The Answer: Oh Yes. Here’s why you should book your hotel in Amsterdam direct!

Amsterdam may be home to BookingCom’s headquarters and enjoy a cozy tax deal with the Dutch government, but don’t let that fool you—Dutch hoteliers are not playing by BookingCom’s rules anymore!

For years, rate parity clauses forced hotels to offer the same price on their official websites as on BookingCom. However, this is no longer the case. Thanks to recent European Court rulings and BookingCom’s designation as a “gatekeeper” under the EU Digital Markets Act, hoteliers are now free to offer better prices on their own websites—and our research proves that they’re doing exactly that!

Key Findings: Booking Direct vs. OTAs in Amsterdam

We compared 20 hotels for a 7-night stay in Amsterdam, analysing prices on BookingCom vs. official hotel websites. The results were stunning:

✔️ Booking directly was cheaper in 16 out of 20 cases (80%)
✔️ BookingCom was cheaper in only 4 out of 20 cases (20%)
✔️ On average, travellers saved €80.91 per booking (-5.63%) by booking direct
✔️ The biggest direct booking saving was €267.85 (-16.94%)
✔️ The highest OTA saving was €177.90 (10.79%)

This means that if you’re heading to Amsterdam, you should always check the hotel’s official website first—you are far more likely to get a better deal!

Amsterdam vs. Other Cities: A Direct Booking Champion

In our previous research, major European cities like Vienna and Barcelona all leaned towards BookingCom having better deals.

But Amsterdam is different. Here, hoteliers are reclaiming direct bookings, offering lower prices and better deals than OTAs in 80% of cases.

Our article about booking Hotels direct in Prague in the Czech Republic come close to these results. Our research in Prague showed that 70.59% of hotels offered a better price when booking direct. The city’s hoteliers actively promote direct booking perks, something other European cities can learn from. You can read our full Prague study here: BookBetterDirect Prague Research.

This makes Amsterdam one of the strongest cities for direct booking savings we’ve seen so far!

Final Verdict: Always Compare Before You Book

📌 If you’re booking a hotel in Amsterdam, start on BookingCom to find hotels, but always check their official website before finalising your reservation.

📌 The easiest way to compare? Use our browser extension, BookBetterDirect, which automatically finds the official booking link for you—saving you time and money!

📌 Try it now: Add the BookBetterDirect extension to your browser.

Next Stop: Germany

In our next episode, we move on to Germany to see if Berlin (city), Oberstdorf (Mountain Village), Garmish Partenkirchen (Mountain Village) and Rugen (Beach Holiday) follow Amsterdam’s lead, or if BookingCom wil be dominant. Stay tuned!

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