Booking.com has stopped sending guest phone numbers to the systems hotels use to manage reservations, according to a Mews blog post of October 14, 2026. Smoobu, a channel manager and property management vendor, published the same account on September 25 and gave a start date of September 28.
Both vendors say the change applies worldwide. Smoobu says it covers every property connected to Booking.com through a channel manager or PMS, and that reservations, rates, availability and guest names keep syncing. New reservations arrive without a number, and older reservations that are modified after the change also arrive without one. Numbers already stored stay in place. Hotels can still read a number in the Booking.com Extranet and the Pulse app, and Booking.com’s own messaging keeps working. Both vendors give Booking.com’s stated reason as protecting guests from fraud, and Smoobu adds that scammers send phishing messages carrying real reservation details.
The cost lands on pre-arrival messaging. Mews lists the WhatsApp welcome, the SMS door code, the upsell offer and the late-arrival call as messages that depend on a phone number. Smoobu says no connectivity tool can retrieve the number automatically and no setting changes that. A hotel whose journeys send only by WhatsApp or SMS will skip Booking.com guests until it adds a second route.
In our reading, the practical change is for distribution and guest messaging teams to treat the Booking.com guest as an email-and-inbox contact until the guest supplies a number. Mews recommends briefing the front desk, auditing every message that needs a number, and routing Booking.com conversations into one inbox. That puts consent capture in the hotel’s own flow, such as an online check-in link sent in the first message. We covered how Mews built native guest messaging, and its guest survey covers what guests expect from that contact. Mews sells guest messaging, so its recommendation carries that interest.
Source: Mews, 4 things hoteliers need to do now Booking.com doesn’t share guest phone numbers. Also see Smoobu, Booking.com guest phone numbers.
