How to list your hotel on Booking.com, from sign-up to first booking

Booking.com takes hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, apartments and holiday homes, and its registration guide says the person registering can be the owner or the manager of the property. Registering is free. Early in sign-up you choose one of four property types, and Booking.com warns that the choice can't be changed later: you would have to start again.

• Apartment: a self-contained space in a building, with furnished rooms and a private kitchen separate from the bedroom.
• Home: a whole residential property, such as a house, villa, bed and breakfast or cottage, where guests rent the whole place.
• Hotel: a commercial place to stay with services such as cleaning or meals. Booking.com counts motels, hostels, resorts and lodges with shared guest areas here.
• Alternative place: a stay out of the ordinary, such as a boat, a camp or a country house.

Booking.com's guide doesn't use the word homestay. What decides the type is how guests book: Booking.com says a holiday home can only be rented as a whole, while a guest house can only be rented room by room. If guests rent the whole house, Home fits. If they book rooms, Booking.com's layout step lists each room without a kitchen as a Room or Suite, with a type such as Guest house or Hotel. Booking.com's pages don't say which type a homestay should pick, so if you are unsure, ask its support team before you choose: the type is permanent.

• Two properties of the same type at one address can go on one registration, with each room or unit added. Properties at different addresses are registered one at a time, the first through sign-up and the rest from the extranet.
• Depending on your country, Booking.com may ask whether you are registering as a professional host, so that your contract has the right terms.
• Booking.com may ask for a licence or registration number during registration where local rules require one, and says partners are responsible for knowing and following the rules for their municipality, state and country.
• Booking.com says it can't take new properties in some regions, and asks you to contact its support team if you are unsure whether that applies to you.

You can stop and come back at any point, but sign-up goes faster with these at hand:

• An email address you can easily reach. Booking.com sends a confirmation link that must be clicked within 72 hours, and warns that some custom business email domains block it: if the email doesn't arrive, try an address from a common provider. This partner account is separate from any guest account on Booking.com.
• The property's name as guests should see it: standard spelling, short and descriptive, with no abbreviations, emojis, symbols or capitals throughout. Booking.com emails you if it rejects a name, with the reason.
• The address where guests arrive, not a postal or personal address, with street, number and floor. Booking.com drops a pin on the map from it.
• Photos: at least five to move on, each at least 1280 by 900 pixels, in PNG or JPEG, and Booking.com recommends at least ten recent ones. Phone photos are fine, its sign-up page says.
• Your rooms: each room type, its beds, the most adults and children it takes, and the number of units of each you want to sell.
• Facilities and services (Wi-Fi, parking, breakfast), house rules on children, pets and events, check-in and check-out times with at least two hours between them for cleaning, and the languages your staff speak.
• A price per night for each room, and whether you will take payment at the property, by card or through Payments by Booking.com if you are eligible.
• Whether you use a channel manager. If you do, Booking.com asks you to say so during sign-up.

Your tax and business papers are asked for after sign-up, in the extranet's Compliance centre (see Booking.com's checks below). For India, have ready your PAN, your GST details if you are registered and, for a business, one of the documents Booking.com lists in case it can't verify the business from its details: a registration certificate of establishment, a GST certificate, an entity PAN card, a sales tax or income tax return, or another certificate on its list. An individual gives a PAN card as proof of identity and a proof of address dated within the last six months, such as a bank statement or a utility bill. Booking.com asks for bank details when you join Payments by Booking.com with bank transfer payouts.

If the property is already on another booking site, Booking.com lets you paste that listing's link during sign-up to bring over its name, photos and calendar, then click “Apply” for each site.

Booking.com's step-by-step registration guide gives this order, with these button names:

1. 1Go to join.booking.com and click “Register for free” or “Get started now”. Booking.com's partner site has the same entry at partner.booking.com, with “Start registration”.
2. 2Enter your email address and create your partner account. Click the link in Booking.com's confirmation email within 72 hours, set a password that meets its rules, and wait for the welcome email that confirms the account.
3. 3Choose your property type: Apartment, Home, Hotel or Alternative place. This can't be changed later.
4. 4Add the property's name and address, and check the pin on the map. If the address isn't found, select “Click here to enter your address manually”.
5. 5Say whether you use a channel manager. If you do, choose “Yes, I’ll connect this listing to my channel manager and continue”, then switch off Booking.com's suggested price on the Standard, Non-refundable and Weekly rate plans and click “Save”. Booking.com warns that leaving them on can cause double bookings.
6. 6Set up the rooms: room types, beds, the most guests each takes and how many of each you sell, then the facilities and services.
7. 7Add your house rules, check-in and check-out times and the languages your staff speak, then a short host profile.
8. 8Upload your photos: at least five to move on.
9. 9Choose how guests pay, and enter a price per night. Booking.com suggests comparing similar properties nearby or using its suggested range, and shows what you earn per night after its commission, taxes and charges.
10. 10Set up your rate plans. You need at least one, and Booking.com suggests a fully flexible plan and a non-refundable one.
11. 11Open your calendar: choose the first date guests can check in, as soon as possible or a later date. Booking.com opens the next 18 months for you, less any days you imported as unavailable.
12. 12Check everything, then click “Open for bookings”. To finish later, click “I’m not ready”, which keeps what you have entered.

