The Hotels.com platform sponsors Real Madrid: rewarded bookings and experiences at Madrid’s Bernabéu

Real Madrid has named Hotels.com, the Expedia Group hotel booking platform, as one of its official partners: the global, multi-season deal was announced on 10 November 2026. On the agenda are fan experiences at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and campaigns to help supporters travel, with perks and rewards on their hotel bookings.

☰Contents

1. Signed in front of the club’s European Cups
2. Visibility and hospitality at the Bernabéu
3. What’s in it for travelling supporters?
4. Madrid: searches for stays up 30%
5. 677 million fans, and frequent travellers
6. After Tottenham and Arsenal, Real Madrid

Signed in front of the club’s European Cups

Emilio Butragueño, Real Madrid’s director of institutional relations, and Hari Nair, general manager of Hotels.com, made the partnership official at Ciudad Real Madrid, in front of the club’s European Cup trophies. For Emilio Butragueño, the partnership represents “a great opportunity for us to continue growing as a club alongside a leading company in its sector, with whom we share fundamental values such as the pursuit of excellence, a commitment to service, innovation, and the ability to connect with our respective audiences.”

Neither the club nor the brand has disclosed a fee. Both official statements refer to the club as a whole, without specifying which teams are involved: men’s football, women’s football or basketball.

Visibility and hospitality at the Bernabéu

As an official partner, Hotels.com will have exclusive access to matchday visibility, digital content and hospitality experiences at the Bernabéu. Over the coming seasons, the club also plans initiatives to bring supporters closer to the team, drawing on its digital channels, the brand’s presence in the stadium and those hospitality experiences.

What’s in it for travelling supporters?

Real Madrid and Hotels.com will work together on campaigns designed to make travel easier for fans, with perks and rewards on their hotel bookings throughout the season. No priced offer reserved for supporters has been published yet.

The Hotels.com statement recalls how its members’ scheme works: discounts of 20% or more on hundreds of thousands of hotels, rewards on every eligible stay and an option, Save Your Way, that lets members take the discount straight away or turn it into rewards for a future trip. Hari Nair sums up the aim: “We know Real Madrid fans over index on travel frequency, so we want to reward them with instant savings today and the flexibility to bank rewards for future trips.”

Madrid: searches for stays up 30%

According to Hotels.com data, searches for stays in Madrid over the months of the current season are up 30% year on year. The figure covers searches made between 1 January and 9 October 2026 on Hotels.com sites worldwide, for stays between 1 August 2026 and 31 May 2027.

For Madrid’s hoteliers, sport already weighs on demand: we saw it with hotel prices in Madrid during the Formula 1 Grand Prix. The Spanish capital is also showcasing its hotels to the general public, as with Madrid Hotel Week, which opens the doors of 60 hotels until 15 November.

677 million fans, and frequent travellers

Why would a booking platform sign up a football club? The Hotels.com statement spells it out: the deal connects it with 677 million Real Madrid fans worldwide, through content, digital activations, matchday visibility and exclusive experiences. According to the brand, these supporters travel a great deal, following matches, tournaments and the team’s away trips, and stay in hotels more often than the population at large: an audience close to its core of regular bookers.

Hari Nair describes Real Madrid as “one of the most iconic brands in global sport, with an unmatched ability to connect with fans around the world.” The statement also places the deal within Hotels.com’s wider commitment to investing in football partnerships.

After Tottenham and Arsenal, Real Madrid

Real Madrid is not Hotels.com’s first club. In June 2018, Tottenham Hotspur chose it as its official accommodation partner in a long-term deal, with room discounts for its members. An Arsenal partner since 2023, the platform renewed that multi-year agreement on 13 August 2026, with a presence alongside the men’s and women’s teams and at the Emirates Stadium.

The London club then quoted a Hotels.com figure: searches for stays in Budapest for the weekend of the 2026 Champions League final had soared by 1,300% year on year. Other platforms are playing on the same pitch, such as Trip.com with its VIP experiences partnership with Seat Unique.