Booking.com is no longer your distribution partner. It’s your bank.

TLDR

• 70% of bookings on booking.com now go through booking.com's direct-payment system, up 7 percentage points in a year
• Booking.com holds the guest's money during the booking window and only pays the hotel after the stay. This is a meaningful change for any independent hotel watching the bank balance
• Three things to do this quarter: check your payout window, audit your comp set, and build a direct-booking offer

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Booking.com quietly disclosed in its [Q1 2026 investor presentation](https://s201.q4cdn.com/865305287/files/doc_financials/2026/q1/Investor-Presentation-April-2026.pdf) that 70% of its 2025 bookings now go through what booking.com calls its "merchant" payments — up from roughly 63% a year ago. Put simply “merchant” payments means hotels get paid after the guest checks out.

Booking.com takes the guest's payment. You get paid after the stay.

It's worth being plain about what changed. Under the old model, your guest paid you directly at check-in and booking.com took a commission. Under the new model, booking.com takes the guest's payment at the time of booking, holds the money, handles the currency conversion, absorbs the chargeback risk, and pays you sometime after the guest checks out. Industry conventions vary, but you can wait two to four weeks for funds that would previously have been in your account on arrival.

For a smaller, independent hotel watching the bank balance on the 15th of the month, this is a real timing difference. Booking.com sells the change as a feature — booking.com handles "over 100 payment methods and over 50 currencies," booking.com takes refund hassles off your team, booking.com smooths international payments. Those are genuine benefits. The downside is the timing.

Booking.com's payment shift is part of a bigger play to lock guests into booking.com, not your property

The payment shift is one of three connected moves in the same Q1 disclosure. (1) Loyalty: Booking.com's Genius loyalty program is now driving the high-50% range of bookings, with Genius members making up 30% of active travelers on the platform.

(2) Payments: Growing Merchant payments to 70% of all payments

(2) Expanded supply: Alternative accommodations — apartments, villas, B&Bs — on the platform grew to 4 million properties, up 12% in a year, now 38% of nights on booking.com. Read those moves together: for all types of property, booking.com is making itself the trusted payment layer AND the loyalty layer for its repeat customers — building stickiness against the alternative of those guests booking direct with you.

Expedia and Airbnb are running variants of the same playbook. Expedia has been pushing its own merchant-payment model for years, with similar timing implications for properties. Airbnb has always held guest payments and paid hosts after check-in, meaning the model was merchant from day one. What's new is booking.com crossing 70% penetration on a model that shifts who holds the guest's money for the majority of bookings.

Three things to do this quarter: check your payout window, audit your comp set, build a direct-booking offer

First, check your actual payout window today. If you haven't looked at your booking.com terms in two years, the mix has shifted. Confirm your effective payout window now — not what it said when you signed. Most properties see funds arrive 7–21 days post-checkout, but the exact timing varies by contract and region. Know your number.

Second, if booking.com is pushing alternative-accommodation supply in your market, your competitive set has expanded beyond hotels. You're competing against the 4 million apartments and villas on the platform whether you list there or not. Worth a comp-set audit before summer. Check what apartment inventory sits in your neighborhood on booking.com at your rate band — that supply is competing for the same guest you're trying to book.

Third, build a direct-booking offer that competes with Genius perks. Genius members get discounts, free upgrades, late checkout — the package is designed to make them loyal to booking.com, not to your property. Your brand.com offer needs to match or beat that package for the segments you most want to keep. Email past guests with a returning-guest rate that's 10% below booking.com, or add breakfast to the direct rate. The guest who books direct pays you at check-in. The guest who books through Genius pays booking.com, and you get paid weeks later.

Booking.com is no longer just your distribution partner. It is your bank, your loyalty program, and increasingly your competition for the relationship with your own guest. Plan accordingly.