Although traditionally focused on hotels, Booking.com began aggressively expanding into short-term rentals in 2019 and has since become a major player in the industry.

Today, Booking.com accounts for approximately 30% to 40% of global short-term rental bookings. Airbnb still holds the top spot with roughly 40% to 50% of the market, while VRBO comes in third at about 15% to 20%.

In early October 2025, I decided to list two of my own short-term rentals on Booking.com.

I had previously created an account and experimented with the platform, but what ultimately convinced me to move forward was my business partner’s experience. One of his personal STRs receives approximately 90% of its bookings through Booking.com. While he doesn’t particularly enjoy using the platform, he recognizes that every booking channel represents an opportunity to fill vacancies.

After eight months of firsthand experience, I feel qualified to share my thoughts.

My conclusion?

Booking.com sucks—and here’s why.

Setting Up a Property Is Confusing

Adding a property to Airbnb or VRBO is relatively simple. In about 20 minutes, you can have a listing created, and within another hour, you can optimize it using their intuitive, user-friendly interfaces.

Booking.com is a completely different story.

I spent three to four hours setting up a single property and filling out all the required information. Because the platform was originally designed for hotels and is headquartered in Europe, the interface feels dated and overly complicated.

There are countless sections hidden behind dropdown menus and horizontal navigation tabs. Worse yet, you never know whether you’ve completed everything necessary or missed a critical setting.

The entire process feels unnecessarily difficult.

No Direct Integration with Dynamic Pricing Software

We currently use PriceLabs for dynamic pricing. It connects directly to our Airbnb and VRBO accounts and automatically adjusts rates daily, often six months into the future.

This allows us to stay competitive, maximize revenue, and take advantage of local demand fluctuations.

Naturally, I assumed Booking.com would offer similar functionality.

It doesn’t.

The only way to connect Booking.com to a dynamic pricing platform is through a channel management system (CMS) such as Guesty.

Many hosts use channel managers, but I prefer maintaining direct control over my listings. In my experience, channel managers create a level of dependency that makes it difficult to leave the platform later because everything becomes incredibly interconnected. This is by design.

The alternative is manual pricing.

That’s exactly what I had to do.

I periodically match my Booking.com rates to the rates generated by PriceLabs and manually update them several months in advance. While this establishes a minimum nightly rate I can live with, it eliminates the benefits of real-time pricing optimization.

And that can be expensive.

For example, I only updated rates through August. Last week, I received a three-night Booking.com reservation for October 9–12.

The booking came in at my minimum rate of $147 per night.

Unfortunately, that weekend coincides with several major local events.

My rates on Airbnb and VRBO for those same nights were:

• October 9: $598
• October 10: $628
• October 11: $620

.

That’s a total of $1,846.

Booking.com booked the stay for just $522.

This reservation can potentially cost me over $1,300 in potential revenue.

Booking.com Promotions Can Be Misleading

Like Airbnb and VRBO, Booking.com offers various promotional tools designed to increase bookings.

These include:

• Early booking discounts
• Getaway deals
• Weekly discounts
• Monthly discounts
• Mobile-only discounts

.

Initially, I enabled several promotions.

That turned out to be a mistake.

Instead of increasing occupancy at acceptable rates, my average daily rate (ADR) dropped from approximately $147 to just $110 per night based on all of the surrounding properties.

Unlike Airbnb and VRBO, where one or two discounts may be combined, Booking.com often stacks multiple promotions simultaneously. It also appears to factor in the average ADR of competing properties in the area when determining pricing.

After stacking the multiple promotions, it lowered the average nightly rate to $83. This is totally unacceptable.

The result?

Bookings at rates I would never knowingly accept.

Needless to say, I disabled and removed every promotion.

Calendar Synchronization Issues

One of the most important features of any STR platform is calendar synchronization.

My Airbnb, VRBO, and direct booking website calendars are all linked together, helping prevent double bookings.

Booking.com supports calendar synchronization as well, which initially gave me some peace of mind.

Unfortunately, I’ve still experienced two double-booking situations.

Why?

