Rate parity glossary

Rate parity

Selling the same room, for the same stay and on the same terms, at the same price on every channel: your own website and each OTA. It can be a contract clause an OTA imposes, or just a hotel's own pricing policy. In the EU, Booking.com can no longer require it (EU rate parity rules).

Wide parity

A contract clause that says your price on an OTA must be no higher than anywhere else, other OTAs included. The EU's rules for distribution agreements don't exempt wide parity clauses (Regulation 2022/720, Art 5(1)(d) (opens in a new tab)).

Narrow parity

A contract clause that says your price on an OTA must be no higher than on your own website, while other OTAs may be cheaper. Booking.com's partner terms still distinguish "wide-parity", "narrow-parity" and "no-parity" countries, and put every country in the European Economic Area in the last group (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)).

BAR (best available rate)

The lowest price a hotel publicly offers for a room and date, usually on flexible terms, without a membership, package or special condition. Hotels and systems define it differently, so check what your contracts and your channel manager mean by it. It's often the reference other rates are set from, including dynamic wholesale rates.

Like-for-like

Comparing two prices only when they're for the same thing: the same room, dates, number of guests, board, cancellation terms and tax basis. A room-only non-refundable rate against your flexible half-board rate isn't a like-for-like comparison, so a lower price there isn't an undercut. Most false parity alarms come from skipping this step (why Booking.com is cheaper than your website).

Undercut

A channel selling the same stay, like for like, for less than your direct price. The channel may be funding the discount, you may be funding one without noticing, or a reseller may be selling a leaked rate. Whichever it is, it sends bookings away from your own site.

Rate leakage

A rate reaching a place or an audience it wasn't meant for. The usual case: a net rate given to a wholesaler for packages is resold as a room on its own, for less than your public price, often on Google Hotels (Google Hotels guide).

Bedbank

A wholesaler that buys or connects to hotel room inventory and distributes it to travel agents, tour operators and websites, usually by API. Most don't sell to travellers directly, but the sites they supply do, and one step removed from your contract is where leaked rates tend to surface.

Test booking

A real reservation a hotel makes on a seller's site to see who is selling a rate and on what terms. The booking reaches the hotel through one of its partners, and that partner, or its voucher and rate code, points to where the rate came from. StayParity doesn't make test bookings; it tells you where and when you're undercut (how to trace a leak).

Genius

Booking.com's loyalty programme: members see discounted prices at hotels that take part. The discount starts at 10% and can be 15% or 20% at higher Genius levels, and the hotel funds it. Signed-in members see it, and for hotels in APAC and EMEA, Europe included, signed-out guests can also see the 10% discount (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)).

BSB (Booking Sponsored Benefit)

A discount Booking.com funds itself: the guest sees a lower price, and the hotel still receives its full rate and pays its usual commission on it. Booking.com says BSB prices can also appear on metasearch, Google Hotel Ads included, in some regions (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)). In the EEA, since September 2026, a hotel's prices on other channels no longer affect BSB eligibility (European Commission (opens in a new tab)).

Booking.basic

As described in 2019, a set of non-refundable rates from a third-party supplier, shown on some Booking.com listings when the hotel's own Booking.com price wasn't the cheapest online. That description is trade press (Hotel Speak, January 2019 (opens in a new tab)), and we found no source from 2024 onwards on whether it still runs, or where.

Preferred Partner Programme

A Booking.com programme that gives a hotel more visibility in search results and a badge, in exchange for a higher commission. Booking.com says its price-competitiveness requirement doesn't apply in no-parity countries, which include every EEA country (Booking.com Partner Hub (opens in a new tab)).

Metasearch

A site that lists prices from many sellers for the same hotel and sends the traveller to one of them to book, rather than taking the booking itself. Google Hotels, Trivago and Kayak work this way. A metasearch listing is often the first place a guest compares your direct price with the OTAs'.

Official site (Google Hotels)

The badge Google Hotels puts on the price that comes from the hotel itself or from a partner sending the hotel's own rates, such as its booking engine, CRS or connectivity partner. An OTA never gets it, and only one partner per hotel does (Google Hotel Center Help (opens in a new tab)).

DMA gatekeeper

A large platform the European Commission has designated under the Digital Markets Act, which must follow the Act's rules for that service. Booking Holdings was designated for Booking.com on 13 May 2024, and since 14 November 2024 Booking.com can't stop hotels offering different prices or terms elsewhere, their own website included (European Commission (opens in a new tab)). No other travel company is on the gatekeeper list (European Commission, gatekeepers (opens in a new tab)).

Knowing the terms is the easy part. Seeing every night where a channel sells your room for less is the part that takes time.

• Why Booking.com is cheaper than your website
• Why Google Hotels shows a lower price than your website
• EU rate parity rules
• On your own site: the book-direct badge