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Booking.com is an online booking website started as a small start-up in Enschede in 1996, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands and since 2005 owned and operated by United States based Priceline. Booking.com offers online accommodation booking. It claims to have over 700,000 properties globally under contract〔''The Age'', 3 October 2014, "Booking.com now Australia's biggest".〕 and that it deals with more than 900,000 room nights reservations per day. In 2013, it accounted for more than two thirds of Priceline's revenue. Booking.com is available in more than 41 languages. In 2012, the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading found that Booking.com may have been limiting price competition on hotel room sales. Booking.com does not charge a booking fee to customers, but charges commission on bookings to accommodation partners. ==History== Booking.com was formed when Bookings.nl, founded by Geert Jan Bruinsma, merged in 2000 with Bookings Online, founded by Sicco and Alec Behrens, Marijn Muyser and Bas Lemmens, which operated as Bookings.org. The name and URL were changed into Booking.com and Stef Noorden was appointed as it's CEO〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.iamsterdam.com/en-GB/business/setting-up-your-business/who-is-here/ICT/Booking )〕 In July 2005, the company was acquired by The Priceline Group for $133 million, and later it was cooperated with ActiveHotels.com, a European online hotel reservation company, which was purchased by The Priceline Group for $161million. In 2006, Active Hotels Limited has officially changed its name to Booking.com Limited.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?id=1114289 )〕 It is worth noticing that the integration successfully helps Priceline to change its financial position, that was from a loss of $19 million in 2002 to $1.1 billion in profit in 2011. This acquisition was praised by some social media to be “the best acquisition in Internet history” since no other acquisition in the digital travel market had shown to be as profitable.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/booking.com_the_best_acquisition_in_internet_history )〕 Darren Huston, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Booking.com in September 2011 by the Priceline Group, and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Priceline Group since January 1, 2014.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://news.booking.com/en/darren-huston-named-as-president-and-ceo-of-the-priceline-group/ )〕 Huston was the former executive of Microsoft Corporation, the largest software company in the world in 2003. Later he served as President and Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Japan from 2005 and Microsoft Corporation’s Corporate Vice President, Consumer & Online from 2008.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Booking.com」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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