Booking.com's Public Affairs Chief Reads HOTREC's Study as Proof Hotels Aren't Platform-Dependent

The same dataset is being used for opposite arguments. With a collective action by European hotels against Booking.com underway and Digital Markets Act enforcement in the background, Booking.com has published its reading of HOTREC's 2026 European Hotel Distribution Study.

The op-ed, titled "Hotel Distribution Is Not a Zero-Sum Game", appeared on Hospitality Net. It is written by Peter Lochbihler, Global Director Public Affairs at Booking.com.

Booking.com's argument

Lochbihler cites the following figures and attributes them to the HOTREC study:

• Over 56% of 2025 bookings were made directly with hotels: 36.4% direct online and 20% direct offline (telephone, walk-in and so on).
• Online travel platforms account for 27.8% of all bookings, split across Booking.com, Expedia, HRS, Hotels.com, Trip.com and others.
• No single OTA accounts for more than 20% of all bookings, which he says puts any one platform behind direct online and on par with direct offline.
• About half of hotels use channel management software, and over 40% advertise direct rates on metasearch such as Google.
• 74% of respondents agreed OTAs made their businesses more profitable; 8% disagreed.

He also cites Statista and Booking.com research: 80% of EU hotels recognise they have multiple marketing options, and two-thirds adjust their distribution mix to meet business goals. Citing Skift projections, he adds that direct channels are expected to remain the largest booking source through 2030.

His conclusion is that "no one could convincingly argue that hotels depend on a single online platform". He calls the relationship "coopetition", a "win-win-win" for hotels, travellers and platforms.

HOTREC reads it differently

Coverage of the same study, and HOTREC's own statements, frame it around concentration:

• HOTREC's headline figures put direct channels at 51.3% of overnights and OTAs at 29.9% in 2025. These differ from the op-ed's figures, which may reflect a different base (bookings versus overnights).
• Booking Holdings and Expedia Group together account for 85.4% of OTA bookings in Europe, and Booking.com alone for 66.1%.
• HOTREC President Alexandros Vassilikos warned of growing dependency of small and medium hotels on individual platforms. He said hotels need digital reach but also real choice and control over distribution.

The two sets of figures can both hold: one OTA can be under 20% of a hotel's total bookings and still hold two-thirds of the OTA channel.

Why it matters

This is Booking.com's public-affairs position going into ongoing regulatory and legal scrutiny in Europe. The dependency question is central to both the DMA gatekeeper framing and the collective claims. Operators reading either side's summary of the study should check which base (bookings, overnights or OTA share) each figure uses.