling and the shiny new EU Digital Markets Act – which finally made Booking.com bin those pricing rules.

Of course, Booking.com says this is all a big misunderstanding. The hotels say it’s daylight robbery in a dressing gown. One thing’s for sure – this could turn into one of Europe’s messiest hospitality bust-ups since that waiter in Dublin took on about 12 lads and started roundhouse kicking them down the street.