Cookies and other monitoring technologies can be used on our website and applications in a variety of ways, such as to make the website work, analyze traffic or for advertising purposes. These technologies are used directly by us, or by our business partners, including service providers and third parties with whom we work. If you would like to know more about cookies, how they are used and what your preferences are, please read more here:

What are cookies?

A web browser cookie is a small text file that websites place on your computer’s or mobile device’s web browser.

These cookies store information about the content you view and interact with, in order to remember your preferences and settings or analyse how you use online services.

Cookies are divided into ‘first party’ and ‘third party’:

• First party cookies are the cookies served by the owner of the domain – in our case that’s Booking.com. Any cookie we place ourselves is a ‘first party cookie’.
• Third party cookies are cookies placed on our domains by trusted partners that we’ve chosen to allow to do so. These can be social media partners, advertising partners, security providers and more.

And they can be either ‘session cookies’ or ‘permanent cookies’:

• Session cookies only exist until you close your browser, ending what is called your ‘session’. They are then deleted.
• Permanent cookies have a range of different lifespans and stay on your device after the browser is closed. We try to only serve permanent cookies (or allow permanent cookies to be served by third parties) that have a limited lifespan. However, for security reasons, or in other exceptional circumstances, we might sometimes need to give a cookie a longer lifespan.

Web browser cookies may store information such as your IP address or another identifier, your browser type, and information about the content you view and interact with on digital services. By storing this information, web browser cookies can remember your preferences and settings for online services and analyse how you use them.

Alongside cookies, we also use tracking technologies that are very similar. Our website, emails and mobile apps may contain small transparent image files or lines of code that record how you interact with them. These include ‘web beacons’, ‘scripts’, ‘tracking URLs’ or ‘software development kits’ (known as SDKs):

• Web beacons have a lot of different names. They might also be known as web bugs, tracking bugs, tags, web tags, page tags, tracking pixels, pixel tags, 1x1 GIFs or clear GIFs.In short, these beacons are a tiny graphic image of just one pixel that can be delivered to your device as part of a web page request, in an app, an advertisement or an HTML email message.

  They can be used to retrieve information from your device, such as your device type or operating system, your IP address, and the time of your visit. They are also used to serve and read cookies in your browser or to trigger the placement of a cookie.

• Scripts are small computer programs embedded within our web pages that give those pages a wide variety of extra functionality. Scripts make it possible for the website to function properly. For example, scripts power certain security features and enable basic interactive features on our website.Scripts can also be used for analytical or advertising purposes. For example, a script can collect information about how you use our website, such as which pages you visit or what you search for.
• Tracking URLs are links with a unique identifier in them. These are used to track which website brought you to the website or app you’re using. An example would be if you click through from a social media page, search engine or one of our affiliate partners’ websites.
• Software Development Kits (SDKs) are part of our apps’ source code and unlike browser cookies, SDK data is stored in the app storage.They’re used to analyse how the apps are being used or to send personalised push notifications. To do this, they record unique identifiers associated with your device, like device ID and IP address, as well as your in-app activity and your network location.

All these tracking technologies are referred to as ‘cookies’ here in this Cookie Statement.

How are cookies used?

Cookies are used to collect information, including:

• IP address
• Device ID
• Viewed pages
• Browser type
• Browsing information
• Operating system
• Internet service provider
• Timestamp
• Whether you have responded to an advertisement
• A referring URL
• Features used or activities engaged in on the website/apps

They allow you to be recognised as the same user across the pages of a website, across devices, between websites or when you use our apps. When it comes to purpose, they are divided into three categories – functional cookies, analytical cookies and marketing cookies.

Functional cookies

These are cookies required for our website to function and they must be enabled in order for you to use our services.

Functional cookies are used to create technologically advanced, user-friendly websites and apps that adapt automatically to your needs and preferences, so you can browse and book easily. This also includes enabling essential security and accessibility features.

More specifically, these cookies:

• Enable our website to work properly.
• Remember your selected currency and language settings, your past searches and other preferences to help you use our website efficiently and effectively.
• Remember your registration information, so that you don’t have to retype your login credentials each time you visit our website.

Analytical cookies

These cookies measure and track how our website and apps are used. We use this information to improve our website, apps and services.

More specifically, these cookies:

• Help us understand how visitors and customers like you use our website.
• Help improve our website, and communications to make sure we're interesting and relevant.
• Allow us to find out what works and what doesn't on our website.
• Help us understand the effectiveness of advertisements and communications.
• Teach us how users interact with our website after they have been shown an online advertisement, including advertisements on third-party websites.

The data we gather through these cookies can include which web pages you have viewed, which referring/exit pages you have entered and left from, which platform type you have used, which emails you have opened and acted upon, and date and time stamp information. It also means we can use details about how you’ve interacted with the site or app, such as the number of clicks you make on a given screen, your mouse movements and scrolling activity, the search words you use and the text you enter into various fields.

Marketing cookies

These cookies are used by ourselves and our trusted partners to gather information about you over time, across multiple websites, applications, or other platforms.

Marketing cookies help us to decide which products, services and interest-based advertisements to show you, both on and off our website.

More specifically, these cookies:

• Categorise you into a certain interest profile, for instance, on the basis of the websites you visit and your click behaviour. We use these profiles to display personalised content.
• Display personalised and interest-based advertisements both on the  website, our apps and other websites. This is called ‘retargeting’ and is based on your browsing activities. It can also be based on your online activities.Retargeting ads can be shown to you both before and after you leave the website, as their purpose is to encourage you to browse or return to our website. You might see these ads on websites, in apps or in emails.
• Integrate social media into our website and apps. This allows you to like or share content or products on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.These ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons work using pieces of code from the individual social media providers, allowing third party cookies to be placed on your device.

  These cookies can be purely functional, but they can also be used to keep track of which websites you visit from their network, to build a profile of your online browsing behaviour and to show you personalised ads. This profile will be partly built using comparable information the providers receive from your visits to other websites in their network.

We work with trusted third parties to collect data. We may also sometimes share information with these third parties, such as your email address or phone number. These third parties might link your data to other information they collect to create custom audiences or deliver targeted ads. For information on how these third parties process your data, please take a look at the following links: How Google uses information, Facebook's data policy.

Non-cookie techniques – email pixels

We may also use techniques, such as pixels, which we don’t mark as cookies because they do not store any information on your device.

We sometimes place pixels in emails, such as newsletters. A ‘pixel’ is an electronic file the size of a single pixel, that is placed in the email and loaded when you open it. By using email pixels, we can see if the message was delivered, if and when you read the message and what you click on.

We also receive this information about the push notifications we send you. These statistics provide us with feedback about your reading behaviour, which we use to optimise our messages and make our communication more relevant to you.