One of Europe's online hotel reservations companies and part of priceline.com, Booking.com, has had frequent mentions in the press recently thanks to its strong growth figures and its successful European expansion strategy.

Earlier this month, priceline.com announced its second quarter results, stating that it believed that its European operations comprising Booking.com and activehotels.com are now number 1 in Europe in terms of online hotel room nights sold and that its worldwide operations are now number 2 globally. Combined, the companies had gross travel bookings of $356.6 million in Europe in Q2 2006 (approx €282m euros), representing an organic growth rate of 117%.

In particular, Booking.com's performance has recently been backed up by two independent studies conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings confirming its position as a market leader across Europe.

In Spain, Nielsen//NetRatings' findings stated that Booking.com topped the list of online accommodation reservation sites, receiving 1.1 million visitors during the second quarter of 2006. This is double the number of visits recorded during the same period last year. Nielsen//NetRatings' noted that Booking.com's growth in this market is in line with the increase in the number of Spaniards visiting accommodation websites which has almost doubled over the last year, from 2.4 million users in Q2 2005 to over 4.5 million in Q2 2006.

In Germany, Nielsen//NetRatings' findings showed that Booking.com is the fastest growing online accommodation reservation site, registering 1.1 million users in Q2 2006 compared to 500,000 users in Q2 2005, a growth rate of 110%.

Arthur Kosten, Marketing Director, Booking.com stated: "More and more consumers are using booking.com and we are experiencing tremendous growth across all European markets.  With over 25,000 hotels in Europe and our website available in 12 languages, Booking.com is increasingly becoming the popular choice for customers booking hotels online."