If you're here because Booking.com is already cheaper than your site, our guide Why is Booking.com cheaper than your website? walks through the eight usual causes, one by one.
What we check on Booking.com
Your Booking.com price, as Google Hotels shows it
Every check starts with one read of Google Hotels for your hotel, for one stay and one guest count. Booking.com's price is in that read, beside your own site's price and every other seller Google lists.
We check each night in your horizon, at up to 3 guest counts per hotel (2 adults unless you choose others). The horizon is 30 nights on the free check and trial, and 60 or 90 on paid plans.
Like for like first
Before calling anything an undercut, we match the two prices: same room, same number of guests, same board, same cancellation terms, same tax basis. When the data has that detail, the comparison is room by room. When it doesn't, we compare the cheapest offer on each side, and each undercut in your queue says which of the two it is.
Your own price comes from your booking engine where we have a connector for it (BON today). Otherwise it's the price Google shows for your official site.
How an undercut is confirmed on Booking.com's own page
Google's price for Booking.com is a claim about Booking.com. When that claim says Booking.com undercuts you, we go and read Booking.com.
When we confirm
Three things have to hold:
- We have your Booking.com listing URL on file.
- The gap clears both thresholds in your alert rule, the amount and the percentage. A gap too small to alert on isn't worth a second read.
- Your hotel's daily confirmation allowance isn't spent.
If we confirmed the same price in the last few days and it has barely moved since, we reuse that verdict rather than read the page again.
What we read
We read your hotel's public Booking.com page for the same stay: the same dates, the same number of guests, in your hotel's currency.
What happens next
- Booking.com's own page bears the undercut out: it goes into your queue marked Confirmed.
- Booking.com's own page doesn't bear it out: its reading replaces Google's and no new undercut opens.
- The read fails, times out, or isn't made: the undercut stays in your queue marked Seen once. A scraper outage never hides a real undercut.
By default, alerts wait for Confirmed. You can set your alert rule to fire on Seen once as well.
What we don't check
We read public prices, the ones any traveller sees without signing in. So some prices are outside what we see:
- Genius prices for signed-in members. Our reads are signed out. Booking.com says that for properties in APAC and EMEA, Greece included, signed-out guests can also see the 10% Genius discount (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)).
- Mobile and app prices. We read the website, not the Booking.com app, and we don't ask for the mobile site.
- Country rates. We don't read Booking.com as a guest in each market. Google is read from one fixed market (the US, in English).
- Anything behind a test booking. We don't make test bookings.
- Longer stays. Every check is a one-night stay.
If a guest sends you a Booking.com price lower than anything in your queue, those gaps are the first place to look.
Why Booking.com is cheaper: the short list
| Cause | In one line | Would StayParity see it? |
|---|---|---|
| Not like for like | A non-refundable room-only price against your flexible rate with breakfast | We match terms first, so this rarely becomes an alert |
| Tax or currency | A price before a local fee, or in another currency | We compare on the same tax basis where the data says which it is |
| Genius | A discount you fund for Genius members: 10%, and 15% or 20% at higher levels (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)) | Not the signed-in prices, our reads are signed out |
| Mobile or country rates | If your extranet has a rate for app users or for guests in chosen countries, those guests can see less than you do | No |
| Booking Sponsored Benefit (BSB) | Booking.com lowers the guest's price and pays the difference itself (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)) | Only if it's in the public, signed-out price, and then as a price like any other |
| A forgotten promotion | A deal still running from months ago | Yes, it's a public price |
| Wholesale or bedbank leakage | A rate you sold net, resold below your price | Yes, where it lands on your public listing or on Google |
How to confirm and fix each one is in the full guide.
Booking.com and the EU rules
Booking.com is on the European Commission's list of gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (European Commission, gatekeepers (opens in a new tab), as of 29 September 2026). Since 14 November 2024 it can't stop you selling at a different price elsewhere, your own site included (European Commission (opens in a new tab)).
So a lower price on your own site is your call. The rules, the national laws and the Greek competition case are in our EU rate parity guide. It's a summary, not legal advice.
More on each channel
Expedia and Google Hotels have their own pages.