Privacy and Cookies

Privacy Notice Effective Date: 24 August 2023
Booking Holdings Romania S.R.L., located in Bucharest, Romania, and Booking Holdings India Pvt. Ltd, located in Bangalore, India, (the “Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence”) and Booking.com International B.V., located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (“Booking.com”) (collectively, “we,” “our”) are part of the Booking Holdings group. Booking.com supports the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence in recruiting new talents for the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence (in addition to its own recruitment efforts). Please note that the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence are looking to hire and retain top talent, and any individuals hired therein will be employees of said Center for Excellence (and not of Booking.com or of any other affiliated sister company).
This Privacy Notice describes how your personal data may be processed when using the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence careers website, www.bookingholdings-coe.com (the “Site”), and/or when collected otherwise as part of the recruitment processes for the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence. Your personal data can be processed when you apply for a job, attend a recruitment event, when cookies and similar technologies are used on the Site, or when your personal data is received from professional online networking platforms. We want to make sure that you understand what kind of information is collected throughout the recruitment processes for the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence and how your personal data can be used. Each of the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence and Booking.com can be responsible for the processing of your personal data, depending on the specific processing activity. To illustrate, Booking.com is involved in the operations of the Site. When you are browsing posted roles and submit information, e.g. as part of an application or to register for a talent network, through the Site (the “Site”), the Booking Holdings Romania S.R.L. and Booking.com International B.V. determine the purpose and means in relation to the collection of your personal data through the Site and the further sharing of your personal data among these entities. In addition, each of these entities may process your information independently. An example can be when you register outside of the Site directly for an event hosted by a Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence or when you are directly in touch with a recruiter at a Booking Holdings Center of Excellence and as part of either your personal data is processed. If you have questions regarding the relationship between Booking.com and the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence for the specific processing activities and to exercise your rights, please feel free to contact us as set out below.
Data Collection As part of the recruitment process and as relevant to the role, you can be requested to provide the following information (or some of this information depending on the precise role or event you are applying for) or process this information:
  • Contact information, such as your first name, last name, city, state, country, email and phone number;
  • Your resume or CV, cover letter, photo, language skills, areas of interest, previous and/or relevant work experience or other experience, education, transcripts, information on your driver’s license, professional license (where applicable) or other information you provide to us in support of an application and/or the recruitment process;
  • Information processed in relation to face-to-face interviews, video-calls and/or phone-screenings you may have with us, and if you are requested to provide a video-recording of yourself as permitted by applicable law;
  • Information relating to your attendance at our recruitment events, such as event registration information;
  • Details of the type of employment you are or may be looking for, your notice period in relation to your current employment, current and/or desired salary and other terms relating to compensation and benefits packages, willingness to relocate or travel, and/or other job preferences;
  • Details of how you heard about the position or event you registered for;
  • Any sensitive and/or demographic information obtained in accordance with applicable law during the application or recruitment process such as gender, information about your citizenship and/or nationality and/or right to work or reside in a specific country, medical or health information and/or your racial or ethnic origin;
  • Reference information and/or information received from employees of the Booking Holdings group of companies as part of the recruitment process;
  • Pre-employment screening information, where applicable and in compliance with applicable law(s). Depending on the role you are applying for, such pre-employment screening may amongst others consist of employment history verification, education verification, drivers license verification, sanction lists screening, professional license verification, adverse media search and/or a criminal background check and in case of an adverse report, the analysis and decision (i.e hire/reject);
  • Information relating to any previous applications you may have made to Booking.com and/or the Booking Holding Centers of Excellence and/or any previous employment history with us insofar as we have retained this information;
  • Assessment results (where applicable);
  • Travel information (including travel and meal preferences) if traveling is part of the recruitment process;
  • Payment details such as your bank account number as may be necessary for reimbursing you for permitted expenses as part of the recruitment process; and/orand/or
  • Work permit details.
Data we collect automatically When using the Site, information can be collected automatically, some of which may be personal data. This includes data such as language settings, IP address, location, device settings, device OS, time of usage, URL requested, status report, user agent (information about the browser version), operating system, result (viewer or applicant), browsing history, and type of data viewed. Booking.com may also collect data automatically through cookies. These cookies are used to recognize you as an applicant, to recognize if you are entering the Site through a referral link, to customize our services to your settings (such as your preferred language) and to improve the Site.
For information on how we use cookies, please see below the Cookie Notice.
Other sources from which we can receive your information The personal data listed in “data collection” may be collected directly from you, or we might receive it from the below listed sources. Recruitment agencies: We may receive information relating to you from recruitment agencies. Pre-employment screening service providers: We may receive information relating to you from third parties that perform pre-employment screening, upon our instruction and as permitted by applicable law. Third party websites: We may collect information about you from third party business online platforms, such as LinkedIn, HackerRank and Harver. You may link your profile on these platforms as part of your application process, or we may collect information about existing and potential candidates through public information, such as public profiles, to determine if an individual meets the requirements for a specific job opening and/or maintain up to date information about existing candidates, for example contact details.
