Booking.com is a large travel aggregator, Nasdaq listed (BKNG) with a 74B market cap - 6x the size of Expedia. They’re just not as big in North America.
And the reason she experienced what she did is because of Project Roomkey and other similar initiatives - https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/cdss-programs/housing-...
These initiatives saved the hotel industry during COVID when demand fell off a cliff. These hotels still had mortgages but no clients. State intervention saved the industry.