Russian travel agency complained to the FAS on Booking.com

Photo: Pravda.Ru

The Booking.com service, which provides about half of the volume of hotel bookings in Russia, was filed with the FAS. The author of the complaint is the online tour agency, which accuses Booking.com of unfair competition, Kommersant writes . According to the travel agency, the requirements of the Booking.com service lead to an overestimation of the cost of accommodation in the entire domestic market of hotel services.

Not one complaint was filed on Booking.com, but two at once. They indicate that the activities of the reservation service violate at once two laws of the Russian Federation - “On Protection of Competition” and “On Advertising”.

The Online Tour company believes that Booking.com prescribes in the text of the contract with counterparty hotels a clause stating that the cost of the accommodation means in the booking system should be the lowest. This is supposedly done so that the client does not have the opportunity to book a room on the site of the hotel itself cheaper than on Booking.com. And this, in the long run, leads to the monopolization of the reservation market service.
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In the second complaint, Online Tour expresses doubt that the message with the “best price” and “no-fee booking” declaration on Booking.com reflects the real state of things.

The agency management is confident that the cost of hotels at tour operators is often lower than the price of the reservation system. For example, booking a room at Belconti Resort Hotel in a certain period is $ 1,453, and on the website of the tour operator Intourist, for the same period of time - only $ 1,385.

According to the head of Online Tour, Igor Blinov, now Russian travel agencies are unhappy that Booking.com receives 18-25% of the agency commission. And this is happening against the background of a 50% growth in the domestic tourism market. Due to the fact that in the contract between hoteliers and booking systems there is an item on the “best price”, the average cost of accommodation is automatically increased. This cost includes a commission for Booking.com. If prices become lower, the market will grow and agents will also get more.

In December 2014, Booking.com agreed to remove the “about the best price” item from contracts with hotels in some European countries. The reason was the long antitrust proceedings in Italy, Sweden and France.