Employee Referrals: We may receive your information from our colleagues who referred you for a position.
Processing Purposes We use your information, some of which may be personal data, for the following purposes:
  • Assessing your skills, qualifications, interests and suitability against our career opportunities;
  • Communications with you about the recruitment process and/or your application(s);
  • Reimbursement of costs made by you for which you are eligible to receive reimbursement;
  • To register you for our recruitment events;
  • Assisting you with obtaining an immigration visa or work permit and/or assisting you with relocation where required;
  • As permitted by applicable law, verifying your information and carrying out reference checks and/or conducting pre-employment screening (where applicable) if you are offered a job, to verify the accuracy of the information as provided or implied by you, in order for us to only employ people with proven records and sufficient level of integrity and trustworthiness;
  • To add you to our talent network, match open positions or send you job alerts informing you of other potential career opportunities and information regarding upcoming recruitment events that may be of interest to you;
  • For analytical purposes, including making improvements to our application and/or recruitment processes including improving diversity in recruitment practices;
  • Complying with applicable laws, regulations and legal processes (e.g. administrative or court proceedings); and/or
  • For security purposes, including fraud detection and prevention and related investigations.
Legal bases In view of purposes A to E above, we rely on the legal basis that the processing of your personal data is necessary in the context of the intention to enter into a contract with you. If you do not provide the requested information, we cannot properly assess your application or enter into a contract with you. In view of purposes F to J, we rely on our legitimate business interests to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for during the recruitment procedure, to provide recruitment services to you, to improve our recruitment process, and to prevent fraud and maintain security. When using personal data to serve a legitimate interest, we will always balance your rights and interests in the protection of your information against our rights and interests. For purpose I, we rely also, where applicable, on compliance with legal obligations. Where needed under applicable law, we will obtain your consent prior to processing your personal data, such as for example when sending newsletters, to add you to our talent network or offering job matching functionalities.
If you wish to object to the processing set out under F to H and J and no opt-out mechanism is available to you directly (for example in the email we sent you), to the extent applicable, please reach out to the contact details as set out below.
Automated job matching functionality To make it easier for you to find the right job opening, we may offer you a job matching functionality. As part of the job matching functionality, you may be asked to provide information, such as your CV. An automated process will match your information against the available job postings on our careers platform. The uploaded information will remain available for the job matching functionality and to allow you to complete a subsequent job application. We will retain the uploaded information for a certain period of time to facilitate your use of the Site, after which it will automatically be deleted unless you apply for a job or add your information to our Talent Network (as explained further below). If you would like to remove the uploaded information before it is deleted automatically, please go to the Edit Your Info button on the Site to remove your data (CV/resume).
Talent Network We can offer the possibility to register through the Site with our Talent Network, i.e. talent pool, of potential candidates. Please contact us as set out below in case you would like to be removed from the Talent Network or your information should be updated. Your information will be retained in the Talent Network for a period of two years.
Online Assessment Depending on the vacancy, you may be requested to perform an online assessment to establish whether you meet certain job requirements (e.g. language tests, availability to work at given times, job preview and competency test). A decision could be taken by automated means (i.e. algorithms) which you will receive via an automatically generated notification. Your assessment results shall be automatically transferred to us and will be part of your application file. Your assessment results may subsequently also be used to provide specific training and/or coaching during your employment with the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence and your assessment results may be shared with managers and/or coaches for this purpose. If you do not meet the assessment requirements, your job application can be rejected.
If you are unhappy that an automated decision has been taken, please contact us within 21 days after the automated decision has been made to ask us to reconsider the decision or to take a new decision on a different basis. There is no guarantee that a different decision will be taken but we will consider the application and its grounds. You can reach out as set out below with regards to the aforementioned, or other questions in relation to this automated decision-making process used by us.
Screening If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include verification of skill proficiency (including professional licenses and drivers licenses), employment history, education, criminal history, financial history and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the open position at a Booking Holdings Center of Excellence. You will be informed about the screening process beforehand separately.
Data sharing Booking Holdings Inc. group companies: The Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence and Booking.com are part of the Booking Holdings Inc. group of companies. See here for more information about Booking Holdings. Depending on the position you are considered for, your information and/or application may need to be shared with other Booking Holdings Inc. group companies as part of the recruitment review process. For instance, when a job role is to support another Booking Holdings brand, such as Agoda, that brand may be involved in the recruitment process and your personal data may therefore need to be shared with it. As Booking.com supports the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence in the recruitment services, your information may also be used to connect you to job opportunities at Booking.com.
We may also need to share some parts of your information which may include personal data with other Booking Holdings Inc. group companies, for compliance purposes as permitted by applicable law and strictly necessary to protect Booking Holdings Inc. and its group companies, including the Booking Holdings Centers of Excellence and Booking.com, from fraudulent activities and investigating and handling data security breaches.