Booking.com shows the commission that will apply at the agreement step, and emails your Accommodation Agreement once you open for bookings. At the price step you can also choose whether to join the New Property Deal, a temporary discount for your first guests (see Going live, below). To come back to an unfinished registration, go back to the sign-up page and click “Continue your registration”.

For a home, Booking.com also lets you choose how bookings arrive: “All guests can book instantly”, or “All guests will need to request to book”, where you have 24 hours to accept or decline. Request to Book is only for eligible Home properties. For the rest, Booking.com says most bookings are made instantly and must be honoured.

After you open for bookings, Booking.com may ask for final checks before the property goes live. It shows them as a banner on the “Home” tab of your extranet, and asks you to follow the steps as soon as you can to avoid delays. The two it names are a check of the property's location and the Know Your Partner form.

Location: you only need to do this if the banner asks. Booking.com picks the method from your property type and location, and you can't choose it. Before you start, make sure the address and pin are right and that at least five photos are in the extranet. If you can't be at the property, give a trusted person, such as a member of staff, access to receive the letter or record the video.

• A video: one continuous recording, less than three weeks old, with no filters or effects, showing the street sign and nearby landmarks, the outside of the property, a walk from outside to inside, and the rooms, kitchen and bathrooms. In the extranet, click “Confirm location”, then “Upload video”, “Choose file” and “Submit 1 video”. Booking.com's team reviews it within two weeks.
• A letter: Booking.com posts a unique code to the address you registered, which it says can take up to 35 days. When it arrives, click “Confirm location” on the banner, enter the code on the Partner Verification Portal and click “Submit”. After 35 days you can choose “Resend your letter”.
• A video call: used in rare cases, and Booking.com says it can take up to three months from its first contact to call. Keep your phone numbers up to date, and add a second one.

If the location stays unverified, Booking.com may close the property for bookings for a time. Until a new property passes verification, Booking.com applies limits to all new partners: you can't see guests' card details for regular bookings, so you ask guests to pay at check-in; you can't set prepayment policies; and guests' phone numbers show only closer to check-in.

Know Your Partner: Booking.com collects and checks details about you and your property to meet legal rules. Only the primary account holder can open the form:

1. 1Sign in to the extranet and click the user account icon.
2. 2Click “Compliance centre” and open the Know Your Partner form.
3. 3For a business, give the business structure, the legal name as on its registration document, the registration number, the registered business address (not the property's), its tax identification number, and the contact details guests will see. Name the directors and anyone who owns a quarter or more of it, and verify at least one person who runs it with a government ID and a proof of address.
4. 4For an individual, give your full name as on your ID, your home address, date of birth, place of birth, tax identification number and the contact details guests will see, with a photo of your ID and a proof of address.
5. 5Submit, and watch the form's status: Action required, Verification in progress, Verification failed or KYP form completed.

If a check fails, the Compliance centre shows the reason: correct the detail or replace the document and submit again. You may black out private details on a proof of address, such as balances and account numbers. Booking.com says it never asks for your extranet password, and that its emails about the form come only from addresses ending in @booking.com or @partners.booking.com. The Accommodation Agreement it emails sets out your contact details, the commission that applies and its general delivery terms; you sign it once, at the start.

Booking.com charges a commission on each booking: a set percentage of the total booking amount, including the room rate and any fees you charge, such as cleaning or a cancellation fee, applied once the guest checks out. It publishes no single rate for India. It says the percentage depends on your country, your property type and the agreement you sign, shows it at the agreement step of registration, and puts it in your Accommodation Agreement and in the extranet's Finance tab.

