Booking Holdings' new resort fee commission charge policy on hold

Booking Holdings has announced that it will start charging hotels in the US commission on their resort fees but has delayed when this new policy will come into effect. 

The company, which owns brands including Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, and Kayak, is considering delaying the new commissions until January 1, according to multiple sources. The tentative new schedule for implementation — if the company goes through with it at all — is subject to change.

It is believed that Booking Holdings could be using the pause to reevaluate the whole policy, although an internal source argued that the twist is merely a change in timing to enable relevant partners to alter internal processes.

A Booking Holdings spokesperson declined to comment on the move.

The policy reversal — or pause, at the least — coincides with a leadership change at the holding company’s largest brand, Booking.com. Booking Holdings announced a week ago that Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans would be leaving her post immediately and was being replaced by parent company CEO Glenn Fogel, who now holds both positions.

Skift broke the story in late May that Booking Holdings would begin on June 1 charging hotels commissions on resort fees from those hotels that charge the controversial fees.  The new commissions were to begin in the United States, and the plan was to roll out the policy globally thereafter.

Booking Holdings and Expedia Group currently only charge commissions on the hotel rate itself, and Booking felt it was unfairly not getting the compensation it deserved on the full price of the room. Hotels sometimes charge more for resort fees than for the room rate itself.

In the interim, three things happened.

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