Sharing With Third-Parties: we share your information, which may include personal data, with third parties as permitted by applicable law and as described below:
  • Service Providers (including suppliers and affiliated entities acting as service providers): to provide our recruitment services, for example to store and process recruitment data and/or maintain the Site on our behalf.
  • Payment Providers and other Financial Institutions: to process payments (e.g. for agreed expenses) your information, as relevant, is shared with payment providers and other financial institutions.
  • Travel agencies: for making travel arrangements, if you have to travel as part of the recruitment or event process, we may share your information, such as your name, contact details and passport number.
  • Pre-employment screening: we may share your information with third parties to conduct pre-employment screening as permitted by applicable law.
  • Compelled Disclosure: when legally required, strictly necessary for the performance of the recruitment services, or to protect or defend our rights or property, or the rights or property of Booking Holdings Inc. group of companies, we disclose your information to governmental authorities including law enforcement (subject to a lawful request), any Booking Holdings Inc. affiliates, or in legal proceedings.
Sharing and Disclosure of Aggregate Data: we may share information in aggregate form and/or in a form which does not enable the recipient of such information to identify you, with third parties, for example for industry analysis and demographic profiling.
International Data Transfers The transmission of personal data as described in this Privacy Notice may include transfers of personal data to countries whose data protection laws are not as comprehensive as those of the countries within the European Union. Where required by European law, we’ll only transfer personal data to recipients that offer an adequate level of data protection. In these situations, as may be required, we make contractual arrangements to ensure that your personal data is still protected in line with European standards.You can ask to see a copy of these contractual agreements by contacting us as set out below.
Security We observe reasonable procedures to prevent unauthorized access to, and the misuse of, information including personal data. We use appropriate business systems and procedures to protect and safeguard information including personal data. We also use security procedures and technical and physical restrictions for accessing and using the personal data on our servers. Only authorized personnel are permitted to access personal data in the course of their work.
Data Retention When a Booking Holdings Center of Excellence employs you: Your information collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your personnel file. All personal data we retain as part of your personnel file will be subject to our internal retention policy for employees. You will be further informed via the respective employee privacy notice. When you are unsuccessful in your application: if you are not successful in your application, we will nevertheless continue to retain and use your information which may include personal data.
We may refer back to an earlier application in case you submit a new application in the future. We may also retain your information in case you want to be part of our Talent Network. We will retain your personal data collected as part of the application process for a specific job role for a period of two years following rejection of your application, unless otherwise required by applicable law.
Your Choices and Rights and How to Contact us We want you to be in control of how your personal data is used by us. You can do this in the following ways:
  • You can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
  • You can inform us of any changes to your personal data, or if you want us to correct any of the personal data we hold about you.We rely on you to ensure that your personal data is complete, accurate and current. Please do inform us promptly of any changes to or inaccuracies of your personal data
  • In certain situations, you can ask us to erase, block or restrict the personal data we hold about you, or object to particular ways in which we are using your personal data; and
  • In certain situations, you can also ask us to send the personal data you have given us to a third party.
Where we are using your personal data on the basis of your consent, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time subject to applicable law. Moreover, where we process your personal data based on legitimate interest or the public interest, you have the right to object at any time to that use of your personal data subject to applicable law.
For any requests relating to this Privacy Notice, to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint or a question about the processing of your personal data, please contact dataprotectionoffice-coe@bookingholdings.com.
In case your request relates specifically to Booking.com, you can also contact the Booking.com Data Protection Officer at dataprotectionoffice@booking.com.
All questions and complaints reported to us will be investigated. We will attempt to resolve complaints and questions in line with internal policies. You may also contact your local data protection authority with questions and complaints.
Country-specific provisions Depending on the law that applies to you, we may be required to provide some additional info. Review the below to find any additional information relevant to your situation.
Additional Disclosures for California Applicants These disclosures describe the categories of personal data that we collect about you, and the purposes for collecting that data. We collect the following categories of personal data in relation to your consideration for employment: Identifiers Financial, medical, or health insurance information Demographics Commercial information Professional or employment-related information Internet or other electronic network activity information Geolocation information Audio, visual, or other similar information Inferences drawn from information in other categories For more detail about the types of personal data we collect, please refer to the “Data Collection” and “Assessment” sections. For information about the purposes for which we use your data, please refer to the “Processing Purposes” section below.
Changes to the Privacy Statement Just as our business changes constantly, this Privacy Notice may also change from time to time. If we make material changes or changes that will have an impact on you (e.g. when we start processing your personal data for other purposes than set out above), we will inform you prior to commencing that processing.
Cookie Notice Effective Date: 24 August 2023 Whenever you use the Site, we use cookies and other online tracking technologies (which we’ll also refer to as “cookies” for the purpose of this Cookie Statement).
Cookies can be used in various ways, including to make the Site work, analyze traffic, or for advertising purposes.
Read below to learn more about what a “cookie” is, how they’re used, and what your choices are.
What are cookies and other online tracking technologies?
How are cookies used?
What are your choices?
What are cookies and online tracking technologies? A web browser cookie is a small text file that websites place on your computer’s or mobile device’s web browser.