When a booking comes through Airbnb, my calendars typically synchronize across platforms within seconds.

Booking.com can take up to 15 minutes.

Yes, I timed it.

That creates a significant window during which another guest can reserve the same in-demand event or holiday dates through Booking.com before the calendar updates.

The only workaround I’ve found is manually forcing a calendar refresh on Airbnb every time a Booking.com reservation comes through.

It works, but it’s yet another manual task I shouldn’t have to perform.

Their Liability Insurance Program Is a Joke

After more than four years in the short-term rental business, I’ve filed multiple guest damage claims.

Airbnb’s AirCover program and VRBO’s damage protection options have generally worked well for me. Approximately 90% of the time, I’ve been reimbursed for 100% of the damages incurred.

Booking.com’s Partner Liability Insurance Program is a different story.

First, security deposits are restricted based on the booking value and average daily rate.

For my properties, the maximum deposit Booking.com allows me to collect is only $351.

That’s nowhere near enough to cover serious guest damage.

Even worse, Booking.com doesn’t collect the deposit for you.

I am responsible for obtaining the guest’s credit card information, collecting funds through services like Venmo, or arranging payment in person.

It’s another time-consuming manual process.

But the biggest issue is the claims process.

Any claim submitted through Booking.com is ultimately subject to guest approval.

If the guest refuses to pay, the claim is effectively closed.

Booking.com does not appear to actively dispute the matter on the host’s behalf.

At that point, I have to wonder what the purpose of host protection really is.

Customer Service Is Impossible to Reach

Most support requests must be submitted through Booking.com’s internal messaging system.

In my experience, responses can take up to 48 hours.

For urgent issues, Booking.com states:

“Call us! For anything urgent, you can call us 24/7.”

The problem?

There is no number listed!

Finding the actual phone number is surprisingly difficult. 

After a significant amount of searching, I eventually located it: 888-850-4649, just in case you need it.

Why a supposedly urgent support line is so difficult to find is infuriating.

Bookings Were Virtually Non-Existent

Since October 25, 2025, my property, The Hilltop, received just five bookings through Booking.com.

Two bookings totaled six nights and generated only $747.75 in revenue.

Three additional reservations were canceled.

My second property, The Vista, received one booking a year in advance for October 30 – November 1 totaling $319. This was way before I manually imputed the ADR’s. The current rates for these nights on Airbnb and VRBO are $428 and $414. totaling $842. The guest is getting a 38% discount. She probably saw it was a new property and jumped on it immediately to get this rate.

Fortunately, about a month later, The Vista secured a mid-term rental booking at $5,750 per month and remains occupied today. 

Most likely, I will also cancel this October Booking.com guest for this property in the coming weeks, especially if the current mid-term guest needs to extend.

Suspending a Property Is Difficult

The final straw for me was these October bookings that came in at severely underpriced rates.

I was ready to suspend the listings.

But Booking.com makes it impossible to remove a listing from Booking.com.

Airbnb and VRBO both offer clear options to deactivate or suspend a property indefinitely.

Booking.com does not.

Instead, you’re guided through multiple screens asking why you’re removing the listing. Once you reach the end, you’re required to provide a future reactivation date.

There is no obvious option to suspend, deactivate indefinitely, or permanently delist the property.

To move forward, I selected January 2, 2027, as the reactivation date.

Once the two October reservations are resolved, I expect I’ll have to contact support directly to permanently remove my listings because I still haven’t found a straightforward way to do it myself.

Every booking platform has its strengths and weaknesses.

For some operators, Booking.com may generate substantial booking volume and become an important revenue source.

That simply hasn’t been my experience.

After eight months of dealing with a confusing interface, limited pricing flexibility, promotion issues, calendar synchronization delays, weak host protections, poor customer support, and minimal booking activity, I’ve decided that Booking.com is not a platform I plan to continue using.

Like I said, Booking.com sucks.

I understand other hosts may have different experiences with Booking.com and I encourage them to keep using it as long as their properties meet their financial goals.

For my business, the costs and frustrations outweigh the benefits.