INDEX / DIRECTORY / AGODA / POLITICAL

Agoda POLITICAL

POLITICAL AUDIT UPDATED 2026-09-08
Political Score 6.50 /10 C Agoda - Complicity Index 592
Political 6.50

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Corporate Communications & Public Stance

No public evidence identified of an Agoda-branded corporate statement, distinct from statements issued by Booking Holdings Inc., specifically addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Gaza war, or the events of October 2023.1, 2 Booking Holdings publicly pledged $1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross for Ukraine refugee relief in March 2022 and matched employee donations to Ukraine-related causes; that statement was attributed to CEO Glenn Fogel and Booking Holdings rather than Agoda.3 No statement of comparable specificity or magnitude addressing Gaza or Israel-Palestine was identified in the retained Agoda or Booking Holdings materials, and No public evidence identified of Agoda annual reports or public-relations materials characterising its Israel/OPT-adjacent operations as anything other than standard travel-market activity.1, 2

Booking Holdings’ April 2026 proxy states that the company assesses human-rights risks associated with listings in conflict-affected areas across its platforms and permits listings unless legally prohibited.4 That is a current group-level policy position; it does not identify an Agoda-specific policy, establish the presence or absence of particular listings, or document a platform-specific corrective measure.4

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. and Agoda Holding Company Limited are separately identified as 100%-owned Booking Holdings subsidiaries, while Booking.com B.V. and Booking.com Holding B.V. are separately identified as 100%-owned Netherlands subsidiaries.5 Booking Holdings’ 2025 Form 10-K describes Agoda and Booking.com as separate consumer-facing brands within the group.1 Accordingly, common ultimate ownership establishes group control but does not by itself establish that Agoda carried the same accommodation inventory as Booking.com.1, 5

Booking Holdings was named in the February 2020 UN OHCHR database of 112 business enterprises linked to Israeli settlement activity, and secondary reporting treated Agoda as covered through shared ownership with Booking.com rather than as independently named in the database text.6, 7 This retained secondary-source attribution should not be read as primary evidence that Agoda itself operated settlement listings.6, 7

The retained record attributes documented settlement-listing activity to the Booking.com platform rather than Agoda. Who Profits records Booking.com carrying 24 listings across 12 West Bank settlements, including Ma’ale Adumim, Kfar Adumim, Neve Daniel and Giva’at Ze’ev; seven East Jerusalem listings, including Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramat Shlomo; and 152 listings across 28 Golan Heights settlements, with data valid 30 November 2024.8 AFSC Investigate records Booking.com listings in 19 West Bank/East Jerusalem settlements and 25 Golan Heights settlements as of 2022, refers to earlier counts of 26 properties reported by Human Rights Watch and 45 by Amnesty International, and describes Booking.com’s Israel subsidiary as providing training and promotional support to settlement accommodation providers.7 Follow the Money’s December 2023 investigation documents Booking.com listings in at least 21 West Bank settlements, including Kalya, Kfar Adumim, Ovnat, Vered Yeriho, Ramot and Evyatar, but expressly names Booking.com, Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Expedia rather than Agoda.9

No public evidence identified in the reviewed current materials of Agoda’s own consumer-facing inventory in West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Golan Heights settlements, including after 19 July 2024 or after Who Profits’ November 2024 data-validity date.8, 1, 10, 11, 12, 13 The UN Special Rapporteur’s July 2025 A/HRC/59/23 report expressly names Booking Holdings and Booking.com in paragraphs 70–71, describes Booking.com’s settlement listings, and states that Booking.com continues to profit from the colonies while facing criminal complaints in the Netherlands.14 This is a dated finding about Booking.com; it does not establish Agoda-specific inventory or a live September 2026 property count.14 No public evidence identified in the reviewed sources of a durable Booking.com exit or an Agoda-specific settlement-listing correction.8, 1, 14

Agoda maintains published records of Agoda International Israel Ltd. in Ramat Gan and an Agoda Tel Aviv office, with the office reporting 11–50 employees and Agoda activity in Israel since 2015.15, 16, 17 The current entity review did not yield a primary Israeli registry filing confirming whether Agoda International Israel Ltd. remains active.15, 16, 17, 5

Agoda’s current terms state that certain reservations on its platform may be facilitated by partners including Booking Holdings Inc., KAYAK, Priceline and Booking.com.10 Agoda’s accommodation-supplier disclosure also lists Booking.com in the Netherlands among named third-party accommodation suppliers to which information is transferred.12 Those disclosures establish specified transactional and supplier/data-transfer links, but do not identify property-level inventory, contractual roles, volumes, territorial locations, or a settlement property supplied to Agoda.10, 12

