What is Booking.com
Booking.com is world-famous legitimate and beneficial website for hotel booking, price comparison and other services. In this article we will consider adware program or virus which parasitizes on the brand name, and has nothing to do with owner of Booking.com.
Booking.com (can be also called Booking App or just Booking) is an advertising application for Mac, that opens Booking.com website in program window on MacOS startup. Judging by appearance and behavior, this adware was not developed by the company, that operates self-titled website. Most likely, software was developed by third-party, that signed affiliation agreement with Booking.com and tries to earn affiliate commission spreading doubtful application with limited functionality. Window has weird name demo-app Title, the only task it performs is loading on startup and opening the homepage of Booking.com. Adware is deeply rooted in the system and resists its removal. We did some research and prepared this tutorial to help you remove Booking.com virus from Mac.
How Booking.com infected your Mac
Booking.com comes in installation bundle along with freeware programs like media players, PDF readers, archiving programs, for example, Snap Media Player, MM Unzip, PDF Mac Master. Sometimes it spreads via fake Adobe Flash Player Update (shown on the picture below). To protect your Mac from viruses like Booking.com we recommend you to use CleanMyMac for Mac. CleanMyMac is capable of removing Booking.com and its residual data from MacOS.
Download Booking.com Removal Tool for Mac
To remove Booking.com completely, we recommend you to use CleanMyMac. It can help you remove files, folders and registry keys of Booking.com and uninstall hijackers, toolbars and unwanted add-ons from Safari browser.
Alternative Removal Tool
To remove Booking.com completely, we recommend you to use SpyHunter for Mac. It can help you remove files, folders and registry keys of Booking.com and uninstall hijackers, toolbars and unwanted add-ons from Safari browser.
Download AdGuard for Mac to block malicious pop-ups, that promote Booking.com
AdGuard is the best ad-blocker, internet filtering and internet security application for MacOS. It can cut out unwanted banners from site pages, block pop-ups, stop redirects and prevent users from visiting potentially dangerous resources. Use it to stop ads promoting Booking.com in browsers.
Remove Booking.com manually for free
Note: Booking.com sets up to start on Mac OS startup. Therefore, before starting removal, perform these steps:
- Open System Preferences, choose Users & Groups.
- Choose your account (set up as Current User).
- Click Login Items tab.
- Find “Booking” entry. Select it, and click the “-“ (minus) button to remove it.
Note 2: Booking.com won’t quit just by closing it, therefor use Force Quit to end the process.
- Press 3 buttons at the same time: Option, Command, and Esc (Escape). This is similar to Control-Alt-Delete on a Windows PC.
- Choose Booking in the list.
- Click Force Quit button.
Here is manual step-by-step tutorial for full Booking.com removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of Booking.com installer on operating systems with latest updates and browser versions.
Remove Booking.com from Applications
Remove Booking.com from Mac:
- In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
- Booking might have an Uninstaller. If you see Uninstall Booking or Booking Uninstaller, double-click it and follow the onscreen instructions.
- Otherwise, drag Booking from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
- Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.
Cannot uninstall Booking.com
If you can’t uninstall Booking.com using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Booking.com. Follow instructions below:
- Download free AppCleaner.
- Drag Booking from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
- Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Booking.com.
- Click Delete button.
Remove Booking.com add-on from your browsers
Removing Booking.com from Applications often does not bring desired effect. It is browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Booking.com extension from your browsers manually.
Safari:
- Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
- Click Extensions tab.
- Find Booking extension.
- Click Uninstall button to remove it.
Google Chrome:
- Start Google Chrome browser
- In address box type (or copy-paste)
chrome://extensions/. - Find Booking extension.
- Click the trash can icon to remove it.
Mozilla Firefox:
- Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
- In address box type (or copy-paste)
about:addons. - Choose Booking extension.
- Click Disable or Remove button.
Remove following files and folders of Booking.com
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.Booking.com.agent.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.SoftwareUpdater.agent.plist
~/Library/Application Support/Booking.com/
~/Library/Caches/Booking-com.booking-app
How to protect Mac OSX from hijackers, like Booking app
Mac OSX is known to be one of the safest operating systems, and for a long time there was no need in antivirus products for Mac. But with the growing popularity of Mac computers and notebooks and evolving technology, viruses, trojans, adware, toolbars, hijackers, and other malware paved the way for Mac users. We recommend you to use one of the best anti-malware for Mac available – Malwarebytes for Mac.
