How we work

1A. Definitions and Who we are

Some of the words you’ll see have very specific meanings, so please check out the ‘Booking.com dictionary’ in our Terms of Service.

When you book an Accommodation, Booking.com B.V. provides and is responsible for the Platform – but not the Travel Experience itself (see 1B below). Booking.com B.V. is a company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands (registered address: Oosterdokskade 163, 1011 DL, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chamber of Commerce number: 31047344; VAT number: NL805734958B01).

1B. How does our service work?

We make it easy for you to compare Bookings from many hotels, property owners and other Service Providers.

When you make a Booking on our Platform, you enter into a contract with the Service Provider (unless otherwise stated).

The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times, but realistically it can take a few hours to update e.g. text descriptions and lists of the facilities that Accommodations provide.

1C. Who do we work with?

Only Service Providers that have a contractual relationship with us will be displayed on our Platform. They may offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform as well.

We don’t own any Accommodations ourselves - each Service Provider is a separate company that has agreed to work with us in a certain way.

Our Platform tells you how many Accommodations you can book through us worldwide - and our search results page tells you how many of them might be right for you, based on what you’ve told us.

1D. How do we make money?

We don’t buy or (re-)sell any products or services. Once your stay is finished, the Service Provider simply pays us a commission.

If the second Accommodation in your search results has a badge that says ‘Ad’, this means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there, as part of our ‘Booking Network Sponsored Ads’ programme.

1E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

All great properties deserve to be discovered. That’s why we use ‘recommendation’ systems to display information on our Platform in a way that’ll help you discover properties we think you’ll like. For example, on the ‘Stays’ landing page, you’ll find a number of recommendation systems, including:

• Trending destinations. Destinations you may want to travel to, based on Bookings made by other travellers whose searches were similar to yours.
• Homes guests love. Home properties with high review scores.
• Looking for the perfect stay? Properties (as opposed to destinations) that you may want to stay at, based on Bookings made by other guests whose searches were similar to yours.

Our search results are also a recommendation system. In fact, they’re the recommendation system that our customers use the most, so please check out ‘Our default ranking and sorting options’ below.

All the recommendation systems we use provide recommendations based on one or more of the following factors:

• What you tell us in the search form: destination, dates, number of guests, etc.
• Any information we’ve gathered based on how you interact with our Platform: your past searches on our Platform, the country where you are while browsing, etc.
• An Accommodation’s performance on our Platform:

  • its click-through rate (how many people click on it)
  • its gross bookings (how many bookings are made with that Accommodation)
  • its net bookings (how many bookings are made with that Accommodation, minus how many are cancelled)
• Information about an Accommodation’s availability, pricing scores, review scores, etc.

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book an Accommodation, each factor can be more (or less) important in different cases, depending on what we think is most likely to produce a list of properties you may want to book.

Our default ranking and sorting options

Our search results are also a recommendation system. They show all the Accommodations (hotels, apartments, etc.) that match your search. If you like, you can use filters to narrow down your results.

To see all the booking options an Accommodation offers, just click it.

When you first get your search results, they’ll be sorted (‘ordered’) by ‘Our top picks’ (called ‘Popularity’ on our app):

• To appear high up on the page, an Accommodation needs to do well in each of these three areas:

  • Click-through rate. How many people click on it
  • Gross bookings. How many bookings are made with that Accommodation
  • Net bookings. How many bookings are made with that Accommodation, minus how many are cancelled.
• As you can imagine, those numbers depend on lots of factors, including review scores, availability, policies, pricing, quality of content (e.g. photos) and other features.
• An Accommodation’s ranking can also be influenced by other things - for example, how much commission they pay us on Bookings, how quickly they usually pay it, whether they’re part of our Genius programme or Preferred Partner(+) Programme, and in certain places*, whether we organise their payments.
• Any information we've gathered based on how you interact with our Platform (including what you tell us) will also be a factor.

* At the moment, this ranking factor only applies to US Accommodations booked by US-based customers.

Many of the above factors help our recommendation system decide which Accommodations might be the most appealing and relevant to you. Some play a small role in that decision, while others play a big role -- and the importance of each factor can change, depending on the features of the Accommodation, and on how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, an Accommodation's click-through rate and number of Bookings often play a large role in the decisions. That's because they're a direct reflection of the Accommodation's overall appeal, and how satisfied its guests tend to be with what it offers.

A high click-through rate usually means that the Accommodation makes a good first impression on our Platform (e.g. through images, amenities, or descriptions) – and getting a lot of Bookings indicates that many people find it really does meet their requirements.