Cookies are divided into “first party” and “third party”:
  • First party cookies are the cookies served by the owner of the domain. 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 allowed 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’s called your “session.” Then they’re deleted.
  • Permanent cookies have a range of lifespans and stay on your device after the browser is closed. On the Booking.com platform, 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, sometimes we may need to give a cookie a longer lifespan.
Web browser cookies may store info such as your IP address or other identifiers, your browser type, and info about the content you view and interact with on digital services. By storing this info, web browser cookies can remember your preferences and settings for online services and analyze how you use them.

Along with cookies, we also use tracking technologies that are very similar. The Site 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, 1×1 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 info from your device, such as your device type, operating system, 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 the Site 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 the Site.
    Scripts can also be used for analytical or advertising purposes. For example, a script can collect info 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 Booking.com website or app you’re using. An example would be if you clicked from a social media page, search engine, or one of our affiliate partners’ websites.
All these tracking technologies are referred to as “cookies” here in this Cookie Statement.
How are cookies used? Cookies are used to collect info, including:
  • IP address
  • Device ID
  • Viewed pages
  • Browser type
  • Browsing info
  • Operating system
  • Internet service provider
  • Timestamp
  • Whether you have responded to an advertisement
  • A referral URL
  • Features used or activities engaged in on the website
They allow you to be recognized as the same user across the pages of a website, devices, between websites. When it comes to purpose, they’re divided into three categories: Functional cookies, analytical cookies, and marketing cookies.
Functional cookies
These are cookies required for our Site to function and must be enabled 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 Site to work properly, so you can for example search and apply for an open position or register for our Talent Network.
  • Use the automated job matching functionality so you don’t have to upload your CV each time you visit again the Site. This will only be available for a limited period of time.
Analytical cookies
These cookies measure and track how our website and apps are used. We use this info to improve our website, apps, and services.