Agoda Partner Hub describes Booking Holdings Sponsored Listings as a cost-per-click advertising product that can place a property across Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda.13, 2 The enrolment guidance requires properties to be added using Booking.com Hotel IDs, individually or by CSV, and states that eligible accommodation partners in Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa may register.18 The materials establish shared advertising infrastructure, cross-brand advertising distribution and a Booking.com identifier dependency for campaign setup.13, 18, 2 They do not establish that every Booking.com property is bookable through Agoda, that the brands use a single accommodation database, the location of any promoted property, a Booking.com settlement listing’s appearance on Agoda, or Agoda-specific settlement inventory.13, 18, 2

On the legal-scrutiny track, a coalition including the European Legal Support Center, Al-Haq, SOMO and The Rights Forum filed a criminal complaint against Booking.com B.V. with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service on 8 November 2023, alleging money-laundering of proceeds tied to settlement rentals.19 Additional evidence was submitted in December 2024.20 The Dutch Public Prosecutor indicated an intention to investigate in May 2024, and the coalition reported initiating an Article 12 procedure at the Dutch Court of Appeal on 8 April 2026 concerning alleged prosecutorial inaction.20, 21 These are allegations and procedural claims rather than findings of liability, and the matter was reported as unresolved.19, 20, 21

Booking Holdings’ 2026 proxy includes Proposal 6, a shareholder resolution seeking Board disclosure concerning human-rights oversight of Israeli-settlement-related listings.4 A secondary advocacy source reports that the Board characterises the listings as financially immaterial, disputes the allegations and recommends shareholders reject the proposal; that characterisation should be treated as the source’s account of the Board position alongside the proxy itself.22, 4

Amnesty International’s January 2019 “Destination: Occupation” campaign named Booking.com, together with Airbnb, Expedia and TripAdvisor, as profiting from settlement tourism and called for disengagement.23, 24, 25 Amnesty’s September 2025 report continues to discuss online tourism platforms’ role in the political economy of occupation and apartheid without presenting a distinct new Agoda-specific finding.26 BDS-aligned boycott campaigns list Agoda as a target on the basis of Booking Holdings ownership and Booking.com settlement listings; No public evidence identified of an Agoda-specific rebuttal.6, 7 NGO Monitor characterises the Booking.com boycott campaign as part of a “well-financed BDS campaign,” disputes the significance of the underlying claims, and notes Airbnb’s 2019 partial reversal following discrimination litigation.27

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of Agoda-specific HR actions, disciplinary measures or union disputes tied to employee speech on Israel-Palestine in the retained general-news, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and NGO-source record.19, 27

Booking.com, rather than Agoda, announced in September 2022 that it would label West Bank Israeli-settlement listings as “occupied territory” with human-rights and safety warnings.28 Reporting states that Booking.com replaced that approach on or around 30 September 2022 with “conflict-affected” language applied to Israeli and Palestinian areas after pressure from the Israeli government, with then-Prime Minister Yair Lapid publicly thanking the company.28 No public evidence identified that Agoda separately adopted, implemented, withdrew or replaced that policy.28, 1

No public evidence identified of retail or supply-chain product-labelling controversies specific to Agoda, a booking intermediary rather than a physical-goods retailer, in the retained NGO and news materials.8, 7, 9

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

No public evidence identified of Agoda using military heritage, defence-sector ties or state-security origins in its commercial branding.29, 30 Agoda’s founding narrative traces to Michael Kenny and Robert Rosenstein’s Phuket-based travel venture, formed through the 2005 merger of PlanetHoliday.com and PrecisionReservations.com and acquired by Priceline, now Booking Holdings, in 2007.29, 30 Agoda materials identify Rosenstein as co-founder, former CEO and Chairman in 2025.31

No public evidence identified of Agoda hosting government officials, entering formal state-academic partnerships, or sponsoring state-backed cultural campaigns such as “Brand Israel.”30, 2

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Booking Holdings reported $2,745,000 in federal lobbying expenditure for 2025 in OpenSecrets records.32, 33 No line-item breakdown was identified tying that spend to Israel-Palestine policy, boycott legislation or anti-BDS advocacy.32, 33

No public evidence identified of a Booking Holdings or Agoda corporate PAC contribution to AIPAC, Christians for Israel, Friends of the IDF, JNF/KKL or another pro-Israel or settlement-linked advocacy organisation in the retained OpenSecrets organisational and PAC-profile source classes.32, 33 No public evidence identified of Agoda or Booking Holdings directing free services, cloud credits, discounted lodging or logistics specifically to Israeli state, IDF or military-welfare bodies during the current conflict.3, 1 Booking Holdings publicised free or discounted accommodation technology and a $1 million ICRC donation for Ukraine refugees in 2022; this comparison is contextual and does not establish an equivalent Israel- or Gaza-related programme.3

