Content guidelines

Hate, discrimination, and harassment

Hate speech and discriminatory language is not permitted on Booking.com. We want all our guests and partners to feel safe and respected, so we don’t allow:

• Content promoting violence, discriminatory language, or hatred against a person or groups based on the basis of who they are – this includes any form of discrimination based on age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, nationality, race, immigration status, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, caste, political opinion, and serious diseases.

• Content that harasses, bullies, or threatens others (or incites others to participate in these activities) – Booking.com should be a safe place for all our users, and we take a firm stance against any content that could be deemed intimidating, threatening, rude, or disparaging.

Violent, offensive, and restricted content

Booking.com is not a place for violent or offensive content, or content that’s deemed legally restricted based on local laws. We don’t allow:

• Content that promotes, facilitates, or encourages any kind of violence against others – this includes threats of violence, recommending violence, or any declaration to commit violence.

• Content that’s obscene, offensive, or inappropriate for all audiences.

• Content that offers, sells, advertises, or facilitates the sale of regulated or restricted goods and services.

• Terrorism related content – includes content that promotes, supports, or incites acts of terrorism, or that supports or represents any terrorist organization, its leaders, or associated violent activities. In addition, we don’t allow content that we deem—at our sole discretion and as aligned with the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List—to promote, support, or incite acts of violent extremism, or that supports or represents any organization engaged in violent extremism.

Animal welfare

Animal cruelty isn’t tolerated by Booking.com. Guests, partners, and employees are expected to respect domestic animals and wildlife and to provide living conditions for animals that align with our Animal Welfare Guidelines.

We don’t allow:

• Content that displays or promotes direct contact with wild animals

• Content that displays or promotes animals in captivity with bad welfare conditions

• Content relating to activities, entertainment, or sport events known to cause distress or harm to animals

Content of a sexual nature

We don’t allow content that contains sexually explicit material, nudity, or pornographic acts. This includes any content including text, digital, and animated images that supports, promotes, or depicts child sexual exploitation or sexualized content of suspected minors (i.e. Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM).

Photos and images are a valuable resource on Booking.com. In order to be helpful to our community, they need to be useful, informative, and related to the actual travel experience.

We don’t allow:

• Images that don’t relate to the actual travel experience

• Images that don't comply with any of the policies, standards, or guidelines included here

Written content also needs to be legible and related to the travel experience. We don’t allow content that’s not understandable, coherent, or doesn’t make grammatical sense.

Intellectual property

Booking.com respects intellectual property rights and expects its guests and partners to do the same. Our policy is to:

• Review cases of notified intellectual property infringement and act to remove instances of infringing or suspected infringing content

• Disable accounts or otherwise restrict access to users who repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of others

If you’d like to report copyright infringement, you can do so using our copyright infringement reporting form.

Personal and other confidential data

Booking.com takes its privacy and data protection obligations seriously, in line with our Privacy Statement.

We don't allow content that may put the privacy of our guests and other data subjects at increased risk. For example, guests or partners sharing personal data about other persons, including but not limited to sensitive or special-category personal data. This also includes credit card numbers, national ID numbers, driver's and other license numbers, addresses, or any other information that isn’t publicly accessible.

Booking.com aims to protect our guests and partners from reviews that aren’t based on the experience of a real customer, or content that isn’t related to the topic or experience of traveling.

We don’t allow:

• Content that isn’t relevant to Booking.com, the stay, or actual travel experience

• Content that’s likely to mislead, deceive, or confuse Booking.com users

• Any of our guests or partners to misrepresent themselves or impersonate another person

At Booking.com, we believe contributions are most helpful when they're honest, unbiased, and contain objective information. In particular, reviews left on Booking.com should reflect genuine guest experiences.

We don’t allow:

• Content created solely for the purpose of self-promotion, advertising, or other commercial content

• Commercial content that promotes or advertises specific services

• Content that includes contact details or information designed to promote or advertise specific services

• A partner to review their own listing, business, or accommodation

We value the opinion of our contributors. That’s why only a customer who booked through Booking.com can write a review. If the guest arrives at the accommodation, they’ll be able to leave a review, even if they don’t complete their stay. However, if a reservation is canceled before check-in, the guest won’t receive a review questionnaire.

If a review is written under these circumstances, we do allow:

• Reviews that contain critical information that would be relevant for a future guest

• Reviews that contain feedback about communication between the accommodation and the guest

• Reviews that are relevant to the travel experience