More specifically, these cookies:
  • Help us understand how visitors like you use the Site.
  • Help improve our Sites and communications to make sure we’re interesting and relevant.
  • Allow us to find out what does and doesn’t work on our Site.
  • Help us understand the effectiveness of advertisements and communications.
  • Teach us how users interact with our Site after they’re shown an online ad, including ads on third-party websites.
The data we gather through these cookies can include which web pages you’ve viewed, which referral/exit pages you’ve entered and left from, which platform type you’ve used, which emails you’ve opened and acted upon, and date and timestamp info. 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 and scrolling activity, the search words you use, and the text you enter into various fields.
Marketing cookies These cookies can be used by us and our trusted partners to gather info about you over time, across multiple websites, applications, or other platforms.
Marketing cookies help us to decide which services, and interest-based ads to show you, both on and off our website and apps.
More specifically, these cookies:
  • Categorize you into a certain interest profile, for example, based on the websites you visit and your click behavior. We use these profiles to display personalized content (e.g. travel ideas or specific accommodations) on the Site and other websites.
  • Display personalized and interest-based ads both on the Site,, and other websites. This is called “retargeting” and is based on your browsing activities, such as ….. Retargeting ads can be shown to you both before and after you leave Booking.com since their aim is to encourage you to browse or return to our website. You might see these ads on websites, apps, or in emails.
  • Integrate social media into our Site. This allows us to display video’s to you or you to like or share content on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, 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 can also be used to keep track of which websites you visit from their network, to build a profile of your online browsing behavior, and to show you personalized ads. This profile will be partly built using comparable info the providers receive from your visits to other websites in their network.
    To read more about what social media providers do with your personal data, take a look at their cookie and/or privacy statements: Facebook (includes Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network), Snapchat, Pinterest, and Twitter. Be aware that these statements may be updated from time to time.
We work with trusted third parties to collect data. We may occasionally share info with these third parties, such as your email address or phone number. These third parties might link your data to other info they collect to create custom audiences or deliver targeted ads. For info about how these third parties process your data, 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 like pixels, which we don’t mark as cookies because they don’t store any info on your device.

We sometimes place pixels in emails like newsletters. A “pixel” is an electronic file the size of a single pixel that’s 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 it, and what you click.

We also receive this info about the push notifications we send you. These statistics provide us with feedback about your reading behavior, which we use to optimize our messages, and make our communications more relevant to you.
What are your choices? To manage the use of Cookies on the Site, please visit the cookie preference portal. To learn more about cookies and how to manage or delete them, you may also want to visit allaboutcookies.org or the help section of your browser. The settings for browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, or Chrome, enable you as well which cookies to accept and reject. Where you find these settings depends on the browser you use: If you choose to block certain functional cookies, you may not be able to use some features of the Site. In addition to specific settings that we may offer on the Site, you can also opt out of certain cookies:
  • Analytics To prevent Google Analytics from collecting analytical data on certain browser types visit the following link:Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (only available on desktop).
  • Advertising We always aim to work with advertising and marketing companies that are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and/or the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Members of the NAI and IAB adhere to industry standards and codes of conduct, and allow you to opt out of behavioral advertising.

    Visit www.networkadvertising.org to identify NAI members that may have placed advertising cookies on your computer. To opt out of any NAI member’s behavioral advertising program, just check the box that corresponds to that company.

    You may also want to visit www.youronlinechoices.com or www.youradchoices.com to learn how to opt out of customized ads. Your mobile device may allow you to limit the sharing of info for retargeting purposes through its settings. If you choose to do so, remember that opting out of an online advertising network doesn’t mean you’ll no longer see or be subject to online advertising or marketing analysis. It just means the network you opted out of won’t deliver ads customized to your web preferences and browsing patterns anymore.
Some websites have “Do Not Track” features that allow you to tell a website not to track you. We’re currently unable to support “Do Not Track” browser settings.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this cookie notice, please contact dataprotectionoffice-coe@bookingholdings.com


Our cookie statement may also be updated from time to time. If these updates are substantial, particularly relevant to you, or impact your data protection rights, we’ll get in touch with you about them. However, we recommend visiting this page regularly to stay up to date with any other (less substantial or relevant) updates.