But other factors play a role as well. For example, we might give preference to Accommodations that are part of our Genius programme – or offer versatile, user-friendly payment policies. After all, these factors suggest that these Accommodations understand how important service and convenience are to our customers.

Our recommendations are also influenced by how other customers with similar preferences use our Platform. For example, if:

• Person A often books Accommodations in Paris, Barcelona and Rome, and
• Person B often books Accommodations in Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Berlin and Madrid

...then our recommendation system might predict that Person A would also be interested in properties in Berlin and Madrid.

If the second Accommodation in your search results has a badge that says ‘Ad’, this means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there, as part of our ‘Booking Network Sponsored Ads’ programme.

If you would prefer us not to order your search results in our default way, you can sort them in other ways, such as:

• Homes & apartments first. Homes and apartments appear higher up than hotels and other types of Accommodation.
• Price (lowest first). Accommodations with lower prices appear higher up.
• Genius discount first. Genius Accommodations appear higher up than other Accommodations.
• Property rating (high to low). Accommodations with more stars* and/or higher quality ratings* appear higher up.
• Property rating (low to high). Accommodations with fewer stars and/or lower quality ratings appear higher up.
• Top reviewed (called ‘Best reviewed’ in our app). Accommodations with higher review scores* appear higher up. If you see any instances where this isn’t the case, it’s just because we also factor in reliability (i.e. number of reviews). For example, an Accommodation with 1,000 reviews and an average score of 8.2 could appear above an Accommodation with 5 reviews and an average score of 8.3.
• Distance from (X). Accommodations that are closer to X (e.g. the city centre) appear higher up the page. (When we say ‘close’, we mean ‘close in a straight line’.)
• Property rating. Accommodations with more stars appear higher up. Within each segment (5 stars, 4 stars, etc.) the ones with lower prices appear higher up.
• Best reviewed and lowest price. Accommodations with higher review scores appear higher up. Within each 0.5 segment (between 10 and 9.5, between 9.5 and 9, etc.) the ones with lower prices appear higher up.

* Check out ‘Star ratings, review scores and quality ratings’ (1J) below.

Keep in mind that whatever sorting option you choose, the factors described in ‘Our top picks’ may still influence things. For instance, those factors might act as ‘tiebreakers’ between two or more Accommodations that would otherwise appear in the same spot. However, the ‘Our top picks’ factors are purely secondary – because they’re only used where we need to decide which of two properties to put first.

Personalised recommendations

Some of our recommendation systems make personalised recommendations based on how you have interacted with Booking.com systems such as Destination Postcards, Nearby destinations and our search results. If you’re based in the EEA, you can change your settings so our recommendation systems do not provide you with personalised recommendations. To do that – if you’re using:

• Our desktop or mobile site: click ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the footer
• Our app: tap ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the banner.

Even if you do that, we may still retain some information about you so we can give you a more convenient experience. This could be information that you provided (e.g. your phone number or email address), or that we gathered based on how you interact with our Platform.

Your preference (about personalised recommendations) will apply on any device on which you have signed in to your Booking.com account. If you’re not signed in to your account, your preference will not apply to other devices: it’ll be saved as part of your ‘cookies’, and when that cookie expires, so will your preference.

1F. Reviews

Each review score is between 1-10. To get the overall score that you see, we add up all the review scores we’ve received and divide that total by the number of review scores we’ve received. In addition, guests can also give separate ‘subscores’ for specific Travel Experience aspects, such as: location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money, and free Wi-Fi. Note that guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently, so there’s no direct link between them.

You can review an Accommodation that you booked through our Platform if you stayed there, or if you arrived at the Accommodation but didn’t actually stay there. To edit a review you’ve already submitted, please contact our Customer Service team.

We have people and automated systems that specialise in detecting fake reviews submitted to our Platform. If we find any, we delete them and, if necessary, take action against whoever’s responsible.

Anyone who spots something problematic can always report it to our Customer Service team, and our Fraud team will investigate.

Ideally, we would publish every consumer review we receive, whether positive or negative, unless it breaches our Content Standards and Guidelines.

To make sure reviews are relevant, we may only accept reviews that are submitted within 3 months of checking out, and we may stop showing reviews once they’re 36 months old - or if the Accommodation has a change of ownership.

An Accommodation may choose to reply to a review.