No public evidence identified of donations to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, Lev Echad, Israeli reservist funds, settlement organisations, Regavim or Im Tirtzu by Agoda, Booking Holdings or their controlling principals in the retained materials.32, 33 UJA-Federation of New York’s 2025 Tzedek Society Roll of Honor lists “Amy and Glenn Fogel”; UJA defines that recognition as an annual-campaign personal or family gift of at least $10,000 and states that its campaign supports people in New York, Israel and globally.34 The page does not disclose an amount beyond that threshold, a restricted purpose, a recipient or a contribution to the IDF, FIDF, settlement entities or military-welfare funds.34

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Agoda’s history reflects a commercial travel-technology origin: a Phuket-based merger of PlanetHoliday.com and PrecisionReservations.com into Agoda in 2005, followed by Priceline’s acquisition in 2007.29, 30 Agoda’s current terms state that, unless otherwise specified, travel-product booking-facilitation services are provided by Agoda Company Pte. Ltd., a Singapore private limited company registered under number 200506877R at 36 Robinson Road, Singapore.10 The terms list an Agoda Group including Agoda Services Co., Ltd.; Agoda International Pte. Ltd. (UK establishment); Agoda International (Hong Kong) Limited; Agoda International Hungary Kft.; Agoda International Japan KK; Agoda International (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.; Agoda International Philippines Corporation; Quantum Growth Network Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.; and Agoda International USA LLC.10

Booking Holdings’ 2025 Form 10-K identifies Agoda as one of five consumer-facing brands, primarily serving Asia-Pacific consumers and headquartered in Singapore, with accommodation, flight, ground-transportation and attractions offerings; it identifies Booking.com separately as headquartered in the Netherlands.1 Agoda’s newsroom states that Agoda is part of Booking Holdings Inc. and identifies Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. as copyright owner of its newsroom materials.35 Booking Holdings’ 2025 Sustainability Report likewise presents Agoda and Booking.com as distinct brands within the common group.36

Current primary records disconfirm complete operational and capital independence between Agoda and Booking.com. Exhibit 21 identifies their separate legal entities under common 100% Booking Holdings ownership.5 The 2025 Form 10-K says brands pursue distinct strategies and markets or geographies and historically operated largely independently, while Booking Holdings continues to optimise collaboration, share resources and technological innovations, and co-develop services.1 The same filing aggregates five operating segments into one reportable segment and states that revenue and Adjusted EBITDA allocations require estimates and judgments because of the integrated nature of underlying transactions.1

Booking Holdings’ consolidated accounts include the parent and wholly owned subsidiaries and eliminate intercompany accounts and transactions.1 They report $699 million in parent-company loans receivable from subsidiaries, $1.390 billion in loans payable to subsidiaries and $7.9 billion in cash dividends received from subsidiaries during 2025.1 These disclosures evidence consolidated control and group-level financing, but do not identify Agoda as a particular lender, borrower, dividend payer or recipient.1 No public evidence identified of Agoda-only capital accounts, Agoda–Booking.com funding contracts, cash-pooling terms, management-service agreements, a quantified accommodation-supply relationship, a shared-inventory percentage or property-level cross-brand mapping.1, 5, 10, 12

Agoda’s privacy policy states that personal data may be shared with affiliated group companies for analysis of use of independent and affiliated platforms, product and service improvement, personalised offers, fraud and illegal-activity investigations, data-breach investigations, and internal audit and compliance purposes.11 The supplier disclosure’s naming of Booking.com is additional evidence of a supplier/data-transfer relationship.12 Neither source establishes the data fields, volume, a specific intra-group data-processing agreement, a common accommodation inventory or a settlement-property transfer.11, 12

No public evidence identified of any state-geopolitical mandate, golden share or state-linked ownership structure for Agoda or Booking Holdings.1, 5, 37

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Booking Holdings identifies Glenn Fogel as CEO and President since January 2017 and CEO of Booking.com since June 2019, and identifies Omri Morgenshtern as Agoda CEO since July 2022 after senior Agoda roles beginning in 2014.38 Agoda materials state that Morgenshtern previously served as Agoda COO with responsibility for Global Operations, Product, Partner Services and Customer Experience.31 Morgenshtern is an Israeli national, a graduate of the IDF’s Talpiot programme, holds an M.S. in Physics from Tel Aviv University and a B.S. from Hebrew University, and co-founded Qlika in 2012; Globes reported that Priceline acquired Qlika in 2014.39, 40

Booking Holdings’ 2026 proxy lists The Vanguard Group at 9.4% and BlackRock, Inc. at 8.2% beneficial ownership, while each listed director and executive officer, and the group of 15 directors and executive officers, held less than 1%.37 The proxy states that its Vanguard information relies on a 2024 Schedule 13G/A and may not reflect ownership after a January 2026 internal realignment; BlackRock’s information relies on a January 2024 Schedule 13G/A describing holdings by affiliated institutional investors.37 The table identifies no individual founder, executive, director, family vehicle or single holder at or above 10%, but this disclosure-level evidence does not rule out influence not reflected in the table.37

