Partner Community guidelines

Updated 7 months ago | 5 min read time
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Welcome to the Booking.com Partner Community, where you can share tips, ideas and experiences to help other partners like you. This is where you can spark inspiring conversations with your industry peers.

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What’s in this article


Creating a safe environment together

We believe that mutual respect of our principles and transparency are a vital part of making this community a welcoming and inclusive environment. That’s why we’ve created these guidelines to make sure that we’re maintaining and building a safe and positive environment for everyone to connect and share with each other, no matter who or where they are.

These guidelines serve as a reference for our community moderation and content policies. They’re here to help you. Kindness, empathy, respect, inclusion and collaboration are our shared values — and we want every one of our partners to feel a sense of belonging here. When using the Partner Community, please take the following into account:

  • Be respectful and inclusive of each other
  • Don't use unfriendly or derogatory language
  • Check before you post, be specific and don't comment off-topic
  • Be mindful of where and how you post or comment
  • Be aware of the effects of breaching these guidelines

For more information on posting and commenting in the Partner Community, read our how-to guide here.


Be respectful and inclusive of each other

We're lucky to have such a diverse and international community. Amid this variety of voices and opinions, it’s crucial to treat each other with respect in order to keep the community helpful and collaborative.

This means thinking before acting, writing and posting, and only using the Partner Community for its intended purpose of sharing tips, experiences and asking for advice.


Don’t use unfriendly or derogatory language

Empathy and patience can go a long way when communicating. We expect community members to be considerate and mindful of their tone, language and expressions when communicating with each other and with moderators. This means not being rude, not swearing and being careful with sarcasm and jokes. Refrain from posting things that might decrease someone else’s morale or self-esteem – regardless if they’re a part of the community or not. 

A general principle is to assume the best intentions from others. So please be constructive when giving feedback – and be open to receiving feedback in return. We understand that miscommunication can happen, but conversations should always be balanced with respect for each other.


Check before you post, be specific and don’t comment off-topic

The Partner Community is valuable partly because of the accessibility and clarity of its information. To keep the threads and conversations informative, we ask you to:

  • Search for existing posts on the topics you're interested in. If a post already exists, please contribute to the thread rather than starting a duplicate conversation.
  • Be specific when posting. Make sure your information is correct and use descriptive subject lines that offer sufficient context for other members.
  • Aim to add value to discussions. Don't comment off-topic or deviate from the core topic of the conversation.

These best practices help others benefit from the conversations in the community. If you're an active user or top contributor, we'd appreciate it if you directed fellow members to the most relevant places to comment or ask their questions.


Be mindful of where and how you post or comment

Keep the following things in mind when posting in the Partner Community:

Posting in foreign languages: all posts and comments should be in the language of the respective community to make sure it's accessible. For example, posts in the Global or United States communities should be in English, whereas posts in the Italian community should be in Italian. We'll remove posts or comments not written in the local language of a community. To avoid this, we recommend using a free translation tool, such as Google Translate. We're hoping to expand into other languages soon.

Reporting bugs: we welcome any feedback concerning features and bugs, but reports about these must be submitted via the extranet. The Partner Community team can't actively intervene in fixing bugs or features.

Contacting support: when asking for help in the Partner Community, be aware that you're talking to other partners like you, not Booking.com support teams. For assistance, contact the support team via the extranet. Only they have the information required to help you. Due to privacy laws, community moderators and advisors don't have access to your property or reservation information, and therefore cannot offer you specialised support.

Sharing confidential information: never share confidential information about Booking.com, our partners, affiliates, vendors or any third party. This includes guest information.

Spamming: we have a zero-tolerance policy towards posts or comments that have malicious software, spyware, viruses, unwarranted advertisement and self-promotion, or otherwise deliberately incorrect information. Please be careful and don't click suspicious links.

Self-promotion: don’t promote other online travel platforms to drive users away from our platform, either due to conflict of interest or to promote your own business.

Copyright: be respectful of others’ intellectual property. Don't share images or videos that aren't your own or could infringe any copyright in your posts, comments or profile photo. If necessary, make sure you secure the content owner's consent and provide proper attribution. You're responsible for obtaining consent before sharing intellectual property in the community. Content that is uploaded without the owner’s permission will be removed at the request of the copyright holder.

