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Digital Services Act (EU)

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VERSION 20260729_rev01 · CAPTURED 2026-07-29

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Digital Services Act (EU)

We recognize the importance of providing users of our platform with easy access to information regarding the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and our obligations pursuant to it. This page covers the areas of Advertising, Transparency Reporting, Recommendation Systems, and Content Guidelines related to our obligations under the DSA.

Advertising

To comply with our DSA obligations, we will inform users as to when an advertisement appears on our site, by clearly and prominently labeling the advertisement with a Sponsored or Promoted badge. We will also identify on whose behalf the advert has been placed, who paid for it and the main parameters used to determine recipients.

Transparency Reporting

We have prepared a transparency report for the period of 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, to comply with our DSA obligations. This report provides insights into the content moderation activities that we engaged in during the reporting period, including the volume and nature of content removed from our platform and removal requests received from public authorities and users. The report can be downloaded here.

Our Recommendation Systems

How we use recommendation systems

All great properties and activities deserve to be discovered. That's why we use 'recommendation' systems to display information on our platform in a way that'll help you discover properties we think you'll like. For example, on our home page, you'll find a number of recommendation systems, including:

  • Top destinations in (your current country). Destinations you may want to travel to, based on bookings made by other traveler's whose searches were similar to yours.
  • Accommodation Promotions. Special campaigns where we showcase hotels providing you an additional discount.
  • Featured homes recommended for you. Home-style properties you may wish to stay at in your current city, along with options to see home-style properties in the most popular cities within that country.
  • Recommended places to stay for your next trip. Places/properties you may want to stay at, based on bookings made by other travelers whose searches were similar to yours.
  • Popular destinations outside (your current country). Destinations you may want to travel to, based on bookings made by other traveler's whose searches were similar to yours
  • Explore more places in... A selection of properties by theme (such as Peaceful, Stunning view, Stylish, Value for money etc.) based on the last destination you searched for
  • **Top activities in (your current city).**The top activities booked by other travelers based on number of bookings and reviews

Our search results are also a recommendation system. In fact, they're the recommendation system that our users use the most, so please check out 'Our default ranking and sorting options' below.

All the recommendation systems we use provide recommendations based on one or more of the following factors:

  • What you tell us in the search form: destination, dates, number of guests, etc.

  • Any information we've gathered based on how you interact with our platform: your past searches on our platform, the country where you are while browsing, etc.

  • An accommodation's or activity's performance on our platform:

  • its click-through rate (how many people click on it)

  • its gross bookings (how many bookings are made with that Accommodation or activity)

  • Its projected margin (the potential revenue we expect to make based on bookings received so far)

  • Information about an accommodation's or activity's availability, pricing, review scores, etc.

To make it as easy as possible for you to find and book an accommodation or activity, each factor can be more (or less) important in different cases, depending on what we think is most likely to produce a list of properties or activities you may want to book.

Our default ranking and sorting options

Our search results are also a recommendation system. They show all the accommodation's (hotels, apartments, etc.) that match your search. If you like, you can use filters to narrow down your results. To see all the booking options an accommodation offers, just click it. When you first get your search results, they'll be sorted ('ordered') by 'Our picks':

  • To appear high up on the page, an Accommodation needs to do well in each of these three areas:

  • Click-through rate. How many people click on it.

  • Gross bookings. How many bookings are made with that Accommodation.

  • Projected margin. The potential revenue we expect to make based on bookings received so far

  • As you can imagine, those numbers depend on lots of factors, including review scores, availability, policies, pricing, quality of content (e.g., photos) and other features.

  • An accommodation's ranking can also be influenced by other things - for example, how much commission they pay us on bookings, how quickly they usually pay it, whether they're part of our VIP Program, whether they are part of Growth Programs, or whether we organize their payments.

  • Any information we've gathered based on how you interact with our platform (including what you tell us) will also be a factor.

Many of the above factors help our recommendation system decide which accommodation's might be the most appealing and relevant to you. Some play a small role in that decision, while others play a big role and the importance of each factor can change, depending on the features of the accommodation, and on how you and other people use our platform.

For example, an accommodation's click-through rate and number of bookings often play a large role in the decisions. That's because they're a direct reflection of the accommodation's overall appeal, and how satisfied its guests tend to be with what it offers.

A high click-through rate usually means that the accommodation makes a good first impression on our platform (e.g., through images, amenities, or descriptions) - and getting a lot of bookings indicates that many people find it really does meet their requirements.

