Traditionally Booking.com operated mostly as a marketplace ("agency" model, as opposed to "merchant" model like Expedia [1]). The contract and the payments are

Traditionally Booking.com operated mostly as a marketplace ("agency" model, as opposed to "merchant" model like Expedia [1]). The contract and the payments are between the guest and the hotel, not between the guest and Booking. (Booking bills the hotel afterwards for the commission, they don't bill the guest for the stay.) Of course they don't always make this very clear to the consumer, and it seems to have gotten more muddled in the last few years. I think they're trying to nudge people more towards their own payment platform nowadays. [1] https://www.businessinsider.in/this-is-why-booking-coms-agency-model-has-an-edge-over-other-otas/articleshow/59102504.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/this-is-why-booking-coms-agen...