No public evidence identified of Morgenshtern making public statements or op-eds specifically regarding the Israel-Gaza war, of IDF service beyond his Talpiot educational background, or of donations to Israeli military-welfare or settlement organisations in the retained searches and materials.39, 40 No public evidence identified of personal philanthropy, family-foundation grants or board memberships in geopolitical advocacy groups by Morgenshtern or other named Agoda or Booking Holdings executives, founders or directors beyond the specific UJA recognition for Amy and Glenn Fogel.37, 34 The accountable research did not complete person-specific primary-record checks for every director, officer, founder and institutional holder; these absence findings are consequently limited and do not establish that no such activity exists.37, 34

No public evidence identified of Booking Holdings board directors with documented defence-industry or settlement-organisation ties in the retained proxy-filing review; the prior audit’s direct full-text-access limitation applies to that earlier review, while the 2026 proxy provides a current named-director disclosure but not a comprehensive external-affiliations search.4, 37

Footnotes

  1. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075531/000107553126000009/bkng-20251231.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16

  2. https://partnerhub.agoda.com/hotel-solutions/booking-holdings-sponsored-listings/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. https://www.inc.com/rebecca-deczynski/how-companies-are-helping-ukraine-charity-donations.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001075531/000130817926000310/bkng-20260420.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075531/000107553126000009/bkng12312510kex21.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1630271 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/booking-holdings ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. https://whoprofits.org/companies/company/3768 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. https://www.ftm.eu/articles/bookingcom-active-in-illegal-israeli-settlement-areas ↩ ↩2

  10. https://www.agoda.com/info/termsofuse.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  11. https://www.agoda.com/info/privacy.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. https://cdn0.agoda.net/images/blt2/privacy-kr/Accomodation_Suppliers.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  13. https://partnerhub.agoda.com/what-is-bhsl/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  14. UN Special Rapporteur, A/HRC/59/23 (July 2025), paragraphs 69–71, pages 19–20; primary PDF preserved in the repository report library. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session59/advance-version/a-hrc-59-23-aev.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. https://www.glassdoor.com/Location/Agoda-Tel-Aviv-Location-EI_IE461386.0,5_IL.6,14_IC2421090.htm ↩ ↩2

  16. https://www.dunsguide.co.il/en/Cc2f41818d90fd228f568c53d39d6ae51_agoda_international_israel/ ↩ ↩2

  17. https://careersatagoda.com/blog/why-i-work-for-agoda-from-the-bangkok-to-the-tel-aviv-office/ ↩ ↩2

  18. https://partnerhub.agoda.com/how-do-i-sign-up-for-booking-holdings-sponsored-listings-bhsl/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  19. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/netherlands-csos-sue-bookingcom-for-profiting-from-israeli-settlements/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  20. https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/27452.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  21. https://nltimes.nl/2026/04/12/human-rights-org-seek-charges-bookingcom-israeli-settlement-rentals ↩ ↩2

  22. https://www.jlensnetwork.org/the-case-to-vote-against-proposal-6-shareholder-resolution-regarding-business-operations-in-israeli-settlements-on-booking-holdings-inc-s-2026-proxy-statement/ ↩

  23. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/01/israel-opt-tourism-companies-driving-settlement-expansion-profiting-from-war-crimes/ ↩

  24. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-4-online-tourism-companies-doing-business-in-the-settlements/ ↩

  25. https://www.timesofisrael.com/amnesty-international-pushes-boycott-of-west-bank-settlement-tourism/ ↩

  26. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/09/global-political-economy-enabling-israels-genocide-occupation-apartheid/ ↩

  27. https://ngo-monitor.org/the-ngo-bds-network-targets-booking-com/ ↩ ↩2

  28. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/5/is-booking-com-reversal-palestine-corporate-hypocrisy ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  29. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/363111/boom-at-the-inn ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  30. https://careersatagoda.com/blog/agodas-story-20-years-of-bridging-the-world-through-travel/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  31. https://careersatagoda.com/blog/agodas-story-20-years-of-bridging-the-world-through-travel/ ↩ ↩2

  32. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/booking-holdings/summary?id=D000070753 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  33. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000070753 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  34. https://www.ujafedny.org/tzedek-society-roll-of-honor ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  35. https://www.agoda.com/press/newsroom/ ↩

  36. https://www.bookingholdings.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Booking-Holdings_2025-Sustainability-Report.pdf ↩

  37. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075531/000107553126000018/bkng-20260410.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  38. https://www.bookingholdings.com/about/leadership/ ↩

  39. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omri_Morgenshtern ↩ ↩2

  40. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-omri-morgenshtern-appointed-agoda-ceo-1001409689 ↩ ↩2