When you see multiple reviews, the most recent ones will be at the top, subject to a few other factors (what language a review is in, whether it’s just a score or contains comments as well, etc.). To make sure the most helpful reviews appear first, each factor can become more (or less) important – depending on how our Platform changes over time, for example.

If you would prefer us not to order reviews in our default way, you can sort them based on other factors, such as:

• Newest first
• Oldest first
• Highest scores
• Lowest scores

We sometimes show external review scores, from other well-known travel websites. We make it clear when we’ve done this.

Reviews may contain translations powered by Google, not Booking.com. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

1G. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers. We may finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.

When you make a Booking, you agree to pay the cost of the Travel Experience itself and any other charges and taxes that may apply (e.g. for any extras). Taxes and fees may vary for different reasons, such as the Service Provider’s location, the kind of room selected and the number of guests. The price description tells you whether any taxes and charges are included or excluded. You’ll be able to find more information about the price while you’re booking.

Our Platform provides descriptions of any equipment and facilities that Service Providers offer (based on what they tell us). It also tells you how much extra they’ll cost, if anything.

1H. Payments

There are three ways you might pay for your Booking:

• The Service Provider charges you at the Accommodation.
• The Service Provider charges you in advance. We (or our affiliate) will take your Payment Method details and forward them to the Service Provider.
• We organise your payment to the Service Provider in advance. We (or our affiliate) will take your Payment Method details and make sure the Service Provider is paid.

If you cancel a Booking or don’t show up, any cancellation/no-show fee and any refund will depend on the Service Provider’s cancellation/no-show policy.

1I. Host type

We ask Service Providers, wherever they are in the world, to tell us if they’re acting as a ‘private host’ or as a ‘professional host’, as defined by EU law.

EU consumer law says we have to tell you this. So if you’re in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or the United Kingdom, you might see that some Accommodations in our search results have a ‘managed by a private host’ label, and a description of what that means. All other Accommodations, to the best of our knowledge, are managed by ‘professional hosts’.

This label has no relevance in terms of tax, including VAT and other ‘indirect taxes’ that relate to added value, sales or consumption.

1J. Star ratings, review scores and quality ratings

We don’t assign star ratings. Depending on local regulations, they’re assigned (a) by the Service Providers themselves or (b) by independent third parties (e.g. organisations that rate hotels). Either way, star ratings show you how Accommodations measure up in terms of - amongst others - value, facilities and available services. We don’t impose our own standards for star ratings, and we don’t review these star ratings, but if we become aware that a star rating is inaccurate, we’ll ask the Service Provider to either prove they deserve it… or adjust it!

What a star rating looks like: 1 - 5 yellow stars next to the property’s name.

We don’t assign review scores. Our customers do. See ‘Reviews’ (1F) above.

What a review score looks like: a blue square with a white number in it (1 - 10).

We do assign quality ratings. To help customers find the ideal Accommodation for them, we assign quality ratings to certain Accommodations on our Platform. Each rating is based on 400+ features, which fall into 5 major categories:

• facilities/amenities/services
• ‘property configuration’ (e.g. unit size, number of rooms and occupancy)
• number and quality of photos uploaded by the Service Provider
• average review score (and subscores that we know customers find particularly helpful, such as cleanliness)
• overall historical Booking data (for example, to assess Accommodations’ star ratings).

We use these features to figure out statistical patterns, and we carry out an analysis using machine learning. This automatically calculates a quality rating of between 1 and 5.

What a quality rating looks like: 1 - 5 yellow squares next to the property’s name.

1K. Help and advice - if the unexpected happens

If you have any questions, or something doesn’t go according to plan, just contact us. You can do this by accessing your Booking, or through our app, or through our Help Centre where you’ll also find some useful FAQs). We handle complaints as soon as possible, treating the most urgent ones as the highest priority

You can help us help you as quickly as possible - by providing:

• your Booking confirmation number, your Booking.com PIN code, your contact details, and the email address you used when you booked your stay
• a summary of the situation you need assistance with, including how you’d like us to help you
• any supporting documents (bank statement, photos, receipts, etc.).

Whatever the issue, we will do what we can to help you.

• What happens if a Booking is mispriced? Sometimes (very rarely), you might see an obvious incorrect price on our Platform. If that happens, and if you make your Booking before we correct the mistake, your Booking may be cancelled, and we’ll refund anything you’ve paid.
• Do we ever remove Service Providers from our Platform altogether? Of course. We can do that if we find out that they’ve breached their contractual obligations, for example, or that they’ve provided an inaccurate description of their Accommodation (and failed to correct it when we asked them to).

