Disappointed in response Booking.com: Solidarity with hotel sector needed

In its response, the online booking platform states that is not planning to change its current cancellation and refund policy. Because hotels, hostels and B&B’s are now often forced to refund the entire booking within 5 working days, many businesses in the sector experience financial problems. “The largest booking platform in the world, Booking.com, should now show solidarity with the hotel sector”, states Marco Esser, Director of The Hague & Partners and chairman of the G8.

Because of the spreading of the Corona virus and the measures that have been taken to limit the spreading, the visitors economy has come to an almost complete standstill. Almost all standing reservations with hotels are being cancelled, leading to a historically low occupancy rate. When a reservation through Booking.com is cancelled, hotels are mostly left no choice but to refund the entire booking within 5 working days. This leads to financial problems with hotels, hostels and B&B’s. As largest online booking agency in the world, Booking.com would help the hotel sector enormously by allowing hotels to offer customers to change their booking to another date or provide them with a voucher.

The G8, VVV Nederland and NBTC Holland Marketing see the response of Booking.com to the urgent call as disappointing and lacking reason in this unpreceded times. In a new letter to Booking.com, the organisations urgently call Booking.com to show more solidarity with the hotels that have made it the successful and wealthy organization that it is. The urgent call is also aimed at other online travel agents (OTA’s).

Note for the press

For questions or interview requests, please contact Stefan Heger, Press Officer of The Hague & Partners: s.heger@thehague.com // +31 686829205.