But other factors play a role as well. For example, we might give preference to accommodation's that are part of the Agoda VIP program - or offer versatile, user-friendly payment policies. After all, these factors suggest that these accommodation's understand how important service and convenience are to our customers.

We may make recommendations based on a person's search history. Such as the type of properties they clicked on, their booking history, how many nights' stay, party size, and factors such as the platform the user is searching from, their display language and origin etc.

We may also make recommendations based on similar property types within similar areas. For example, all 4 and 5-star properties with similar review scores, or all properties in the same area as the originally viewed selected property.

If a property with the results list displays a 'Sponsored' badge, this means that the service provider has paid for it to appear there as part of our 'Sponsored Listing' program.

If you would prefer us not to order your search results in our default way, you can sort them in other ways, such as:

  • Lowest price. Accommodation's with lower prices appear higher up.
  • Highest price. Accommodation's with higher prices appear higher up.
  • Top guest ratings. Accommodation's with higher review scores appear higher up. If you see any instances where this isn't the case, it's just because we also factor in reliability (i.e., number of reviews). For example, an accommodation with 1,000 reviews and an average score of 8.2 could appear above an accommodation with 5 reviews and an average score of 8.3.
  • Star rating. Accommodation's with more stars appear higher up. Within each segment (5-stars, 4-stars, etc.) the ones with lower prices appear higher up.
  • Limited time offers. Accommodation's where offers expire after a limited period of time.
  • Distance. Accommodation's that are closer to X (e.g., the city center) appear higher up the page. (When we say 'close' we mean 'close as in a straight line').
  • Hot deals. Accommodation's offering deals, with Secret Deals being prioritized above other deals.

Keep in mind that whatever sorting option you choose, the factors described in 'Our picks' may still influence things. For instance, those factors might act as 'tiebreakers' between two or more accommodation's that would otherwise appear in the same spot. However, the 'Our picks' factors are purely secondary - because they're only used where we need to decide which of two properties to put first.

Content Guidelines

1. Overview

1.1 Content Standards & Guidelines

Our priority is to foster a safe and welcoming travel experience for all.

We expect our employees, customers, and partners to treat each other with respect. That's why we've developed a set of guidelines that applies to the images, reviews, and listings uploaded by our guests and partners. We want to make sure that the content you engage with on our site, is safe and helpful.

When you post a review, image or listing on our platform, it needs to comply with these guidelines. They form part of our broader set of policies, including our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If your content doesn't comply, we may remove it or contact you to try and edit the comment to meet our guidelines. Should any content need removing from our site, we'll contact you to explain why.

2. Content Standards

Our guidelines and the content standards below aim to keep the content relevant and appropriate for a global audience, but without limiting expression of strong opinions. They're applicable regardless of the positive or negative sentiment of the comment.

Contributions should be travel related - the most helpful contributions are detailed and help others make better, informed decisions. Don't include personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary. Promotional content will be removed and issues concerning our services should be routed to our Customer Service team.

Contributions should be appropriate for a global audience - comments and media that include 'hate speech', discriminatory remarks, threats, sexually explicit remarks, violence, and the promotion of illegal activity are not permitted.

All content should be genuine and unique to the guest - reviews are most valuable when they are original and unbiased. Your contribution should be yours. Our property partners must not post on behalf of guests or offer incentives in exchange for reviews. Attempts to lower the rating of a competitor by submitting a negative review won't be tolerated.

Respect the privacy of others - refrain from including personal data, such as first and last names, telephone numbers, email addresses and other information regarding other persons in your posts.

Respect intellectual property - ensure that you own or have the right to use any intellectual property rights that might exist in the content you post, particularly images.

We are committed to maintaining a safe and lawful environment for all users - the uploading, generating, or sharing of illegal content on this website is strictly prohibited.

3. Guest reviews standards

We believe genuine reviews submitted by fellow travelers provide some of the best information to help you and others make future bookings. To assure that all reviews on the platform are relevant, helpful, and genuine, we employ strict guidelines and quality control.

Only certified guests who have booked through our platform and not cancelled their booking, are invited to submit a review. Whether negative or positive, we will post every comment in full and as quickly as possible after being moderated, to comply with our Guest Review Guidelines. To edit a review you've already submitted, please contact our Customer Service team.

Each review score is between 1-10. Guests can give a separate 'sub-score' in crucial areas, including Value for money, Location, Cleanliness, Staff, and Facilities. The calculated overall score is simply an average of the sub-scores. When a review is partially submitted, we ignore the data for all sub-scores not given.

