J M.

I hope one day more data will be fed into this wonderful on-line tool. Its potential is amazing.

A friend of mine recently booked a hotel for us. The quality of the Hotel was extremely bad. Now that has nothing to do with the website... yet... Here's the kicker. The website asked for a review under the assumption that it would not be edited. The comment was in fact edited and the pictures were not published. The site also offers fraudulent information about hotels in general, and cherry picks reviews (some of them seemingly false to boost up the average score of hotels) as a front pager. As an example, I reviewed the hotel as bad as possible and it still scored a 2.5/10. This means that had i chosen something below mediocre the hotel could have been scored between 5-6 in 10. The most disturbing bit for me comes from the terms and conditions which I decided to consult afterwards.

About the veracity of the information published:
"When rendering our services, the information that we disclose is based on the information provided to us by the hotels. As such, the hotels are given access to an extranet through which they are fully responsible for updating all rates, availability and other information which is displayed on our website. Although we will use reasonable skill and care in performing our services we will not verify if, and cannot guarantee that, all information is accurate, complete or correct, nor can we be held responsible for any errors (including manifest and typographical errors), any interruptions (whether due to any (temporary and/or partial) breakdown, repair, upgrade or maintenance of our website or otherwise), inaccurate, misleading or untrue information or non-delivery of information."

About freedom of opinion
"The completed guest review may be (a) uploaded onto the relevant hotel's information page on our website for the sole purpose of informing (future) customers of your opinion of the service (level) and quality of the hotel, and (b) (wholly or partly) used and placed by Booking.com at its sole discretion (e.g. For marketing, promotion or improvement of our service) on our website or such social media platforms, newsletters, special promotions, apps or other channels owned, hosted, used or controlled by Booking.com. We reserve the right to adjust, refuse or remove reviews at our sole discretion. The guest review form should be regarded as a survey and does not include any (further commercial) offers, invitations or incentives whatsoever."

It is important to note that the website promotes "unbiased reviews". However, contracts established with the hotel state the following:
"4. RANKING AND PREFERRED PROGRAMME
4.1 Ranking
4. 1. 1 The order in which the Accommodation is listed on the Platforms (the "Ranking"), is determined automatically and unilaterally by Booking.com. Ranking is based on and influenced by various factors, including but not limited to the commission percentage (to be) paid by the Accommodation, the minimum availability stated by the Accommodation, the number of bookings related to the number of visits to the relevant accommodation page on the Platform (the "Conversion"), the volume realized by the Accommodation, the ratio of cancellations, the guest review scores, the customer service history, the number and type of complaints from Guests and the on-time payment record of the Accommodation. "