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A15) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A19) in our Terms of Service.

1L. Overbooking

Once your Booking is confirmed, your Service Provider is required to honour it. If the Service Provider is ‘overbooked’, they’re responsible for finding a solution as soon as possible - but we provide them with guidelines, as well as practical help.

If they can’t give you the option you booked and they can’t offer you a suitable alternative:

• you’ll be able to cancel your Booking at no cost (with a refund of anything you’ve paid)
• if you like, we’ll then help you choose an alternative Accommodation of a similar category and price on our Platform (if available) – and if it’s a bit more expensive, we’ll refund the difference when you send us the invoice that you get from your new Service Provider.

When it comes to refunds...

• If your Service Provider had organised your payment, we’ll try to ensure they refund you as soon as possible.
• If we had organised your payment, we’ll refund you ourselves. In 90% of cases, the money should be in your account within 5 working days of the time when:

  • your original Booking is cancelled, or
  • we verify the invoice you send us (to show that you stayed somewhere else).

2A. Definitions and Who we are

Some of the words you’ll see have very specific meanings, so please check out the ‘Booking.com dictionary’ in our Terms of Service.

When you book an Attraction, Booking.com B.V. provides and is responsible for the Platform – but not the Travel Experience itself (see 2B below). Booking.com B.V. is a company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands (registered address: Oosterdokskade 163, 1011 DL, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chamber of Commerce number: 31047344; VAT number: NL805734958B01).

2B. How does our service work?

We provide a place for you to find and book Attraction services.

When you make a Booking on our Platform, you enter into a contract with the Service Provider - or with the company that’s acting as an intermediary/reseller.

The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers and/or Third-Party Aggregators tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times.

2C. Who do we work with?

We have contractual relationships with various Third-Party Aggregators. Only Service Providers that have a direct relationship with them will be displayed on our Platform.

In some cases, those Third-Party Aggregators act as intermediaries to the Service Providers - and in some cases, they actually buy Attraction services and resell them.

Both Service Providers and Third-Party Aggregators may offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform as well (so what the Third-Party Aggregators offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive).

Our Platform tells you how many Attractions you can book through us worldwide - and our search results page tells you how many of them might be right for you, based on what you’ve told us.

2D. How do we make money?

We don’t buy or (re-)sell any products or services - when you make a Booking, the Third-Party Aggregator simply pays us a commission.

And we don’t charge any booking fees at all.

2E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select and/or rank the information on our Platform to help you discover Travel Experiences we think you’ll like. For example, when you visit our ‘Attractions’ landing page, you’ll find a number of recommendation systems, including:

• Nearby destinations. Attractions near you, based on where you are while browsing.

Our search results are also a recommendation system. In fact, they’re the recommendation system that our customers use the most, so please check out ‘Our default ranking and sorting options’ below.

All the recommendation systems we use provide recommendations based on one or more of the following main factors:

• What you tell us in the search form: destination, dates, etc.
• Any information we’ve gathered based on how you interact with our Platform: your past searches on our Platform, what country you’re in while browsing, etc.

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book an Attraction, each factor can be more (or less) important in different cases, depending on what we think is most likely to produce a list of Attractions you may want to book.

Our default Ranking - and sorting options

When you first get your search results, they’ll be sorted (‘ordered’) by ‘Our top picks’, which recommends Attractions in the following way:

• An Attraction service will appear high up on the page if lots of people are clicking it (in the search results) and then booking it (on the next page). As you can imagine, people are generally more likely to choose the ones with great reviews, availability, policies and pricing.
• If we can, we also personalise your results, based on:

  • Your search history on our Platform. If you’re signed in, and this isn’t your first time here, we might tweak the ranking based on your previous choices.
  • Any other Bookings you have. If, for example, you’re staying at a nearby hotel that you booked through Booking.com, we might tweak the ranking based on where you’re staying, how long you’re staying for, and who’s in your party.

Many of the above factors help our recommendation system decide which Attractions might be the most appealing and relevant to you. Some play a small role in that decision, while others play a big role - and the importance of each factor can change, depending on the features of the Attraction, and on how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, an Attraction's click-through rate and number of bookings often play a large role in the decisions. That's because they're a direct reflection of the Attraction's overall appeal, and how satisfied its guests tend to be with what it offers.

A high click-through rate usually means that the Attraction makes a good first impression on our Platform (e.g. through price or type of attraction), and getting a lot of bookings indicates that many people find it really does meet their requirements.

