Booking.com presents the hotel's regular guest as a "new customer," and the commission is paid again
Hospitality.today editor Markus Busch writes that because Booking.com masks email and phone information, the hotel's regular guest appears as a new customer in its system, and the hotel pays commission again for that same person.
A guest who rebooks the hotel they previously stayed at through Booking.com often ends up recorded in the hotel's system as a new customer, because the platform masks email and phone data. This was written by Markus Busch, editor of the Hospitality.today publication.
As a result, the independent hotel cannot recognize its own regular guest and pays commission to the platform again for that same person. The problem stems precisely from data masking, which makes it difficult for the hotel to see its own customer base.
The issue touches on the economics of repeat sales: for a hotel, the cheapest revenue is the return of a guest who has already come, since in this case there is no acquisition cost. However, when the guest books through the platform again, the hotel loses both the commission and the opportunity for direct contact with the guest.
For small hotels and guesthouses in Azerbaijan, this means that alongside booking channels, keeping a separate record of one's own guest base is important — otherwise, a regular guest appears as a "first-time visitor" every time, and part of the revenue goes to the intermediary over and over again.