Expedia and Booking.com have improved the presentation of their accommodation offers to make them more transparent, in line with the requirements of European consumer law, announced the European Commission on Thursday 17 December.
Consumers should therefore now be in a better position to make informed comparisons.
The changes made concern information on promotional offers and discounts as well as influencing techniques. They are the result of a close dialogue conducted with both companies by the Commission and the competent national authorities in the framework of coordinated action.
Thanks to more precise information, the consumer will know: - which offers are promoted; - how payments received by accommodation providers have influenced the rankings; - how many people would like to book the same hotel for the same dates and how many rooms are left on the website; - the total price the consumer will pay for the accommodation, including mandatory fees and charges; - only the genuine discounts that are advertised as such; - whether the host is a professional or a private person.
“In view of evolving travel restrictions, I encourage all online travel service operators to follow this example and ensure that European consumers can trust their accommodation offers and easily find information on cancellation practices”, said EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders.
The competent national authorities will now take further steps to ensure that the whole sector is held to the same standards.
For Booking.com, the dialogue was launched early last year by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets.
For Expedia, it was the Hungarian Competition Authority that started a dialogue in December 2019.
The Airbnb platform had already brought its services into compliance with EU consumer protection legislation in July 2019 (see EUROPE 12295/12). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)