Distance from the Accommodation you booked on Booking.com (if any) will also affect our recommendations.

If you’ve clicked on any Attractions in the past, that will also affect our recommendations, to make it easier for you to find them again on our Platform.

If you would prefer us not to prioritise Attractions based on the factors mentioned above, you can sort your results in other ways, such as:

• Most popular. Attraction services that have been booked a lot in the last 30 days appear high up on the page.
• Lowest price. Attraction services that cost less appear higher up on the page than the ones that cost more.

Whichever sorting option you choose, you’ll be able to narrow down your results using filters - such as:

• Category. Click e.g. ‘Tours’ or ‘Museums’ if you only want to see tours and museums - and nothing else.
• Price. Click one or more price ranges if you only want to see Attraction services that fit that budget.
• Free cancellation. Click this if you only want to see Attraction services that you can cancel for free.
• City. Click a city name if you only want to see Attraction services that are in that city.

Personalised recommendations

Some of our recommendation systems make personalised recommendations, based on how you have interacted with Booking.com systems such as ‘Our top picks’ in the search results. If you’re based in the EEA, you can change your settings so our recommendation systems do not provide you with personalised recommendations. To do that - if you’re using:

• Our desktop or mobile site: click ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the footer
• Our app: tap ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the banner.

Even if you do that, we may still retain some information about you so we can give you a more convenient experience. This could be information that you provided (e.g. your phone number or email address), or that we gathered based on how you interact with our Platform.

Your preference (about personalised recommendations) will apply on any device on which you have signed in to your Booking.com account. If you’re not signed in to your account, your preference will not apply to other devices: it’ll be saved as part of your ‘cookies’, and when that cookie expires, so will your preference.

2F. Reviews

When you get multiple reviews, they’ll be ranked by ‘Most relevant’ (ordered by date, with reviews that include comments prioritised). To make sure the most helpful reviews appear first, each factor can become more (or less) important – depending on how our Platform changes over time, for example.

If you would prefer us not to order reviews in our default way, you can sort them based on other factors, such as:

• Newest first
• Oldest first

All reviews must comply with our Content Standards and Guidelines.

2G. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers and/or Third-Party Aggregators - but we may finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.

When you make a Booking, you agree to pay the cost of the Travel Experience itself and any other charges that may apply (e.g. for any extras, insurance or taxes). The price description tells you whether any taxes and charges are included or excluded. You’ll be able to find more information about the price while you’re booking.

Our Platform provides descriptions of any equipment that Service Providers offer (based on what they tell us). It also tells you how much they’ll cost.

Any currency conversion is for information purposes only; actual rates may vary.

2H. Payments

When you make a Booking on our Platform, Booking.com will organise your payment. For details, check out ‘Payment’ (A7) in our Terms of Service.

2I. Help and advice - if the unexpected happens

If you have any questions, or something doesn’t go according to plan, just contact us. You can do this by accessing your Booking, or through our app, or through our Help Centre (where you’ll also find some useful FAQs).

You can help us help you as quickly as possible - by providing:

• your Booking confirmation number, your PIN, your contact details, and the email address you used when you made your Booking
• a summary of the issue, including how you’d like us to help you
• any supporting documents (bank statement, photos, receipts, etc.).

Whatever the issue, we will do what we can to help you.

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A15) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A19) in our Terms of Service.

3A. Definitions and Who we are

Some of the words you’ll see have very specific meanings, so please check out the ‘Booking.com dictionary’ in our Terms of Service.

When you book a Rental, Booking.com Transport Limited provides and is responsible for the Platform – but not the Travel Experience itself (see 3B below). Booking.com Transport Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (company number: 05179829; registered office: 6 Goods Yard Street, Manchester, M3 3BG, United Kingdom).

3B. How does our service work?

We make it easy for you to compare Bookings from many different car rental companies. The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times.

Our Platform tells you how many Rentals you can book through us worldwide - and our search results page tells you how many of them might be right for you, based on what you’ve told us.

When you book your car, you enter into a contract with us: we’re agreeing to arrange and manage* your Booking.

When you sign your Rental Agreement at the counter, you enter into a contract with the rental company: they’re agreeing to provide the car. You’ll already have seen and accepted all the key terms (while you were booking the car).

* We’re here to try to help you if you need to change or cancel your Booking, or if you have any questions – before, during or after your Rental.

3C. Who do we work with?

Every rental company on our Platform is a trusted partner, who passed all our tests before we started working with them. Only Service Providers that have a contractual relationship with us will be displayed on our Platform. However, they may offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform as well (so what they offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive).

