Dear Members,
Following concerns raised by member hotels about guests allegedly using the threat of negative reviews to seek refunds, upgrades or complimentary services, I wrote to Booking.com on 10 of August. Its response of 17 September acknowledges the concern and sets out the reporting route available to hotels. Each incident still needs to be documented and assessed on its own facts.
What Booking.com has confirmed If a guest explicitly or implicitly links a review or complaint to a demand for a benefit, the hotel should report the case through Booking.com Partner Support with the booking details and supporting evidence.
Booking.com says it reviews signals of unusual or coordinated activity and assesses reported cases under its applicable policies. It has not promised automatic removal of a review or compensation to a hotel.
Hotels can respond publicly to guest reviews through the extranet or Pulse app. Responses are reviewed before publication and should be polite, concise, specific and accurate.
What members should do now
Preserve the booking reference, dates, exact words used, messages and screenshots, and a factual timeline of any request, service recovery and benefit offered. Keep records secure and share only what is needed for the case.
Report the incident promptly through Partner Support; identify the link between the requested benefit and the threatened review. Keep the case number and outcome, and request a review under the platform’s moderation rules if relevant content appears.
Reply publicly to any published review with calm, factual context, without identifying the guest or disclosing private correspondence. Continue to address legitimate service complaints fairly.
Our next step
Booking.com has not committed to a facility for hotels to rate guests, citing privacy, fairness and due process concerns. Nor has it set out a dedicated association escalation channel. CYHMA will collect anonymised, well-documented cases from members to identify recurring patterns and seek a further discussion on reporting, moderation and case outcomes. Please send examples to info@cyhma.com, removing guest names and other unnecessary personal details from the association copy.
Our position remains clear: genuine guest feedback must be protected, and credible evidence of coercion deserves a fair and timely review.
Nick Aristou
President, Cyprus Hotel Managers Association (CYHMA / PASYDIXE)