Booking.com was formed when bookings.nl, founded in 1996 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 to Booking.com and Stef Noorden was appointed as its CEO. In 1997, Bruinsma wanted to post an ad in De Telegraaf, the Dutch newspaper with the highest circulation. The ad was rejected since De Telegraaf only accepted ads with the phone number, not with a website. In 2002, Expedia refused to buy bookings.nl.
In July 2005, the company was acquired by Booking Holdings (or Priceline Group, as it was named at the time) for $133 million, and later it cooperated with ActiveHotels.com, a European online hotel reservation company, purchased by Booking Holdings/Priceline for $161 million.
In 2006, Active Hotels Limited officially changed its name to Booking.com Limited.[7] The integration successfully helped its parent improve its financial position from a loss of $19 million in 2002 to $1.1 billion in profit in 2011. This acquisition was praised by some social media as “the best acquisition in Internet history” since no other acquisition in the digital travel market had been shown to be as profitable.
Darren Huston was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Booking.com in September 2011 by its parent company, and also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Booking Holdings since 1 January 2014 until his resignation on 28 April 2016 after an at-work relationship was revealed.
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