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Booking Holdings, which had announced it would begin charging hotels in the United States commission on their resort fees, has delayed implementing the new policy, Skift exclusively learned.
The company, which owns brands including Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda and Kayak, is considering delaying the new commissions until January 1, according to multiple sources. The tentative new schedule for implementation — if the company goes through with it all — is subject to change.
It is believed that Booking Holdings could be using the pause to reevaluate the whole policy.
A Booking Holdings spokesperson declined to comment on the move.
The policy reversal — or pause, at the least — coincides with a leadership change at the holding company’s largest brand, Booking.com. Booking Holdings announced a week ago that Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans would be leaving her post immediately, and was being replaced by parent company CEO Glenn Fogel, who now holds both positions.
Skift broke the story in late May that Booking Holdings would begin on June 1 charging hotels commissions on resort fees from those hotels that charge the controversial fees. The new commissions were to begin in the United States and the plan was to roll out the policy globally thereafter.
Booking Holdings and Expedia Group currently only charge commissions on the hotel rate itself, and Booking felt it was unfairly not getting the compensation it deserved on the full price of the room. Hotels sometimes charge more for resort fees than for the room rate itself.
In the interim, three things happened.
Expedia Group announced it wouldn’t follow Booking and charge commissions on resort fees, but would start dimming hotels — or downgrading them in search results — if they charged resort fees.
Hotels Dropped Out of Booking.com
Skift exclusively learned that several brands in Las Vegas and elsewhere, including the Golden Nugget (Las Vegas; Atlantic City; Biloxi, Mississippi, and Laughlin, Nevada), Wynn and Encore in Las Vegas, as well as a dozen Red Rock Resorts-affiliated brands in Sin City, dropped out of Booking.com over the resort fees and kept participating in Expedia Group.
Booking Holdings shook up the management of its Booking.com brand, but it’s unclear whether Tans’ ouster had anything to do with the resort fee commission implementation.
The situation could be in flux. Booking Holdings is not believed to have communicated the delay in implementing the new policy in a comprehensive way to hotel partners, and the timing could change.
It is also possible that Fogel will reverse the commission policy in its entirety, and is using the supposed delay as cover for an about-face.
What’s clear is that Booking Holdings does not appear to be willing to adopt the Expedia tack of dimming resort-fee-imposing hotels in its search results out of fears of diminishing the user experience.
The turn of events may help hotels bolster their controversial resort fees, which are a huge source of revenue and profit for some properties.
Photo Credit: In this Aug. 3, 2015, file photo, a man rides his bike past the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Booking Holdings is delaying implementation of a new policy to charge commissions on resort fees. John Locher / Associated Press
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