Ep662 - Rev Up: Why Booking.com Belongs in Your Channel Mix (Now)

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In this episode of Get Paid For Your Pad, we break down how to win on Booking.com using merchandising, smarter rate plans, and a guest-friendly review system. You will learn the practical steps to onboard, structure markups, and stack promotions like Genius and mobile-only rates to drive conversions without wrecking rate parity.

You’ll hear:

Why Booking.com’s 1–10 review model cushions occasional low scores compared to Airbnb’s binary five-star culture.
How the Genius loyalty tiers influence guest behavior and why hitting 3+ reviews to unlock eligibility should be priority one.
The right way to use mobile-only rates, Preferred Program, and country/state rates so your listing shows deal badges guests actually notice.
Building multiple rate plans: nonrefundable vs. flexible, pricing the flexibility premium, and avoiding revenue leaks.
Markup strategy 101: balancing channel markups against stacked discounts so owners do not panic about price inconsistencies.
Fixing your Property Page Score to 100 percent for maximum visibility and conversions.

We also talk about:

Moving to Booking.com’s merchant model to avoid chargebacks and streamline payouts.
Why early momentum matters and how to accelerate first reviews with ethical nudges and incentives.
Sanity checks: doing test searches and trial bookings to verify real guest-facing prices across OTA channels.

🎯 Mentioned in the Episode:

Booking.com Genius loyalty program
Mobile-only rate, Preferred Program, country/state rates, last-minute and early booker promos
Nonrefundable and flex rate plans, occupancy-based pricing
Property Page Score optimization
PriceLabs, Wheelhouse, common PMS channel markups
Freewyld Foundry, Revenue & Pricing Management for High-Growth STR Portfolios

🔥 Favorite Takeaway:
“On Booking.com, smart merchandising plus flexible rate plans beat a single base rate every time.”

Ready to dial in your distribution and build a real revenue machine? Connect with Eric on LinkedIn or learn more about the Freewyld Mastermind and Revenue & Pricing Management services at FreewyldFoundry.com.

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Jasper Ribbers:
Welcome back to another episode of Rev Up, where I talk about revenue management every Monday. Last week we focused on OTA merchandising for Airbnb. Today, I want to dive into Booking.com.

It has become a really important channel, though not every operator is using it yet. Historically, it was complicated to get listed because the platform started as a hotel-focused B2B marketplace. Onboarding used to be a pain compared to Airbnb, where you can sign up in a few hours. Recently, though, Booking.com has shifted toward short-term rentals, making things easier. Still, it is more complex than Airbnb in both onboarding and managing the channel.

They now have roughly the same amount of inventory as Airbnb, maybe even more, and in total around 29 million listings. It is the largest OTA in the world. Especially in big cities, demand is strong, and travelers globally know Booking.com since it was founded in Europe.

Alternative accommodations now make up 33% of all room nights booked there, and that segment grew 19% year-over-year in Q4 of 2024. That is a sign of major growth.

One of the biggest friction points used to be payments. Hosts had to process payments themselves, which often led to chargebacks. Thankfully, Booking.com introduced a merchant model, and now 59% of bookings are processed by the platform directly. That was a game-changer.

Another key difference is the review system. On Airbnb, anything less than five stars can crush your listing. Guests often think “if it was not perfect, I will give four,” which Airbnb treats as a bad review. With Booking.com, reviews are on a scale from 1 to 10. A 9 or even an 8 still counts as good. It is a much fairer system and means your revenue is not so sensitive to one outlier review.

Exactly because of this, we recommend operators diversify onto Booking.com. You do not risk your entire business on one bad review like with Airbnb.

Another big advantage is rate flexibility. On Booking.com, you can set multiple rate plans: nonrefundable, flexible, or even include extras like breakfast. Airbnb only allows one. This flexibility helps capture different types of demand.

Now, the most important part of this episode is merchandising on Booking.com. The platform is extremely conversion-driven. If you have ever booked there, you know the experience: constant messages like “Only 2 rooms left” or “20 people booked this in the last 24 hours.” Guests almost always see some kind of deal or discount.

As a host, you need to play into this system. The Genius loyalty program is the number one priority. To qualify, you need at least three reviews, and once you are in, you can offer tiered discounts and perks like late checkout or free breakfast. Genius drives up to 29% more bookings and 24% more revenue. Without it, you are at a disadvantage.

Other important merchandising tools include:

Mobile-only rates: offering 10% off for mobile bookings boosts conversions by 28%.
Preferred Program: pay a bit more commission, get a yellow thumbs-up badge and better visibility.
Country and state rates: offer targeted discounts for travelers from specific regions.
Last-minute and early booker discounts: proven levers for filling gaps.

Here is the challenge: using all these discounts makes it nearly impossible to maintain price parity across channels. A guest might see one price on Booking.com and another on Airbnb, depending on which discounts apply. That is why you need a strong markup strategy in your PMS. For example, if you are offering both Genius and mobile discounts at 10% each, you will want a 25% markup to protect your base rate.

In the early days, I recommend starting without markups, just to build momentum and get your first three reviews. Once you are Genius-eligible, layer in markups and refine.

One more tip: Booking.com guests do not leave reviews as consistently as Airbnb guests. Since reviews are critical to unlocking Genius, you may need to follow up with guests or even offer small incentives for leaving reviews.

Finally, do not forget your Property Page Score. Booking.com shows you exactly what is missing: photos, amenities, tags. You should push it to 100% for maximum visibility.

To summarize: