How we work

Updated 31 May 2025

Table of contents

1. Accommodations

1A. Definitions and who we are

Some of the words here have 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 (section 1B). 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, for example, text descriptions and lists of the facilities that Accommodations provide.

1C. Who do we work with?

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

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 shows you the 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. A badge with a thumbs-up icon indicates that the property is part of our Preferred Partner Programme – they pay us a higher commission if you make a booking.

If an Accommodation in your search results has a badge that says ‘Ad’, it means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

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 select, display, and/or rank 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 several 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’ section.

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

What you tell us when you are looking to book a Travel Experience, such as destination, dates, number of guests, etc.

The information we’ve gathered based on your previous interactions with our Platform, such as your past searches, existing reservations, etc., unless you opted out of the personalised recommendations.

Any other information on how you currently interact with our Platform, including the country where you are while browsing.

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 you like, 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 check all the booking options an Accommodation offers, simply select 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.

Those numbers depend on many factors, including review scores, availability, policies, pricing, quality of content (e.g., photos), and other features.

Other things can also influence an Accommodation’s ranking – 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 unless you opted out of the personalised recommendations.

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

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

For example, an Accommodation’s click-through rate and number of bookings often play a significant role in these decisions as they directly reflect 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 an 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 meets their requirements.

However, 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 an Accommodation in your search results has a badge that says ‘Ad’, it means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

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 than hotels and other types of Accommodation.

Price (lowest first): Accommodations with lower prices appear higher up.

Genius discount first: Genius Accommodations appear higher than other Accommodations.

Property rating (high to low): Accommodations with more stars* and/or higher quality ratings* appear higher.

Property rating (low to high): Accommodations with fewer stars and/or lower quality ratings appear higher.

Top reviewed (called ‘Best reviewed’ in our app): Accommodations with higher review scores* appear higher. If you find any instances where this isn’t the case, it’s 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 higher than 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 on the page. (When we say ‘close’, we mean ‘close in a straight line’.)

Property rating: Accommodations with more stars appear higher up. The ones with lower prices appear higher within each segment (5 stars, 4 stars, etc.).

Best reviewed and lowest price: Accommodations with higher review scores appear higher. Within each 0.5 segment (between 10 and 9.5, between 9.5 and 9, etc.), the ones with lower prices appear higher.

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

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 go beyond your search parameters and filters and 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 personalised recommendations. To do so:

On our desktop or mobile site: Select ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the footer.

On our app: Select ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the banner.

Even if you do that, we may still retain some information about you so that we can provide you with our services and give you a more convenient experience, such as setting your language preference on our Platform based on where you are. This could be information you provided, e.g. your phone number or email address, or that we gathered based on how you interact with our Platform.

Your preference on personalised recommendations will apply to any device 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, and it’ll be saved as part of your ‘cookies’. When that cookie expires, so will your preference.

1F. Reviews

Each review score is between 1–10. We use a weighted review system, which means that the more recent the review, the bigger the impact on the total review score calculation.

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. Guests submit their subscores and 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 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 find multiple reviews, the most recent ones will be at the top, subject to a few other factors such as: 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, and 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 indicates 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 find 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

Star ratings look like 1–5 yellow stars beside the property’s name.

We don’t assign star ratings. Depending on local regulations, they’re assigned either by the Service Providers themselves or 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.

Review scores look like a blue square with a 1–10 white number.

We don’t assign review scores. Our customers do. Please refer to ‘Reviews’ (section 1F).

Quality ratings look like 1–5 yellow squares beside the property’s name.

We do assign quality ratings. To help customers find their ideal Accommodation, we assign quality ratings to certain Accommodations on our Platform. Each rating is based on 400+ features falling into five 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 the Accommodations’ star ratings)

We use these features to identify statistical patterns and carry out machine learning analyses. This automatically calculates a quality rating between 1 and 5.

1K. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens

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

You can help us help you as quickly as possible by providing, if available:

Your booking confirmation number and 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, such as bank statements, 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 spot an obviously 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. We will remove any obvious pricing errors we find as soon as we become aware of them.

Do we ever remove Service Providers from our Platform altogether?

Absolutely. We can do so if, for example, we find out they breached their contractual obligations or provided an inaccurate description of their Accommodation and failed to correct it when we asked them.

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A16) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A20) 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. We provide them with guidelines as well as practical support.

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

You’ll be able to cancel your booking at no cost (with a full refund of anything you’ve paid)

We can help you find an alternative Accommodation in a similar category and price on our Platform. If the alternative is a bit more expensive, we’ll refund you the difference after your stay, when you send us the invoice from the alternative Service Provider.

When it comes to refunds:

If your Service Provider organised your payment, we’ll try to make sure they refund you as soon as possible.

If we organised your payment, we’ll refund you ourselves. In 90% of cases, the money will be in your account within five working days, counting either from:

The cancellation of your original booking, or

The verification of the invoice you sent us to show that you stayed somewhere else.

2. Attractions

2A. Definitions and who we are

Some of the words here have 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 (section 2B). 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 a 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.

2C. Who do we work with?

