Booking Holdings CEO’s Complicated Messaging in Light of EU Scrutiny
Photo Credit: Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel believes increased competition from short-term rentals will ensure that hotels will be amenable to working with Booking.com to put proverbial heads in beds. Booking Holdings
Skift Take
For any regulators listening, Booking.com is a powerful force in the European hotel industry. So is Google. There's no way around it, despite the spin from the CEO.
Consider the complicated message that Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel has to deliver: He tells a hotel industry in crisis, come to us, "we are the largest platform for demand and travel," and he advises regulators, "we're still extremely small in Europe."
A contradictory narrative? Depends on how you look at it.
"So I'd like to make a point [for] any regulators listening, we're still extremely small in Europe, a very small share," Fogel said during an interview at the Bank of America Securities 2021 conference earlier this week. "I just want to make sure we get that across. Obviously, in the U.S., there are — there's another player [Expedia Group] who's bigger than us."
Fogel was addressing pending legislation in the European Union that would clamp down in still-