• Charged on: stays that are completed, non-refundable and partly refundable bookings whether or not the guest came, cancellation and no-show fees you charge, and overbookings.
• Not charged on: cancellation or no-show fees you waive, no-shows marked in the extranet within 48 hours of checkout with the fee waived, and bookings where you marked the guest's card as invalid. A change not marked within 48 hours of checkout is charged full commission on the original booking.
• Not charged on local taxes such as city tax. Booking.com says whether it charges commission on GST depends on local law and your general delivery terms.
• Programmes such as Preferred Partner and the Visibility Booster add to the commission in return for more visibility. If a statement shows a higher rate than your contract, one of these is usually why.

The invoice: Booking.com sends one a month to your primary email address and extranet Inbox, for every guest who checked out the month before, and asks for it to be paid within 14 days of the date it is issued. Include your property ID and invoice number as the reference on a bank transfer. Late or missed payments can close your listing for a time, and it can reopen once every invoice is marked as paid. Our guide to what booking sites charge hotels in commission compares Booking.com's terms with the others'.

How guests pay: they can pay online at once, online closer to check-in, or at the property, and a guest paying at the property still gives a valid card to confirm. Either you take the payment yourself, and guests usually pay you at check-in or checkout, or, where you are eligible, Payments by Booking.com takes it for you. Its pages don't say whether that service is open to properties in India. To check:

1. 1Sign in to the extranet and go to the “Finance” tab.
2. 2If you are eligible, you'll see “Payments by Booking.com”. Open it and click “Sign up now”.
3. 3If asked, choose bank transfer or a virtual credit card for your payouts, and confirm your payment details.
4. 4Click “Save and activate”.

If you don't see the option, Booking.com says your property may not be eligible yet or the service may not be open in your region. With bank transfer payouts you choose a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, and Booking.com says funds can take up to 10 days to reach your bank; changing bank details pauses payouts for five business days while they are checked.

Booking.com's India tax page sets out three things a hotel should know before its first booking. First, GST on your room rates: if you are registered for GST, you charge it on your room rates and pay it to the government yourself. If you aren't registered, Booking.com collects and pays the GST on your room rates to the tax authority for you, shows it in a Goods and Services Tax payment overview beside your commission invoice, and expects you to pay that amount to Booking.com each month. Update your details in the extranet under “Finance”, then “Goods and Services Tax”.

Second, tax held back from your bookings. Booking.com says that since 1 October 2020 it must withhold tax for every property in India under section 194-O of the Income Tax Act, at a lower rate with a valid PAN than without one. The higher rate also applies if you haven't filed your income tax return, or if your PAN should be linked to your Aadhaar and isn't. You can see the credit in Form 26AS on the TRACES portal.

If you deduct TDS when paying Booking.com's commission, it says to ask your tax adviser, and that it counts any deduction as a short payment under the contract. Booking.com doesn't send invoices to guests for you: issuing a tax invoice or receipt is yours to do.

Third, foreign guests. Booking.com's page on India reminds partners that anyone giving paid accommodation to a foreign national must register as an accommodation provider on the FRRO's C-Form portal, submit a Form C for each foreign guest within 24 hours of arrival and again at checkout, and keep a paper register, Form B. For hotels, homestays and bed and breakfasts the registration asks for two signed copies of the form, proof of address, ownership documents and any operating licences. Booking.com notes that its page isn't legal advice and that rules differ between states.

Booking.com says its search results are ordered for each traveller, and names what it weighs: your location, your prices on Booking.com, your review score and the quality of your property page; how often travellers click through and book; and the traveller's own search and preferences. The weight of each changes from search to search. Before your first guest, these are the settings it points new partners to.

• Rate plans: under “Rates & availability”, then “Rate plans”. Booking.com suggests a fully flexible plan for early bookers and a non-refundable one for guests booking late or wanting a lower price, and says a new plan has no prices or open dates until you add them in the calendar.
• Cancellation policies: under “Property”, then “Reservation policies”, click “Create new cancellation policy”, choose whether to offer free cancellation and for how long, and what guests pay for late cancellations or no-shows: the full price, half of it, or the first night. Then attach it to a rate plan. Booking.com suggests free cancellation up to one or two days before check-in, if it fits your business.
• Prepayment: a new partner may not be able to set a prepayment policy until the property is verified.
• House rules: under “Property”, then “Property policies”, click “Edit” under House rules, choose what you allow, and “Save”. Guests must agree to them to book.
• Facilities: Booking.com says a facility you offer but haven't listed can drop you out of results when travellers filter by it.
• Restrictions: a minimum stay or closed arrival that conflicts with a traveller's search can keep you out of their results altogether.