We may also show review scores from other well-known travel websites. We make it clear when we have done this - for instance, reviews from Booking.com appear under a separate section of our website. We do not include sponsored reviews within our reviews.

If we find any fake reviews, we delete them and, if necessary, act against whoever is responsible. Anyone who spots something problematic can always report it to our Customer Service team, and our fraud team will investigate.

We don't publish reviews that breach our guidelines on:

  • Dangerous and disrespectful content

  • Hate, discrimination, and harassment speech

  • Violent, offensive, and restricted content

  • Animal Welfare

  • Content of a sexual nature

  • Commercial content

  • Spam, misleading content, and deceptive practices

  • Intellectual property, privacy, and confidential data

  • Non-stayed reservations

  • Images and editorial guidelines

  • Scams and fraud

To make sure reviews are relevant, we may only accept reviews that are submitted within 12 months of checking out, and we may stop showing reviews older than up to 36 months, or if the accommodation has a change of ownership. An accommodation may choose to reply to a review.

When you see multiple reviews, the most recent ones will be at the top, subject to a few other factors, (what language a review is in, whether it's just a rating or contains comments as well, etc.). If you like, you can sort and/or filter them by date, review score, etc. We sometimes show external review scores from other well-known travel websites, but we always make it clear when we do this.

Reviews may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

4. Content Guidelines

4.1 Dangerous and disrespectful content

Hate, discrimination, and harassment speech

Hate speech and discriminatory language is not permitted. We want all our guests and partners to feel safe and respected, so we don't allow:

  • Content promoting violence, discriminatory language or hatred against a person or groups based on the basis of who they are - this includes any form of discrimination based on the following characteristics: age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, nationality, race, immigration status, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, caste, political opinion, and serious diseases.
  • Content that harasses, bullies, or threatens others (or incites others to participate in these activities) - our platform should be a safe place for all our users and so we will take a firm stance with respect to any content that could be deemed intimidating, threatening, rude or disparaging.

Violent, offensive, and restricted content

Our platform is not a place for violent or offensive content, or content that's deemed legally restricted based on local laws. We don't allow:

  • Content that promotes, facilitates, or encourages any kind of violence against others - this includes threats of violence, recommending violence or any declaration to commit violence.
  • Content that's obscene, offensive or isn't appropriate for all audiences.
  • Content that offers, sells, advertises, or facilitates the sale of regulated or restricted goods and services.
  • Terrorism related content - includes content that promotes, supports, or incites acts of terrorism, or that supports or represents any terrorist organization, its leaders or associated violent activities. In addition, we don't allow content that we deem, in our sole discretion and as aligned with the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List, to promote, support or incite acts of violent extremism, or that supports or represents any organization engaged in violent extremism.

Animal Welfare

Animal cruelty is not tolerated. Guests, partners, and employees are expected to respect domestic animals and wildlife and to foster living conditions for animals.

We don't allow:

  • Content that mentions, displays, or promotes inappropriate contact with wild animals.
  • Content that mentions, displays, or promotes animals in captivity with bad welfare conditions.
  • Content relating to activities, entertainment or sport events that are known to cause distress and harm to animals.

Content of a sexual nature

We don't allow content that contains sexually explicit material, nudity, or pornographic acts. This includes any explicit and implicit content including text, digital and animated images that supports, promotes, or depicts child sexual exploitation or sexualized content of suspected minors (also known as Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM).

Commercial content

We believe that contributions are most helpful when they are honest, unbiased and contain objective information. In particular, reviews left on our platform should reflect genuine guest experiences.

We don't allow:

  • Content created solely for the purpose of self-promotion, advertising, or other commercial content.
  • Commercial content that promotes or advertises specific services.
  • Content that includes contact details or information designed to promote or advertise specific services.
  • A partner to submit a review of their own listing, business, or accommodation.

4.2 Spam, misleading content, and deceptive practices

We aim to protect our guests and partners from reviews that aren't based on the experience of a real customer, or content that isn't related to the topic or experience of travelling.

We don't allow:

  • Content that isn't relevant to the stay or actual travel experience.
  • Content that's likely to mislead, deceive or confuse users.
  • Any of our guests or partners to misrepresent themselves or impersonate another person.

4.3 Intellectual property, privacy, and confidential data

We respect intellectual property rights and expect our guests and partners to do the same. Our policy is to:

  • Review cases of notified intellectual property infringement and act to remove instances of infringing or suspected infringing content.
  • Disable accounts or otherwise restrict access to users who repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

Privacy and other confidential data

In line with our Privacy Policy, we take our privacy and data protection obligations seriously.

