It’s likely that hundreds or thousands of Booking.com partners have been affected by a payments failure, but we cannot know for sure, writes Lara Dunston.It’s likely that hundreds or thousands of Booking.com partners have been affected by a payments failure, but we cannot know for sure, writes Lara Dunston.While its parent company has been making record profits – $1.
Many partners have complained directly to the CEO about Booking.com’s silence on late payments and staff’s lack of response to calls, emails and cases opened on the platform that are closed without being resolved. We know that it’s likely that hundreds or thousands of partners have been affected. It could be many many more. We can’t know for sure, because despite dozens of emails to Booking.com’s media relations and Booking Holding’s communications departments, questions as to how many partners were affected were never answered.
It’s hard for partners to get excited about new initiatives when Booking.com hasn’t paid them in months, which means they can’t pay staff or utilities, get laundry done, buy ingredients for guest breakfasts, pay loans or investors and have to borrow from family and friends. “What I cannot understand is why there has been zero public apology from the CEO of this organisation,” she told me. “Surely damage limitation and PR is important to them? Why no proper explanation as to why this continues to not be resolved? Why aren’t we getting an apology from the board?”