Skift Forum Europe Preview: Booking.com on the Right Way to Regulate Online Travel

Skift Forum Europe

Skift Forum Europe was held in London, England on March 24, 2022. Find out about future Skift events through the link below.

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Which company controls hotel distribution in Europe? Not us, said a Booking.com managing director, and actually "there is simply no gate to guard in hotel distribution."

That's the opinion of Carlo Olejniczak, a Booking.com vice president and the online travel agency's managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa, who will be interviewed on  stage at Skift Forum Europe in London March 24. The "gate" reference pertained to the European Union's proposed Digital Markets Act, which would designate and limit in some way large platforms that it deems as "gatekeepers" in their sectors.

In late 2020, European Union antitrust czar Margrethe Vestager mentioned Google, Amazon and Booking.com as potentially being Digital Markets Act targets. Booking.com, long viewed as the largest accommodations site in the world, rejects the label.

In a warmup for Skift Forum Europe, we asked Olejniczak via email about the Digital Markets Act, whether Booking.com's best days are behind the company, and how he manages such disparate regions, namely Europe