You should also be mindful of trademark infringement and not use brands and logos in a negative way or to feign affiliation. Depending on the topic of the conversation, we encourage sharing links to safe websites and applications if it brings value to the discussion. But they should never conflict with our guidelines and content policies. Additionally, you should indicate if anything you link to is free or paid.

Your community profile: your profile is your personal space and should be a reflection of your identity. Choose a profile name that's unique to you which other members can address you by. When choosing a profile photo, upload one of yourself or your property. Don't use pictures of someone else – including celebrities – or public images, and avoid depicting anything that can be perceived as vulgar, pornographic, illegal or offensive.

Sometimes, we may use the content you submitted for other purposes, such as featuring you in our publications or marketing campaigns. When this happens, we reserve the right to edit, crop, enhance or modify all photos, and we'll openly communicate our plans with you.

Sharing personal information: never share personal information in the Partner Community. Anything you share is freely accessible to anyone on the internet and could be traced back to you. We can't control what others will do with your information and therefore can't be held responsible for any misuse. We process any personal data provided in the Partner Community under our privacy statement.


Be aware of the effects of breaching these guidelines

The aim of these guidelines is to make sure that you understand our community moderation policies and member expectations. However, we may still consider certain behaviours or material improper, even if it's not explicitly detailed here.

If you breach these guidelines or our content policies, we reserve the right to partially or fully remove your post or comment and suspend or close your Partner Community account.

We enforce these guidelines using a three-strike policy:

  1. First offence: you'll receive feedback
  2. Second offence: you'll receive a warning
  3. Third offence: we'll suspend or remove your account

Note that in exceptional cases, we reserve the right to close your account immediately and without prior warning.


Updates to these guidelines and other information

These guidelines are subject to updates without notice, so we recommend that members read and review these guidelines on a regular basis. The Booking.com Terms of Service and Privacy Policy apply to your participation in the Partner Community. By participating here you agree to adhere to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Disclaimer

The Partner Community is provided “as is” and “as available” with no express or implied warranties of any kind including, but not limited to, any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, non-infringement, and title. Booking.com disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the Partner Community. You should assume total responsibility for your use of the Partner Community.

Booking.com does not take responsibility for the correctness, completeness, up-to-dateness or quality of the information provided on the Partner Community and Booking.com makes no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content on the Partner Community is accurate, complete or up to date. Furthermore, Booking.com is not liable for any damage or corruption caused by viruses (or similar mechanisms such as worms, lockouts, metering, or self-destruct mechanisms) on computers or other terminal equipment in connection with visiting, using and/or downloading data of any kind from the Partner Community. You are personally responsible for protecting your equipment appropriately from viruses and other risks on the Internet.

The content, links and resources on this community are provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you, as a user, should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the content of this community.

Booking.com reserves the right, at its sole discretion, but disclaims the obligation, to monitor and/or remove content from any blog or post on this Partner Community. Booking.com may analyse browsing patterns and usage trends of the Partner Community and its users with the general information collected. Booking.com may, but is not obligated to, monitor or review any areas on the Partner Community where users transmit or post communications, and the content of any such communications.

If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, please do not use the Partner Community, provide any materials or download any materials from the Partner Community. If you no longer agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions or if you are dissatisfied with the Partner Community and/or its content, you must cease use of the Partner Community.

The website and associated materials are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, Booking.com disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property. Booking.com makes no representations or warranty that this Partner Community will meet your requirements, or that your use of this Partner Community will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; nor does Booking.com make any representation or warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of the Partner Community. Booking.com makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of the Partner Community or the information, content, materials, or products included in the Partner Community.

In no event shall Booking.com or any of its affiliates, agents, vendors or suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of information) arising out of the use, misuse of or inability to use the Partner Community, even if Booking.com has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Booking.com, its affiliates, agents, vendors or suppliers from and against any and all claims, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from or related to your use or misuse of the Partner Community, including, without limitation, your violation of these Terms and Conditions, the infringement by you, or any other subscriber or user of your account, of any intellectual property right or other rights of any person or entity.

Applicable law

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and interpreted under the substantive laws of the Netherlands, under the exclusion of any international treaty and under exclusion of any conflicts of laws principles. The exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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