Photos: Booking.com's photo guide asks for landscape photos of at least 2048 by 1080 pixels, ideally 4000 by 3000, a minimum of ten, at least four of each room or unit and one of its bathroom, taken from a height of 100 to 160 centimetres. It turns away blurry, over-edited, filtered, black-and-white, fisheye and collage photos, watermarks, and anything showing personal details such as ID cards or bills. To add them: “Property”, then “Photos”, then “Add photos”. Changes can take up to 48 hours to show.

Description: Booking.com writes your property description from the details you enter and translates it, so the way to improve it is to complete your details. To correct it, go to “Property”, then “View your descriptions”, and click “Spotted a typo? Request a fix”.

The Property page score, under the “Property” tab, is Booking.com's checklist of the content guests find useful, with what is missing and how to add it.

Calendar: keep dates open well ahead. Under “Rates & availability”, the “Availability planner” keeps a rolling 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days open for you. If you sync calendars with another site by iCal, Booking.com says it isn't real time and can take up to two hours to refresh, and recommends a channel manager instead. With a channel manager, change prices and rooms only there: changes made in the Booking.com calendar are overwritten. The “Connection management” page shows in green what your provider handles.

Clicking “Open for bookings” at the end of registration sets the property to open and bookable, so it shows in search and can take bookings, subject to the checks above. If you clicked “I’m not ready”, or want to open it later:

1. 1Check the calendar: the dates you want to sell need availability, a price and at least one open rate plan.
2. 2Sign in to the extranet and go to the “Home” tab.
3. 3Read the banner on the home page. If registration is complete, click “Make my property live”.
4. 4If the button isn't there, the Home page shows which checks or steps are still needed.

Booking.com says it can take up to 24 hours for a property to appear after going live, and that you can preview the property page with the eye icon. If it is open but doesn't show, it suggests checking that enough dates are open under “Rates & availability”, then “Calendar”. The property's status shows next to its name on the extranet's Home page.

• New to Booking.com: Booking.com's sign-up page says this label helps a new property stand out in search results.
• Your review score from other sites: until your first Booking.com guests review you, Booking.com shows a score converted from other travel sites with similar standards, and removes it once you have a Booking.com score.
• The New Property Deal: a temporary discount for your first few guests, chosen during registration or later under “Promotions”, then “Choose new promotion”, under Portfolio Deals. If you use a channel manager, set it up in the extranet.

Booking.com confirms each booking to you by email and with a notice in its Pulse app, and says most bookings are made instantly and must be honoured. It updates your availability after each booking, but asks you to keep your calendar, rooms and prices up to date: open dates without a price or rooms can stop more bookings. A day-by-day routine for the first week:

1. 1Install the Pulse app on your phone, sign in with your extranet username and password, verify the device, and turn its notices on.
2. 2In the extranet, click the user account icon, then “Notification settings”, select “Yes” for arrival notifications and click “Save”.
3. 3Check “Reservations” each day. A guest who hasn't arrived by midnight on the check-in date is a no-show: mark it under “Reservation actions” with “Mark as a no-show” within 48 hours of the planned checkout, choosing to waive or charge the fee.
4. 4Answer guests under “Inbox”, then “Reservation messages”, or from the booking under “Conversation with guest”. Message templates can go out on a schedule, such as the day before arrival.
5. 5Look at the calendar in Pulse: green is bookable, red needs attention (closed, no inventory, price missing or rate closed), yellow is fully booked and grey is closed by you.
6. 6Search for your property on Booking.com signed out, and compare its price with your own website for the same room and night. Our guide to checking your hotel's price on every booking site gives the method.
7. 7Open the Opportunity Centre under “Boost performance” for Booking.com's suggestions, which it bases on your last 30 days against similar properties nearby.

Reviews: Booking.com emails each guest 48 hours after checkout to ask for a review, and guests have three months to leave one. You can reply to written reviews, and the reply is public. Booking.com says the higher your rating, the more likely you are to appear in search. Its Genius programme needs at least three reviews and a score of at least 7.5, so it opens only once early guests have reviewed you. Our guides to replying to Booking.com reviews and to ranking higher on Booking.com take each step further.

If you can't honour a booking, Booking.com says it is your responsibility to find the guest somewhere of the same or a better standard and to pay the cost, so close rooms you can't sell before guests book them. For every everyday job after this, prices, closed dates, messages, photos, deals and invoices, see our guide to the Booking.com extranet.