Booking.com Warns Car Partners About Using Over-the-Top Promo Lingo
Photo Caption: A Lancia Ypsilon rental car in Borsas, Peloponnese, Greece on September 13, 2012. Booking.com advised transportation affiliates about banned phrases in promotions.
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Booking.com doesn't want affiliates or other partners to make unsubstantiated promotional claims about the online travel agency having the "best," meaning the lowest prices, which it admits it doesn't have. With regulators in Europe and elsewhere watching its every move, Booking.com doesn't want to play like that.
Booking.com is warning its transportation partners against using phrases the company bans from promotions in an effort to avoid regulatory penalties.
For example, Booking.com tells transportation partners such as car rental companies not to use phrases such as "Best price — guaranteed!" In the section of its December 2021 Partnerships Playbook about "what not to say," the Amsterdam-based online travel agency, a unit of Booking Holdings, stated: "We cannot guarantee that our prices are the best prices. We offer a best price guarantee whereby if a customer finds a like-for-like car cheaper on another website, we will match the price. However, our default prices are unlikely to be the lowest on the market, therefore, we cannot use guarantee*d*."
Of course, Booking isn't alone. Other online travel agencies have r