We even have a specialist team that visits rental companies before they appear on our Platform.

All Service Providers on our Platform are professional traders.

3D. How do we make money?

We make money when we find you your Rental. There are two ways we do this:

• we agree a commission with the rental company for our services; or
• we agree the net rate with the rental company and apply our own mark-up.

Either way, we aim to offer our customers a lot of choice at competitive prices. Plus, our Platform is free for you to use.

3E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select and/or rank the information on our Platform to help you discover Travel Experiences we think you’ll like. For example, when you visit our ‘Car rentals’ landing page, you’ll find a number of recommendation systems, including:

• Popular car hire brands. Car rental companies with the most Bookings.

Our search results are also a recommendation system. In fact, they’re the recommendation system that our customers use the most, so please check out ‘Our default ranking and sorting options’ below.

All the recommendation systems we use provide recommendations based on one or more of the following factors:

• What you tell us in the search form: location, dates, etc.
• Any information we’ve gathered based on how you interact with our Platform: your past searches on our Platform, what country you’re in while browsing, etc.
• The performance of different Service Providers.

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book a car, each factor can be more (or less) important in different cases, depending on what we think is most likely to produce a list of cars you may want to book.

Our default ranking and sorting options

Our search results show all the car rental Bookings that match your search.

When you first get your search results, they’ll be sorted (‘ordered’) by ‘Recommended’:

• Recommended (default ranking). We know what really matters to someone who’s renting a car. So, at the top of our search results you’ll find the cars we think you’ll like, based on an ever-changing algorithm that weighs up all kinds of factors (price, ratings, size, profit, car specs and more).

The relative importance of each of these factors changes all the time, to make sure we’re recommending the most suitable cars.

Many of the above factors help our recommendation system decide which cars might be the most appealing and relevant to you. Some play a small role in that decision, while others play a big role -- and the importance of each factor can change, depending on the features of each car, and on how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, a car’s click-through rate and number of bookings often play a large role in the decisions. That's because they're a direct reflection of the car’s overall appeal, and how satisfied our customers tend to be when they get more details about it.

A high click-through rate usually means that the car makes a good first impression on our Platform (e.g. through price, pick-up location, or rental company), and getting a lot of bookings indicates that many people find it really does meet their requirements.

But other factors play a role as well. For example, we might give preference to cars from rental companies that are part of our Genius programme - or offer versatile, user-friendly payment policies. After all, these factors suggest that these rental companies understand how important service and convenience are to our customers.

If you would prefer us not to prioritise cars based on the factors mentioned above, you can sort your results in other ways, such as:

• Price (lowest first). The results are then displayed in price order with the cheapest option first... nice and simple.
• Rating. This is the one that our customers really control: cars are ranked by their customer rating, with the highest first. Those ratings come straight from the ’welcome home survey’ that we send everyone after their rental, asking them to give their rental company marks out of 10 in the most important areas (helpful staff, the car’s condition, value for money, etc.).

If you choose ‘Price (lowest first)’ or ‘Rating’, the factors described in ‘Recommended’ will still influence things. For instance, those factors might act as secondary ‘tiebreakers’ between two or more cars that would otherwise appear in the same spot. However, the ‘Recommended’ factors are purely secondary - because they’re only used where we need to decide which of two cars to put first.

And whichever sorting option you choose, you’ll be able to use filters to narrow down your results.

3F. Reviews

After your Rental, you’ll be asked to leave a review, which may then be:

• uploaded to our Platform to help other customers make the right choice for them*
• used for marketing purposes (on our Platform, on social media, in newsletters, etc.)*
• shared with your rental company to help them (and us) provide an even better service**.

We publish every consumer review we receive, whether positive or negative, unless it breaches our Content Standards and Guidelines.

When there are multiple reviews, we’ll show the most recent ones at the top. Please note that on our app, we only show scores and not comments.

* We wouldn’t use your full name or your address.

** To help the rental company improve, we would need to tell them which Rental the review is about.

3G. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers or by us - but we may finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.

When you make a Booking, you agree to pay the cost of the Travel Experience itself and any other charges that may apply (e.g. for any extras, insurance or taxes). Taxes and fees may vary for different reasons, such as the Service Provider’s location, the pick-up location or what you’re planning to do with your Rental. The price description tells you what taxes (if any) are included. You’ll be able to find more information about the price while you’re booking.

