The EU Is Investigating Booking.com: What It Means for Your Next Hotel
In October the European Commission opened formal proceedings against Booking.com under the Digital Services Act. It's the first case of this kind against the platform, and it touches three things every traveller worries about: fake listings, phishing scams and paid rankings.
Here is what the Commission has published, and what it means when you book a hotel.
What the Commission is looking at
The investigation has three parts, set out in the Commission's press release:
Fake and non-compliant listings. Properties that don't exist, people pretending to be a hotel, and offers that break the rules. The Commission wants to know if Booking assessed these risks properly and removes such listings effectively.
Phishing scams. The focus is on how reservation and guest data is shared with accommodation providers, and on how Booking's messaging service is designed. The question is whether there are enough safeguards to stop that data being used to ask guests for fraudulent payments.
Boosted listings. Hotels can make their listing more visible in search results by paying a higher commission. Under the DSA, users should be able to see that these listings are ads, who paid for them and why they're seeing them.
Booking.com has said it is cooperating fully. Opening a case is not a verdict. The Commission says itself that it doesn't prejudge the outcome.
Why it matters when you book
Booking is the biggest accommodation platform in Europe. Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's Executive Vice-President for tech, called it "the leading booking platform in Europe". Each of the three issues hits travellers in a different way.
A fake listing costs you the whole trip. You arrive and the apartment doesn't exist, or it isn't what you paid for.
A phishing message usually looks like it comes from the hotel. It arrives through the booking app or by email, it knows your name and your dates, and it asks you to "confirm your card" or pay again through a link.
A boosted listing costs you less obviously. If the first results are there partly because a hotel gave up more commission, the order on the screen isn't a pure ranking of what suits you best.
How to protect yourself, on any platform
These steps work on Booking, on any other site and on ours:
Never pay through a link in a chat or an email after you've booked. If a message asks for payment, call the hotel on the number from its own website.
Check that the hotel is real. Look it up on its own website and on a map before you book, especially when the price looks too good.
Confirm the booking with the hotel. A day or two later, contact the hotel with your name and dates and ask them to confirm the reservation is in their system.
Don't trust the order of results. Search the hotel you actually want, by name, and compare the same room on the same dates.
Compare the final total. Taxes, fees, cancellation terms and breakfast change the real price more than a headline discount.
How Luxintravels VIP deals with these three doubts
Luxintravels VIP is our membership. Here is how it answers each point.
Real hotels, a reference you can check. Members book hotels at private rates, the same rates hotels give to travel agents and closed groups. Every booking comes with a booking reference you can give the hotel, and we tell members to contact the hotel and confirm. A real booking through a real channel will be there. Our guide are private hotel rates legit? explains how to check us too.
Everything before you pay. You see the hotel's name, the room type, your dates, the total with taxes and fees, the cancellation terms and whether breakfast is included, all before you book. Nothing should be paid later through a message. If someone contacts you asking for more money for a booking, treat it as a scam and check with the hotel.
You choose the hotel yourself. You search your destination and dates, open the hotel you already had in mind and choose the room. Then you compare the member rate with the public price. The same room, the same dates, the final total: that's the only comparison that counts.
A different price channel. On a public marketplace the hotel pays a commission and that cost sits inside the public price. Private rates come from a different channel, which is why the same room can cost less. We explain the mechanism in how private hotel rates work.
What happens next
The Commission will now gather evidence, with requests for information, interviews or inspections. It can take interim measures or accept commitments from Booking to fix the problems. If the breaches are confirmed, the DSA allows fines of up to 6% of a company's worldwide annual turnover.
Whatever the outcome, the advice doesn't change: know who you're booking with, pay once, and check the booking with the hotel.
Facts about the investigation come from the European Commission's press release IP/26/2223, read on 6 November 2026.
