booking.com

In 1996, Geert-Jan Bruinsma, a student at University of Twente, founded Bookings.nl. In 2000, Booking.com was formed when Bookings.nl merged with Bookings Online and operated as Bookings.org. The name and URL were changed to Booking.com, with Stef Noorden appointed as its CEO. In July 2005, the company was acquired by Priceline Group (now called Booking Holdings) for $133 million. It was merged with ActiveHotels.com, a European hotel booking company founded by cousins Andy Phillipps and Adrian Critchlow in 1998 and purchased by Priceline Group for $161 million in September 2004.

In 2006, Active Hotels Limited changed its name to Booking.com Limited. The merger of Booking.com and Active Hotels helped its parent company improve from a deficit of $19 million in 2002 to $1.1 billion in profit in 2011. The acquisition of Booking.com was praised by some as “the best acquisition in Internet history”. Between 2010 and 2012, the company launched mobile apps for the iPad, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows 8, and Kindle Fire. Since January 2013, advertisements have dubbed "booking.com" as "booking.yeah."

In 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States decided within the Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V. case that the term "Booking.com", via the suffix ".com", had created an identity that could be differentiated from the generic verb and hence could be trademarked. In the summer of 2023, Booking.com announced the start of testing an artificial intelligence-based travel planner based on ChatGPT, intended to help choose a direction, plan a route, or answer questions. The service will be available to a limited American userbase. In November 2023, Booking.com launched the ability to make cruise reservations in the United States, in partnership with World Travel Holdings.

Management history

Darren Huston was appointed as the CEO in September 2011, serving from 1 January 2014 until his resignation on 28 April 2016 due to an exposé of his extramarital affair with another employee. Gillian Tans succeeded Huston, but resigned in 2019. She was succeeded by Glenn Fogel.

In February 2015, an open letter published by German hotelier Marco Nussbaum, co-founder of the "prizeotel" budget-design hotel brand, strongly criticized Booking.com's "brand hijacking" activity, where the company bade significant sums of money to become the top listing on Google Search for several hotels.

Property safety incidents

In July 2026, a family reportedly found a stranger hidden behind the wall of their booked holiday rental, despite it being advertised as "the entire home is yours." On 24 July 2026, an accommodation host threatened to sue Booking.com for allegedly issuing an €805 refund to a guest who damaged her holiday rental and stole €500-worth of items.

Other customers highlighted difficulties seeking refund over unsafe properties reserved via Booking.com, with Booking.com reportedly denying responsibility on the basis that it is "not a contractual party" in any agreements between customers and hoteliers. Hoteliers are also not seen by Booking.com as liable for compensating customers.

Inclusion of listing in Israeli settlements

On 12 February 2020, the company was included on a list of companies operating in West Bank settlements involved in activities that "raised particular human rights concerns" published by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The company was categorized under "the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements". In September 2022, the company added a warning to its listings in Israeli settlements, although the language was toned down at the request of the Israeli government.

In November 2023, human rights organizations including ELSC, Al-Haq, SOMO, and The Rights Forum filed a criminal complaint in the Netherlands against Booking.com, accusing it of profiting from war crimes by listing vacation rentals in illegal Israeli settlements, under international law, on occupied Palestinian land — which they argue constitutes money laundering under Dutch law. The groups demand accountability, citing international law, UN blacklisting since 2020, and corporate complicity in apartheid-like systems. Booking.com dismissed wrongdoing and claims U.S. laws prevent divestment.

In February 2026, a coalition of Spanish civil society organisations filed a criminal complaint in the courts of Madrid against eDreams ODIGEO, Booking.com, and an Expedia subsidiary. The complaint alleged money laundering from proceeds linked to war crimes in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, invoking Articles 301 and 611 of the Spanish Penal Code and Spain's Royal Decree-Law 10/2025, adopted in September 2025, which prohibits the advertising of services in occupied territories.