The service for booking hotels and accommodation facilities Booking.com in 2018 earned 11.3 billion rubles in Russia. This is reported by RBC with reference to the data of the Moscow Arbitration Court following the results of the decision made in the court proceedings of the service with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). In this case, Booking.com tried to challenge the RUB 1.3 billion turnover fine imposed on him, but the court sided with the FAS.
As the press service of the department told RBC, the company for the first time disclosed information about its proceeds in Russia as part of the proceedings with the Federal Antimonopoly Service. These data were used to calculate the fine for violation in the framework of the consideration of the case of abuse of a dominant position in the Russian market.
It follows from the court’s reporting that in 2018 the Russian market could have accounted for about 1.2% of all Booking Holdings’ revenue (in addition to Booking.com, the company owns the Rentalcars.com car rental service, the Kayak tour search engine, and the OpenTable restaurant table service) … That year, Booking Holdings’ revenue was $ 14.5 billion, and Booking.com’s revenue in Russia, based on the weighted average dollar / ruble rate for 2018, was $ 180.4 million.
The company’s revenue in the Netherlands, where the headquarters of the service itself is located, amounted to 11.1 billion in 2018 (76.5% of the holding’s total revenue), in the USA – $ 1.6 billion (11%). Booking Holdings receives the bulk of its revenue in the form of commission from agency activities: it was paid by hotels and other travel service providers for travel bookings through the holding’s platforms. In 2018, Booking Holdings received $ 10.4 billion, which is about 72% of all annual revenue from agency fees. From the reporting of the parent company it follows that the holding receives almost all of its agency income from booking accommodation through the Booking.com service.
According to the FAS, Booking illegally imposed price parity conditions on hotels, occupying 80% of the Russian online booking market. The case of violation of the antimonopoly legislation was opened after the appeal of “Opora Rossii” at the end of December 2020. The Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the decision of the FAS. Booking.com challenged the fine in court.
Read more about the dispute between the service and the Federal Antimonopoly Service – in the material of Kommersant “Booking.com was not enough for hoteliers”.
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