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

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

Service Providers and Third-Party Aggregators may also offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform, so what is offered on our Platform may not be exhaustive.

Our Platform shows you the 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 Service Provider or Third-Party Aggregator simply pays us a commission.

We don’t charge any booking fees.

If an Attraction in your search results has a badge that says ‘Ad’, it means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

2E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select, display, 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 several 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’ section.

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.

The information we’ve gathered based on your previous interactions with our Platform, such as your past searches, existing reservations, etc., unless you opted out of the personalised recommendations

How you currently interact with our Platform, including the country where you are while browsing

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book an Attraction, each factor can be more or less significant 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 many people click it on the search results page and subsequently book it (on the next page), as well as how highly it is reviewed. As you can imagine, people are generally more likely to choose the ones with availability, policies, and pricing.

If possible, we also personalise your results, unless you opted out of the personalised recommendations, based on:

Your search history and behaviour on our Platform. If you’re signed in and this isn’t your first time on our Platform, we might personalise the ranking based on your previous choices.

Any other bookings you have. If, for example, you’re staying at an Accommodation you booked through Booking.com, we might personalise the ranking based on where you’re staying, how long you’re staying for, and who’s in your party.

Many of these 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 significant role. The importance of each factor can change depending on the attraction’s features and how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, an Attraction’s conversion rate and number of bookings often play a significant role because they’re a direct reflection of its overall appeal and how satisfied its guests tend to be with what it offers.

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

The distance from the Accommodation you booked on Booking.com (if any) may also influence our recommendations.

If you’ve selected any Attractions in the past, that may also affect your recommendations, making it easier for you to find them again on our Platform.

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

Most popular: Attraction services booked a lot in the last 30 days will appear high on the page

Lowest price: Attraction services that cost less will appear higher on the page than the ones that cost more.

Distance from stay: When you have an accommodation booking, Attractions closer to your accommodation will appear higher on the page.

Best reviewed: Attractions that have been rated highly by customers will appear higher on the search results.

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

Category: E.g., select ‘Tours’ or ‘Museums’ if you only want tours and museums and nothing else.

Price: Select one or more price ranges if you only want Attraction services that fit that budget.

City: Enter a city name if you only want Attraction services in that city.

Show results with: Select different features under this heading to filter results based on certain parameters, like skip the line, free cancellation, deals and discounts, etc.

Other filter options: Choose to filter results based on their review score, time of day, location and language.

Personalised recommendations

Some of our recommendation systems go beyond your search parameters and filters and 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 personalised recommendations. To do so, if you’re using:

Our desktop or mobile site: Select ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the footer

Our app: Select ‘Manage personalised recommendations’ in the banner.

Even if you do so, we may still retain some information about you so that we can provide you with our services and give you a more convenient experience, such as setting your language preference on our Platform based on where you are. This could be information you provided, e.g., your phone number or email address, or that we gathered based on how you interact with our Platform.

Your preference on personalised recommendations will apply to any device 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, and it’ll be saved as part of your ‘cookies’. 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 and taking the language of the review into account. 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. 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 and any other charges that may apply, e.g., for any extras, insurance or taxes. The price description indicates 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 describes any equipment Service Providers offer based on what they tell us and tells you how much it will 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’ (A8) 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, please contact us. You can do this by accessing your booking, our app, or our </0>Help Centre<0>, where you’ll also find some useful FAQs.

You can help us help you as quickly as possible by providing, if available:

Your booking confirmation number and 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, such as bank statements, 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?’ (A16) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A20) in our Terms of Service.

3. Car rentals

3A. Definitions and who we are

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

When you book a Rental on Booking.com or Rentalcars.com, Booking.com Transport Limited provides and is responsible for the Platform – but not the Travel Experience itself (section 3B). 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, and we do our best to keep things up to date at all times.

Our Platform shows you the 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, and we agree to arrange and manage* your Booking.

When you sign your Rental Agreement at the counter, you enter into a contract with the rental company, and they agree to provide the car. You’ll already have reviewed and accepted all the key terms while 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 with a contractual relationship with us will be displayed on our Platform. They may also offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform, so what they offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive.

Our specialist team visits rental companies before they appear on our Platform, and all Service Providers on our Platform are professional traders.

3D. How do we make money?

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

We agree on a commission with the rental company for our services, or

The rental company provides us with a net rate, and we apply our own markup.

Either way, we aim to offer our customers multiple choices at competitive prices, all on a Platform that is free for you to use.

If a car in your search results has a badge that says ‘Ad’, it means that the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

3E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select, display and/or rank the information on our Platform to help you discover Travel Experiences we think you’ll like. When you visit our ‘Car rentals’ landing page, you’ll find several 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 our customers use the most, so please check out ‘Our default ranking and sorting options’ section.

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.

The information we’ve gathered based on your previous interactions with our Platform, such as your past searches, existing reservations, etc., unless you opted out of the personalised recommendations.

How you currently interact with our Platform, including the country where you are while browsing

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 the top 50 car rental bookings that match your search criteria, taking into account your sorting preference and filter choices, if selected.

