Expedia vs Booking.com

U.S. claims are subject to binding arbitration and a class action waiver. This can limit your ability to sue in court or join with other users in a class action.

Expedia can update the Terms at any time, and continued use counts as acceptance. That means the rules governing your bookings can change without your explicit consent, so it’s important to re-check the terms before future purchases.

Content you submit, including reviews and photos, can be used worldwide, forever, and sublicensed by Expedia. Practically, you give up a lot of control over how your submissions are reused.

You generally cannot cancel or change a booking unless the travel provider allows it. If a change is permitted, you may still owe provider fees and Expedia’s own administration fee.

Expedia shares personal data across Expedia Group and with service providers, travel suppliers, business partners, advertising partners, social platforms, and connected apps/tools. That increases the number of places your data can end up and means privacy depends partly on third parties.

Expedia may disclose your data to marketing partners for targeted advertising, and some U.S. residents can opt out. Opting out may reduce personalization and travel recommendations.

If you use a connected app, AI assistant, plug-in, or API tool, those third parties’ terms and privacy policies apply. Expedia says you are responsible for tools you authorize, which shifts risk away from Expedia.

Expedia provides a deletion process in the account area or Help Center. That gives users a clear path to close an account, though the policy should still be checked for any retained records.

Expedia says exact real-time location is collected only with your consent. That is better than silent collection, though other location signals are still collected.

The policy says some U.S. residents can opt out of targeted-ad sharing. This can reduce ad personalization and some recommendation features, but it is a meaningful privacy control.

Cancellation, no-show fees, and refunds depend mainly on the travel provider’s policy, not Booking.com’s. Some upfront payments can be non-refundable, which can leave users exposed if plans change.

Booking.com may suspend accounts, block bookings, or cancel bookings for rule violations, fraud concerns, or unlawful behavior, and it may do so without refund in some cases. This gives the company significant unilateral control over access to bookings.

Booking.com uses cookies and similar technologies for functional, analytical, and marketing purposes, including targeted ads and personalized content. It also combines behavioral data and reservations across devices for marketing and personalization.

The terms say mandatory consumer protection laws still apply even if the contract says otherwise. That means users keep non-waivable rights such as protections against fraud, death, injury, or gross misconduct.

You can access, correct, erase, restrict, port, object to, and withdraw consent for personal data processing where applicable. The policy also gives multiple request channels, which makes exercising rights more practical.

The privacy notice says personal data is shared with trip providers, strategic partners, service providers, professional advisors, and authorities when needed. In practice, booking a trip means your information may travel widely beyond Booking.com.

Booking.com says it may make changes to the Terms, with continued use treated as acceptance. This creates a unilateral amendment risk, though material changes are supposed to be announced in advance.

The privacy policy explicitly says you can port your data, which is useful if you want to move to another service or archive your information. The benefit is moderated by the fact that the exact scope depends on applicable law.

Where required, Booking.com says you can decline analytical and marketing cookies. That reduces some ad tracking, though functional cookies may still be needed for the site to work.

Call recordings are not kept indefinitely; they are deleted automatically after 30 days by default unless retention is needed for fraud investigation or legal purposes. That is a comparatively short retention period for support calls.

If you book extra travel services in the same visit or via a follow-up link, the documents say you will not get package-travel protections. Users should understand that linked bookings may have weaker legal protection than a package holiday.