Our Platform provides descriptions of any equipment that Service Providers offer (based on what they tell us). It also tells you how much they’ll cost.

Any currency conversion is for information purposes only; actual rates may vary.

3H. Payments

When you book a Rental on our Platform, Booking.com will organise your payment. For details, check out ‘Payment’ (A7) in our Terms of Service.

3I. Help and advice - if the unexpected happens

If you have any questions, or something doesn’t go according to plan, just Contact us. If it’s about something that happened during your Rental, we’ll be able to help you more quickly if you provide:

• your Booking reference number, and the email address you used when you booked your car
• a summary of the issue, including how you’d like us to help you
• details of anything you’ve been charged
• any supporting documents (bank statement, rental agreement, final invoice, damage documentation, photos, boarding pass, receipts, etc.).

If you do that, one of our agents will be in touch as soon as possible. They might need to ask you for some more details.

Whatever the issue, we will do what we can to help you.

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A15) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A19) in our Terms of Service.

4A. Definitions and Who we are

Some of the words you’ll see have very specific meanings, so please check out the ‘Booking.com dictionary’ in our Terms of Service.

When you book a Flight, Booking.com B.V. provides and is responsible for the Platform – but not the Travel Experience itself (see 4B below). Booking.com B.V. is a company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands (registered address: Oosterdokskade 163, 1011 DL, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chamber of Commerce number: 31047344; VAT number: NL805734958B01).

4B. How does our service work?

We provide a place for you to find and book Flights.

When you make a Booking on our Platform, you enter into a contract with the Service Provider and the Third-Party Aggregator.

The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers and/or Third-Party Aggregators tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times.

4C. Who do we work with?

We have contractual relationships with various Third-Party Aggregators, who act as intermediaries to the Service Providers. Only Service Providers that have a direct relationship with them will be displayed on our Platform.

Both Service Providers and Third-Party Aggregators may offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform as well (so what they offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive).

Our Platform tells you how many Flights you can book through us worldwide - and our search results page tells you how many of them might be right for you, based on what you’ve told us.

4D. How do we make money?

We don’t buy or (re-)sell any products or services. When people book Flights on our Platform, the Third-Party Aggregator will pay us a commission.

4E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select and/or rank information available on our Platform to help you discover destinations we think you’ll like. For example, when you visit our ‘Flights’ landing page, you’ll find a number of recommendation systems, including:

• Trending cities. Destinations you may want to travel to, based on the country you’re in while browsing.

The recommendation systems we use are based on one or more of the main factors below:

• Information you tell us in the search form: the destination you’d like to travel to, when you’d like to travel, etc.
• Any information we’ve gathered based on how you interact with the Booking.com Platform, e.g. your search history or the country you’re in while browsing.

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book a Flight, each factor can be more (or less) important in different cases, depending on what we think is most likely to produce a list of Flights you may want to book.

Our search results are also a recommendation system. In fact, they’re the recommendation system that our customers use the most, so please check out ‘Our default ranking and sorting options’ below.

Our default ranking and sorting options

Our search results show all the Flights that match your search.

When you first get your search results, they’ll be sorted (‘ordered’) by ‘Best’:

• Best (default ranking). To appear high up on the page, a Flight needs to do well in each of these areas: price, travel time, number of stops, and baggage allowance.

Many of the above factors help our recommendation system decide which Flight might be the most appealing and relevant to you. Some play a small role in that decision, while others play a big role - and the importance of each factor can change, depending on the features of the Flight, and on how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, we may give more weight to overall travel time (than we do to the number of stops) if we see this resonates more with our travellers.

If you like, you can sort your results in other ways:

• Cheapest. Flights with lower prices appear higher up.
• Fastest. Flights with shorter journey times appear higher up.

If you choose ‘Cheapest’ or ‘Fastest’, the factors described in ‘Best’ will still influence things. For instance, those factors might act as ‘tiebreakers’ between two or more Flights that would otherwise appear in the same spot.

Whichever sorting option you choose, you’ll be able to narrow down your results using filters - such as:

• Stops. Click an option to tell us whether you’d consider flights with one stop (or multiple stops).
• Duration. Use the slider to tell us your maximum travel time.
• Airlines. Click one or more names to tell us which airline(s) you’d like to choose your Flight from.

4F. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers and/or Third-Party Aggregators - but we may finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.

When you make a Booking, you agree to pay the cost of the Travel Experience itself and any other charges that may apply (e.g. for any extras, insurance or taxes). The price description tells you whether any fees and charges are included or excluded. You’ll be able to find more information about the price while you’re booking.

