Is Booking.com on the verge of collapse?

I had a property that was on bkg.com for years and around April time they stopped paying me due to "technical reasons". I sold the property so don't know what has happened since. I was reading yesterday that grumblings are increasing and stories of people falling into serious financial trouble as bkg.com won't pay them for what has now been over 6 months. These funds that are collected have no financial protection (as far as I am aware). If this is some sort of accounting scandal unfolding the implications across short stay and tourism will be huge!

anyone else report having issues?

 

Seems it may actually be a thing.

 

I'd be freaking out at this point also!

 

I see there is a Facebook page for it as well - booking.com is not paying its hosts

full of dreadful stories

 

It is not going broke, yet. It share price has doubled in the last year ,Q2 poured money earning 5.5B with a 15% increase in bookings to gross $40B . Adjusted net income was better up 79% to $38 per share. People are getting excited by its adoption of AI, My opinion and experience is that the functionality of booking has and will turn to crap just like RedFin. I wont use it any more as my last 3 booking have been a big stuff up with bookings being cancelled by the time I arrive , not recognoized and payment stuff ups where they want payment again and trouble making payment.

 

Time to make money shorting stock?

 

WTF? How the heck is that actually going to help a business like this?

 

From the opposite side of the fence (i.e. I use booking.com for my holidays):

I received an email via booking.com purportedly from the owners of a property where I had booked and paid in full in advance. The email asked me to 'verify my credit card' and said that a charge would be made to my card and immediately refunded. If I did not do this, my booking would be cancelled. Quite honestly, it read like a scam.

I queried this with the property. They told me booking.com AI is sending the same email to all their future guests as if it is coming from them, and they have no control over it. They advised me to ignore the email, and confirmed I had booked and paid in full.

I wonder if this is a way for booking.com to raise extra revenue?

 

Interesting, I used booking.com on 3 stays on Airbnb style properties in July this year, never have this problem. Must be a recent thing.

 

We use bookings.com.

Use it for overseas bookings but always choose the option to pay at the property when we arrive. And always the cancellation option (that really paid off when covid struck).

In Australia we use it to choose a property then phone and book direct. Nearly always get a better price - bookings.com charges up to 15% commission.

 

Yep I do the same, I find most places prefer you to book direct and give you a discount for doing so. When booking direct to hotels I've found you get more flexibility regarding room choice too.

Also, might not be relevant now, we had a friends wedding towards the end of covid, so we booked a Hotel directly for 2 nights. After the first night a snap lock down was declared, we had a choice to either drive back home that day or to stay locked in our hotel room with room service only. We decided to drive home that day, the hotel gave us a full refund for the booking but our friends who booked the same hotel via bookings.com were not given a refund even though they also chose not to stay, the Hotel specifically said it's because they didn't book direct.

 

Booking.com need each reservation to have a validated payment method and this stays on the account and doesnt get shared with hosts etc and makes it hard for them to impose a aftre departure charge. There is no charge to add a card. The card is validated as a 1 cent charge and its reversed. Once. SOME hosts can send a link asking for your direct card details andnothimng is billed by booking.com - NEVER BOTH - Thats for their ability to charge for damage etc. . Some bookings may incur a charge as a deposit and other dont. Depends if booking.com is the payment method (ie paid in advnace), a deposit etc. If not it will say the property will collect the payment.
Some hotels may secure a booking and charge a resreveation charge. This is often just the booking.com element of fees and the hotel will charge the balance on check in. Some hotels may charge the first night as a deposit Depends if its a reservation pre-paid or just a reservation booking.

One major benefit of booking.com is flexibility. They push hotels to offer options like free cancellation until within X days. Most direct bookings may be non-refundable. Booking.com also quote true all inclusive costs and dont do the vegas scam of ignoring taxes and resort fees.

There was an IT issue that affected a few months and hosts / hotels were making a lot of noise about this. June through July. Resolved around August 2023 and very late August was the worst. August payts should have been ontime . Our payments were delayed and this was fixed.

Booking.com make a typical 15% on accomodation and would lose loyalty from major chains as well as small players. The likes of Hilton, MGM resorts and other chains all use them. I changed some bookings the other days as a user and refunds paid were made in real time

 

I wouldn't have a clue but I expect the non-payment issue is due to basic organisational ineptitude/failings.

A team of people have probably been replaced by some half baked IT system and payments to creditors are probably pretty low on booking.com's fix it priorities.

Like others i tend to pay at the property and/or book direct.

 

No issue from me both as a host site and as a customer. One month late a2 weeks. Their messaging kept me informed. I also play the rebooking game. A trip to Las Legas soon the rates all match MGM / Caesers pricing etc and it tends to be small motels etc that have pricing that varies tobeat the big booking sites. Variances in prices inst anything like it was - Trivago can barely afford to advertise as the issue fades. As they drop prices as date approaches I cancel and rebook and the lower rate (USD). Most people who book direct are locked in and also likely pay the 3% international conversion rate embedded into the charges on almost every card worldwide. I get that rebated as a refund and still pay the property direct excepting night one (excl resort fee and taxes) And I avoided the recent IT system hacking they both encountered and arent discussing.

Using booking.com has led to 100% occupancy where it was 75-80% - They have some great IT support to be honest and multi-language and currency. Mutiple apartments. I know all are prepaid and no-shows and refund requests are fine if a replacement is found. Their console managemnet is brilliant. They even pick up on card fraud and risks.

 

a not insignificant number of members on the Facebook group are saying they still have not been paid

 

I did wonder if they were hit with ransonware and kept it quiet like Caesers and MGM Resorts initially did. Caesers paid and MGM refused. MGM had to rebuild their whole IT and still are

 

Story on ACA tonight in Perth. I missed a lot of the story but others aren’t getting paid.

 

I got a "10% cashback offer". Sign of desperation or normal marketing? Time will tell.