Booking.com Announces Support of New Commitments in Europe

PR60231

AMSTERDAM, Apr. 21, 2015 /PRN=KYODO JBN/ --

    Today Booking.com, an operating business of The Priceline Group [NASDAQ:

PCLN] announced its support of recent decisions by the National Competition

Authorities in France, Italy and Sweden to accept amendments to Booking.com's

parity commitments in respect of hotels located in those countries.

    Under the new commitments, Booking.com will abandon its price, availability

and booking conditions parity provisions with respect to other online travel

agencies. This will create an environment that supports increased transparency

and competition among online travel agencies which will ultimately benefit

consumers, as well as hoteliers, by encouraging the freedom for properties to

offer different pricing and booking policies (e.g. free cancellation, WIFI,

breakfast) through different online travel agencies.

    The commitments do allow Booking.com to retain its "narrow MFNs" for prices

and booking conditions which will ensure hotels offer the same rates and

booking conditions on Booking.com as they do through their own direct website.

Furthermore, the commitments do allow Booking.com to require a minimum

allocation, or some availability, from hotels. This assurance of being able to

offer competing prices and being able to offer rooms allows Booking.com to

continue to provide consumers a coveted and valuable service that delivers

transparency, access to information, choice, value and a seamless experience

for consumers, and also allows Booking.com to continue to serve as a highly

cost-effective marketing channel for hotels, by helping the hotels to market

and promote their property to consumers around the world, reach new subsets of

travelers and ultimately fill their rooms to keep their businesses growing.

    "Our business and teams are driven by one goal, which is to deliver an

amazing, unrivaled experience to our global customers who use us to find and

book accommodations in a simple, convenient and trustworthy way, both here in

Europe and around the world," said Darren Huston, CEO of Booking.com. "We

welcome and encourage fair competition in the marketplace because competition

drives innovation, efficiencies, and most importantly, greater value for

consumers. We believe today's decisions represent a continued, coordinated

effort to promote competition in a way that supports innovation and encourages

companies like ours to continue to invest in the capacity and technical

solutions that ultimately result in more customers for our partners and more

tourism across Europe and abroad."

    Booking.com intends to implement these commitments throughout the European

Economic Area and is working with all other European National Competition

Authorities towards this objective. Booking.com trusts that its commitments

will set the tone for an industry wide solution which all European NCAs will

endorse and safeguard.

    About Booking.com

[http://www.booking.com/?aid=354544&utm_source=PR&utm_medium=email_pr&utm_campaign=22_01_2013 ] :

    Booking.com is the world leader in booking hotel and other accommodations

online. It guarantees the best prices for any type of property - from small

independents to five-star luxury. Guests can access the Booking.com website

anytime, anywhere from their desktops, mobile phones and tablet devices, and

they don't pay booking fees - ever. The Booking.com website is available in 42

languages, offers over 625,000 hotels and accommodations including more than

245,000 vacation rental properties and covers over 75,000 destinations in 212+

countries and territories worldwide. It features over 45 million reviews

written by guests after their stay, and attracts online visitors from both

leisure and business markets around the globe. With over 17 years of experience

and a team of over 8,600 dedicated employees in 155+ offices worldwide,

Booking.com operates its own in-house customer service team, which is available

24/7 to assist guests in their native languages and ensure an exceptional

customer experience.

    Established in 1996, Booking.com B.V. owns and operates Booking.com(TM),

and is part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN). Follow us on Twitter

[http://www.twitter.com/bookingcom ], Google+

[https://plus.google.com/+Bookingcom ] and Pinterest

[http://pinterest.com/bookingdotcom ], like us on Facebook

[http://www.facebook.com/bookingcom ], or learn more at http://www.booking.com

[http://www.booking.com?aid=304142&lang=en; ].

    SOURCE: Booking.com