Our Platform provides descriptions of any equipment that Service Providers offer (based on what they tell us). It also tells you how much they’ll cost.

Any currency conversion is for information purposes only; actual rates may vary.

4G. Payments

When you make a Booking on our Platform, your payment could be organised by us, or by a Third-Party Aggregator. For details, check out ‘Payment’ (A7) in our Terms of Service.

4H. Help and advice - if the unexpected happens

Once you’ve made a Booking, just contact us if you have any questions or something doesn’t go according to plan. You can do this by accessing your Booking, or through our app, or through our Help Centre (where you’ll also find some useful FAQs).

You can help us help you as quickly as possible - by providing:

• your Customer Reference number, your Booking.com PIN, your contact details, and the email address you used when you made your Booking
• a summary of the issue, including how you’d like us to help you
• any supporting documents (bank statement, photos, receipts, etc.).

Whatever the issue, we will do what we can to help you.

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A15) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A19) in our Terms of Service.

5A. Definitions and Who we are

Some of the words you’ll see have very specific meanings, so please check out the ‘Booking.com dictionary’ in our Terms of Service.

When you book a transport service, Booking.com Transport Limited provides and is responsible for the Platform – but not the Travel Experience itself (see 5B below). Booking.com Transport Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (company number: 05179829; registered office: 6 Goods Yard Street, Manchester, M3 3BG, United Kingdom).

5B. How does our service work?

We make it easy for you to compare Bookings from public and private ground transport providers. When you make a search, we’ll filter the results so you only see the most suitable vehicle in each category, based on what you’ve told us.

The Service Providers are independent companies: we don’t own them, and we don’t control the services you book on our Platform. The information on our Platform is based on what Service Providers tell us. We do our best to keep things up to date at all times.

We’re here to provide help or support: before, during or after your trip. Check out ‘Help and advice - if the unexpected happens’ (5I) below.

5C. Who do we work with?

Only Service Providers that have a contractual relationship with us will be displayed on our Platform. However, they may offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform as well (so what they offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive).

All Service Providers on our Platform are professional traders. We carry out regular checks to make sure they keep on meeting the necessary standards.

5D. How do we make money?

We don’t buy or (re-)sell any products or services - when you make a Booking, we agree a commission with the transport providers for our services.

And we don’t charge any booking fees at all.

5E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select and/or rank the information on our Platform to help you discover transport services we think you’ll like.

The recommendation systems we use are based on one or both of these main factors:

• What you tell us in the search form: destination, dates, etc.
• The performance of different transport providers.

The relative importance of each factor changes all the time.

When you search on our Platform, we show the most suitable options at the top of the page. That means:

• Private Transport. The ranking is based on price, and what’s best for a party of your size - as well as availability (in that location, at the time you need it).
• Trains and buses. We show you the best result for the journey you want to make, at the time you want to make it.

5F. Reviews

After your Journey, you’ll be asked to leave a review, which may then be:

• uploaded to our Platform to help other customers make the right choice for them*
• used for marketing purposes (on our Platform, on social media, in newsletters, etc.)*
• shared with your Service Provider to help them (and us) provide an even better service**.

We do not publish reviews that breach our Content Standards and Guidelines.

* We wouldn’t use your full name or your address.

** To help the Service Provider improve, we would need to tell them which Journey the review is about.

5G. Prices

The price of each Booking on our Platform is made up of (a) the base rate set by the Service Provider and (b) our commission, which we agree with the Service Provider. We may also finance rewards or other benefits out of our own pocket.

When you make a Booking, you agree to pay the cost of the Travel Experience itself and any other charges that may apply (e.g. for any tolls or waiting fees). Taxes and fees may vary for different reasons, such as the Service Provider’s location. All prices include any taxes and charges that apply. You’ll be able to find more information about the price while you’re booking.

Any currency conversion is for information purposes only; actual rates may vary.

5H. Payments

When you book a bus, train or Private Transport on our Platform, Booking.com will organise your payment. For details, check out ‘Payment’ (A7) in our Terms of Service.

5I. Help and advice - if the unexpected happens

Whatever the issue, we will do what we can to help you.

So if you have any questions, or something doesn’t go according to plan, just Contact us. If it’s about something that happened during your Journey, please provide your Booking reference number, and your contact details. We resolve the vast majority of issues within 14 days - and you can help us speed things up by providing any relevant documents or other information when you first get in touch.

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A15) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A19) in our Terms of Service.