When you first get your search results, they’ll be sorted (‘ordered’) by ‘Recommended’ (default ranking). So, at the top of our search results, you’ll find the cars we think you’ll like, based on an ever-changing recommendation system that weighs in all kinds of factors, such as price, ratings, size, profit, car specs and more.

The relative importance of each factor changes constantly, but we’ll ensure that we recommend the most suitable cars.

Many of these 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 significant role. The importance of each factor can change depending on the features of each car and how you and other people use our Platform.

For example, the number of bookings often plays a large role in these decisions because it directly reflects the car’s overall appeal and how satisfied our customers are 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 meets their requirements.

Other factors also play a role. 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. 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 these factors, you can also sort your results in other ways, such as:

Price: The results are displayed in price order, with the cheapest option first. That simple. This will rank the results based on the “Car Rental Price” only and will not consider the price of any applicable security deposit or extras you may choose to add.

Top Reviewed: Cars are ranked by customer ratings, with the highest scores displayed first. Those ratings come straight from the ’welcome home survey’ we send customers after their rentals, asking them to score their rental company between 1 and 10 in several areas, such as helpful staff, the car’s condition, value for money, etc.

Genius: The results show cars with Genius discounts higher in the ranking. This option is only available on Booking.com when signed in to your account.

Distance: This option sorts results based on the distance from the address or location you have provided. It is only available when searching for non-airport locations.

If you choose to sort based on price, distance or rating, the factors described in ‘Recommended’ can still influence the results. For instance, such factors might act as secondary ‘tiebreakers’ between two or more cars that would otherwise appear in the same spot where the price, distance or rating (where applicable) is the same. However, the ‘Recommended’ factors are purely secondary because they’re only used where we need to decide which of two cars to put first.

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

About our labels and tags

On our search results, we sometimes add labels and tags to the listings to highlight certain characteristics, such as:

‘Ad’: If the listing in your search results has this label, the Service Provider has paid for it to appear there.

‘Featured’: When a listing has been selected by Booking.com to be boosted to a higher position for multiple reasons, such as to show you deals we think you will like, to understand a specific market better, or to help us fulfil our obligations with suppliers.

Top pick’: The highest organically ranked listing, when taking into account your sort and filter preferences.

‘Ideal for families’: The highest organically ranked medium-sized car listing, when taking into account your sort and filter preferences.

‘Genius’: Listings with Genius savings available if you have an account and are logged in.

Percentage tag: Where a promotional saving is applied to the car listing, the saved percentage will be displayed as a tag.

Hybrid and Electric labels: If a car is a hybrid or electric, it will be labelled accordingly.

Previously viewed: When you check a deal and return to search results, the listing you checked will be labelled as such.

3F. Reviews

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

Uploaded to our Platform to help other customers make an informed decision*

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 would not use your full name or address.

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

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.

3G. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers or by us. 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’ (A8) 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, please contact us. If it’s about something that happened during your Rental, we’ll be able to help you more quickly if you provide (if available):

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 (if any)

Any supporting documents such as bank statements, 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 more details. Whatever the issue is, we will do what we can to help you.

For more information, check out ‘What if something goes wrong?’ (A16) and ‘Applicable law and forum’ (A20) in our Terms of Service.

4. Flights

4A. Definitions and who we are

Some of the words here have 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 (section 4B). 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 for Service Providers. Only Service Providers with a direct relationship with them will be displayed on our Platform.

Service Providers and Third-Party Aggregators may also offer Travel Experiences outside our Platform, so what they offer on our Platform may not be exhaustive.

Our Platform shows you the 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 and extras on our Platform (e.g., baggage and seat selection), the Third-Party Aggregator pays us a commission.

4E. Our recommendation systems

How Booking.com uses recommendation systems

We use recommendation systems to select, display, and/or rank the 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 several 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 these main factors:

The information you tell us in the search form, e.g., the destination you’d like to travel to, when you’d like to travel, etc.

The information we’ve gathered based on your previous interactions with our Platform, such as your past searches, existing reservations, etc., unless you opted out of the personalised recommendations

How you currently interact with our Platform, including the country where you are 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 our customers use the most, so please check out ‘Our default ranking and sorting options’ section.

We will also recommend services and products that customers typically use for similar trips. These will be marked with the label "Popular for trips like yours” or similar.

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’ (default ranking): To appear high up on the page, a Flight needs to do well in price, travel time, number of stops, and baggage allowance. Flights may also rank higher if the offer is exclusive to Genius members – this option is only available when signed in to your account.

Many of these 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 significant role. The importance of each factor can change depending on the flight’s features and how you and other people use our Platform.

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

If you like, you can also 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 the results displayed. For instance, they 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: Select to tell us whether you’d consider flights with one or multiple stops.

Duration: Use the slider to tell us your maximum travel time.

Airlines: Select which airline(s) you’d like to fly with.

4F. Prices

The rates displayed on our Platform are set by the Service Providers and/or Third-Party Aggregators. 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 indicates 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’ (A8) in our Terms of Service.

4H. Help and advice – if the unexpected happens

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

You can help us help you as quickly as possible by providing, if available:

Your Customer Reference number and 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, s