Understanding Booking.com’s Genius Program

Booking.com is an essential app for most people, including myself, when it comes to booking hotel stays. Due to its ability to aggregate various hotels in a particular destination, their prices are often competitive and at times, even cheaper than booking directly with the property. Beyond hotels, flights and attractions can also be booked via Booking.com.

For those looking to get the most bang for their buck, platforms like Booking.com are not advantageous due to price alone. Extra perks, such as their loyalty program called Genius, offer benefits similar to those found in hotel chains’ loyalty programmes.  

Understanding Booking.com’s Genius

Booking.com’s Genius is a key tool for those looking to optimize their hotel stays. It provides members with exclusive discounts, perks like free room upgrades, breakfast and priority customer service. 

Genius is designed to reward frequent travelers with various benefits. By signing up for a Booking.com account, users are automatically enrolled in the base level of the program, allowing them to view the extra benefits available, depending on the property they choose.

Not all properties come with Genius benefits. Genius properties are marked distinctly on the platform, and it is easier to find these properties on the Booking.com app where there is also an ability to filter specifically for such hotels.

How to Qualify for the Genius Program & Membership Tiers

To qualify for Genius, users simply need to sign up for a Booking.com account and they’ll be enrolled automatically into Level 1. With increased stays, users can advance to higher levels, unlocking additional perks.

These are the benefits available for each tier:

It is worth noting that the types of bookings required to advance to each respective level is not restricted to hotel bookings. Flight, attractions and car rental bookings also count towards the number required to advance to level 2 or 3.

To connect every element of the trip for travelers on a single platform for a seamless, intuitive and frictionless customer journey, Booking.com has continually expanded their offerings over the years. Beyond accommodations, the platform has integrated attractions, rides (taxis, airport transfers), car rentals and flights into their services. 

Participating in the program is free for Booking.com users, so it’s definitely worthwhile to book your hotels while signed-in in order to access these benefits.

How to Find Genius Properties

First of all, make sure you are logged into your Booking.com account. 

Just search for properties in a particular destination as you usually do. Genius properties will come with a blue logo.

It is also possible to sort and filter specifically for Genius properties. This can be done in the app where “Genius” appears as one of the options for filtering.

Real-Life Application of Genius Benefits

I recently went to Taiwan, where I booked all my accommodations using Booking.com. Since I have a history of booking properties with them, I am already a Level 2 Genius member which enabled me to access some of the benefits that were important to me such as additional discounts. These were my experiences:

Discounts

This is probably the most important benefit for Genius. I consistently received a discount on the room price for my hotel bookings which all happened to be Genius properties. 

As a Level 2 member, I was entitled up to 15% discount with a clear emphasis on “up to”. I was accorded the 15% discount in one of my bookings, the one for MGH Mitsui Grand Taipei Zhongxiao while I received the 10% base level Genius discount for the rest of the bookings.  

To check for the actual discount to be accorded, go to the “select room” section of the booking platform and a page will display the Genius benefits that will be accorded for a particular property.

Free Breakfast

Among the hotels I booked and stayed during my Taiwan trip, I received a free breakfast at Hotel Initial – Tainan even though my original booking was not supposed to come with it.

It was a typical Taiwanese breakfast consisting of congee and various condiments, good to have to start the day. 

Room Upgrade

Among the hotels I booked, one of them clearly had a room upgrade stated for Genius members. At the Silks Club Kaohsiung, I was accorded an upgrade from a Deluxe Room to a Premier Room which was situated at a higher floor and also happened to be a corner room.

I am not sure how prevalent the practice is among Genius properties, but I received an acknowledgement of my Genius membership at Silks Club during check-in, and I was specifically told that I’d be getting the room upgrade due to the status. 

This is my 2nd stay at Silks Club and I could really perceive the difference with the upgraded stay. While all guestrooms at this property are quite spacious, I particularly loved the floor to ceiling windows across both sides of the room as well as the beautiful view of Kaohsiung’s skyline. 

Pros and Cons of the Genius Program

Pros

Access to Hotel Benefits at Independent/Boutique Properties

Unlike major hotel chains, small and independent properties don’t usually come with their own loyalty programmes so Genius can be thought of as a way to access equivalent benefits at these places. At Silks Club for instance, I was totally not expecting them to acknowledge my Genius membership at check-in and I also thought the free breakfast I received during my 2-night stay at Hotel Initial Tainan was a nice touch.  

Benefits are Life-long

One of the positive things about Genius is that one’s membership level does not expire. Once you have completed the number of stays required and moved to the next level, you will forever stay in that level at least (or better) so there is no pressure to perpetually clock bookings to maintain status each year. 

Ability to Combine With Other Cashback Programmes

The fact that Genius lies within the Booking.com ecosystem means that users can enjoy additional cashback benefits in other rebate platforms. For instance, users can also get around 5% (or more) cashback for Booking.com transactions on Shopback. This is on top of credit card rewards that one can receive for the transaction. 

Cons

Cannot Combine with Hotel Loyalty Programmes

If you are a member of a hotel’s loyalty programme, you would know that the only way you can get points or status from the stay is if you booked the stay directly. As Genius bookings are considered OTA (online travel agent) transactions, these don’t qualify for points or status.

Those Who Travel Infrequently May Not Benefit as Much

Genius levels go up based on the number of bookings which can also be for flight tickets and attractions, in addition to hotels.

Those who travel frequently may have no issues clocking in 15 bookings within 2 years to achieve Genius level 3 but infrequent travelers might find it a bit challenging. It should be noted as well that unlike most hotel loyalty programmes, one’s Genius status progresses based on the number of bookings and not number of nights. This means that 1 booking for a hotel stay, regardless of the length, will be counted as 1.  

Benefit Is Extended to a Smaller Subset of Booking.com Listings 

Genius properties account for a subset of all available properties listed on Booking.com. Based on my experience with Taiwan hotels, the properties under Genius were mostly boutique or independent properties. I saw a couple of local Taiwanese chain hotels under it as well but foreign chain hotels, such as those under Marriott, Accor, Hyatt, etc were mostly excluded.

This would really depend on the destination, as I tried doing the same filtering for Singapore hotels and did find hotels under the Pan Pacific, Far East Hospitality, Ascott and a few Marriott and Accor hotels under Genius.  

Conclusion

I personally use OTAs such as Booking.com to avail of prices that are sometimes considerably cheaper than booking directly with the hotels. I do not really tie myself with a particular chain as location and convenience are my top considerations when choosing for a hotel to stay. The good thing about digital travel platforms such as Booking.com is that both independent and major hotel chain properties could be cheaper on the platform rather than booking direct.

Genius is definitely a good-to-have feature and serves to strengthen the proposition of Booking.com as some of the common hotel loyalty programme benefits are on Genius as well. It’s also quite convenient that no additional sign-ups are needed as long as one is signed into one’s Booking.com account. I have experienced the benefits first-hand during my Taiwan trip and the benefits were granted as expected. Genius’ higher tiers are also not particularly difficult to reach and it’s great that status is life-long, reducing the need to have to maintain status each year. 

This article is written in collaboration with Booking.com