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It's interesting to claim that tourism in Europe won't be "durable" at a moment when tourism in the US is sharply declining.. Anyway, Booking.com is a European

by twiss 1y ago

It's interesting to claim that tourism in Europe won't be "durable" at a moment when tourism in the US is sharply declining.. Anyway, Booking.com is a European company and has many more customers than AirBnB.

legitster 1y ago
Apples and Oranges. Booking.com is an aggregator. Also, Booking.com is unbelievably exploitative and rife with dark patterns.
- teekert 1y ago
  But great for its _users_, so just like the US companies then.
- TremendousJudge 1y ago
  > Also, Booking.com is unbelievably exploitative and rife with dark patterns. So it seems that Europeans have no issue doing the same thing as American tech companies?
- twiss 1y ago
  How so? At least Booking.com shows me the total price for an accommodation up front, without any additional fees or surprises coming up later in the booking process. The same cannot be said for AirBnB: if I go to the home page right now it lists a bunch of bookings for e.g. "€ 80 for 2 nights", while when I click through the total price is €160. So apparently what they meant is "€80 per night". I'd call that much more of a dark pattern than anything I've seen Booking do.
  - legitster 1y ago
    Bookings.com runs some incredibly evil tactics. Generally they take about 20% of the booking fees. But they will do things like delist you if you have lower prices anywhere else, and then undercut your prices on their website. My parents ran a small motel - the only hotel for miles around. But on top of the fees, if they weren't paying for additional promotions Booking would find unrelated distant hotels even when searching in the area. People would sometimes mistakenly book for a motel states away.
    - twiss 1y ago
      Fair enough, I'm willing to believe it's doing evil things to hosts on the platform, indeed. But FWIW, the EU is at least making an effort to regulate the company: https://nltimes.nl/2024/09/19/eu-court-says-bookingcom-wrong-put-price-limitations-hotels https://nltimes.nl/2024/09/19/eu-court-says-bookingcom-wrong... (which claims that Booking can no longer prevent hosts in the EU from offering lower prices elsewhere).
pclowes 1y ago
I don't understand what you are trying to claim. 1. Booking.com is owned by Booking Holdings which is an American parent company. 2. US GDP growth has been massively outperforming the EU since 2008. I am saying tourism is not something governments should want to heavily optimize an economy for. No amount of taking money from people on vacation will translate into building a more competitive or innovative economy.
- twiss 1y ago
  Apparently Priceline.com Inc. took over Booking.com (founded in the Netherlands) for € 110 million, and then changed its name to Booking Holdings to reflect the fact that Booking.com was much bigger than Priceline.com. Indeed a great example of "American innovation" :)
TMWNN 1y ago
> It's interesting to claim that tourism in Europe won't be "durable" at a moment when tourism in the US is sharply declining.. Sorry to shatter your illusions, but for April 2025 (most recent month with final data) <https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.trade.gov%2F%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2F2025-07%2FFINAL_SummaryAnalysis_COR_April_2025.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2...>, Canadian visits are down 20% yoy but overall worldwide visits to US are up 1.3% yoy, including 17% yoy rise in Mexican visitors. Full data <https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program>

by twiss 1y ago

legitster 1y ago

Apples and Oranges. Booking.com is an aggregator. Also, Booking.com is unbelievably exploitative and rife with dark patterns.

teekert 1y ago
But great for its _users_, so just like the US companies then.
TremendousJudge 1y ago
> Also, Booking.com is unbelievably exploitative and rife with dark patterns. So it seems that Europeans have no issue doing the same thing as American tech companies?
twiss 1y ago
How so? At least Booking.com shows me the total price for an accommodation up front, without any additional fees or surprises coming up later in the booking process. The same cannot be said for AirBnB: if I go to the home page right now it lists a bunch of bookings for e.g. "€ 80 for 2 nights", while when I click through the total price is €160. So apparently what they meant is "€80 per night". I'd call that much more of a dark pattern than anything I've seen Booking do.
- legitster 1y ago
  Bookings.com runs some incredibly evil tactics. Generally they take about 20% of the booking fees. But they will do things like delist you if you have lower prices anywhere else, and then undercut your prices on their website. My parents ran a small motel - the only hotel for miles around. But on top of the fees, if they weren't paying for additional promotions Booking would find unrelated distant hotels even when searching in the area. People would sometimes mistakenly book for a motel states away.
  - twiss 1y ago
    Fair enough, I'm willing to believe it's doing evil things to hosts on the platform, indeed. But FWIW, the EU is at least making an effort to regulate the company: https://nltimes.nl/2024/09/19/eu-court-says-bookingcom-wrong-put-price-limitations-hotels https://nltimes.nl/2024/09/19/eu-court-says-bookingcom-wrong... (which claims that Booking can no longer prevent hosts in the EU from offering lower prices elsewhere).

pclowes 1y ago

I don't understand what you are trying to claim. 1. Booking.com is owned by Booking Holdings which is an American parent company. 2. US GDP growth has been massively outperforming the EU since 2008. I am saying tourism is not something governments should want to heavily optimize an economy for. No amount of taking money from people on vacation will translate into building a more competitive or innovative economy.

twiss 1y ago
Apparently Priceline.com Inc. took over Booking.com (founded in the Netherlands) for € 110 million, and then changed its name to Booking Holdings to reflect the fact that Booking.com was much bigger than Priceline.com. Indeed a great example of "American innovation" :)

TMWNN 1y ago

> It's interesting to claim that tourism in Europe won't be "durable" at a moment when tourism in the US is sharply declining.. Sorry to shatter your illusions, but for April 2025 (most recent month with final data) <https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.trade.gov%2F%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2F2025-07%2FFINAL_SummaryAnalysis_COR_April_2025.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2...>, Canadian visits are down 20% yoy but overall worldwide visits to US are up 1.3% yoy, including 17% yoy rise in Mexican visitors. Full data <https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program>