We don't allow content that may put the privacy of our guests and other data subjects at increased risk. For example, guests or partners erroneously sharing personal data about other persons, including but not limited to sensitive or special-category personal data, credit card numbers, national identification numbers, drivers, and other license numbers, addresses or any other information that isn't publicly accessible. This policy may be applied to the name of the hotel staff as well.

4.4 Non-stayed reservations

We value the opinion of our contributors. That's why only customers who have booked through our platform can write a review. If a review is written under these circumstances, we do allow:

  • Reviews that contain critical information that would be relevant for a future guest.
  • Reviews that contain feedback about communication between the accommodation and the guest.
  • Reviews that are relevant to the travel experience.

4.5 Images and editorial guidelines

Photos and images are a valuable resource on our platform. In order to be helpful to our community, they need to be useful, informative, and related to the actual travel experience.

We don't allow:

  • Images that don't relate to the actual travel experience.
  • Images that contravene any of the policies, standards or guidelines included here.

Also, written content needs to be legible and related to the travel experience. We don't allow content that's not understandable, coherent or doesn't make grammatical sense.

4.6 Scams and fraud

We don't tolerate content intended to scam, defraud, or deceive others for monetary gain. We remove phishing links, malware, known or suspected scam content and fraudulent content, and permanently restrict the accounts of known fraudsters or scammers.

5. Content Actions

5.1 Content verification and enforcement

We aim to reflect the most up-to-date reviews from our travelers. That's why we have a fast turnaround on our content moderation.

The process of checking submitted reviews is as follows:

  • The first round of checks is performed by our machine learning algorithms - these could be accommodation reviews shared by guests, replies written by partners, or other types of content. From the moment we receive a piece of content, it takes the algorithm moments to approve the content. That's why the large majority of content is approved by our algorithms and is then published on our platform.
  • Content that wasn't approved by the algorithms is routed to our team of moderators - when our algorithms identify potentially guideline-violating content, they send the content to our moderators for further review. We aim to review content within five business days and decide within that time frame if it's suitable to be published.
  • After a review is published, it can still be taken down if the content is reported by a user and/or is found to be in contravention of our content guidelines.

5.2 Appealing a moderation decision

When we remove a review, photo, or other content item you've posted, we'll make sure to tell you why in a simple message. You can then edit your content to meet the standards set out in our guidelines or appeal the decision to remove your content if you don't agree with our moderation decision.

5.3 The appeal process

Once you've received a notification that states why your content was removed, you'll be able to appeal the decision. To start the appeal, you can follow the link provided in the email letting you know your content was removed.

When you appeal the decision, our content moderators will review your content against our content guidelines once more and decide whether the content is appropriate to display on our platform. You'll be notified of the outcome of our review by email.

5.4 Reporting content on our platform

We work hard to maintain a platform filled with authentic travel experiences, appropriate for a global audience. If you ever come across illegal content on our platform, please let us know. Your feedback is crucial in ensuring a secure environment for everyone.

Legal Representative & Point of Contact

We have appointed Agoda International Hungary Kft.as our Legal Representative:

  • Agoda International Hungary Kft.
  • 1139 Budapest, Fistyúk utca 4-8., 2. em.

For DSA related enquiries ONLY, you may contact us at: dsa.enquiries@agoda.com. For any other enquiry (customer, property, judicial etc.), please contact our Customer Support Team.

Visitor Numbers

In accordance with Agoda.com's obligations under the EU's Digital Services Act ("DSA"), we estimate that the average monthly recipients* of the Agoda.com service in the European Union from 1st August 2025 up to and including 16th February 2026, is well below 45 million.

This is only an estimate and is based on the data available to Agoda.com at this time, and the limited guidance in the DSA. This estimate is required to be published under the DSA and should not be used for any other purpose. The methodologies used to estimate average monthly recipients as defined in the DSA require significant judgement and design inputs, are subject to data and other limitations, and inherently are subject to statistical variances and uncertainties. This estimate may be revised upwards or downwards as Agoda.com refines its approach and in response to the publication of methodology by the European Commission.

* 'recipient of service' is defined under the DSA to mean "any natural or legal person who uses an intermediary service, in particular for the purposes of seeking information and making it accessible". This requires counting users to whom information was displayed by the Agoda.com service, even if that user did not make a transaction.

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