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Booking.com and Properly partner for minimum cleanliness score commitment
Reading Time: 3 minutesWorldwide: Global online travel agency Booking.com has partnered with world-class quality assurance platform Properly to introduce its minimal cleanliness score commitment, which requires alternative accommodation providers to commit to a minimal cleanliness score, re-affirming its commitment to prioritising traveller health and hygiene. Based on active guest feedback, only properties which live up to this cleanliness […]
Booking.com partners with Futurestay for online check-ins
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Booking.com has partnered with cloud-based vacation rental management solution Futurestay to provide online check-in options for the latter’s partner properties booked through the platform, as a way of allaying customer concerns in the wake of Covid-19. According to Philip Kennard, founder and CEO of Futurestay, the two companies began their automated check-in venture late last year due […]
Holidu secures €4m funding from former Booking CEO Koolen
Reading Time: 3 minutesGermany: Munich-based holiday rentals search engine Holidu has announced that Kees Koolen, the former CEO of Booking.com, has invested more than €4 million into the company from his personal fund. The funding injection from Koolen is part of a €5 million extension to the €40 million Series C round that the company secured last year. […]
Booking.com to close at least five of its global offices
Reading Time: 2 minutesWorldwide: Online travel agency Booking.com is closing at least five of its offices around the world, in Bellevue, Washington [US], London and Cambridge [England], Toronto [Canada], and Split [Croatia]. The company announced the redundancies and economic cutbacks on a live call with more than 800 employees on Thursday [10 September]. The layoffs are effective with […]
Booking.com introduces weekly and monthly rate plans
Reading Time: 3 minutesWorldwide: Booking.com is introducing two new rate plans to satisfy evolving customer demand for longer stays and help its partners to drive occupancy: weekly rates and monthly rates. According to the platform, the weekly rate plan requires a minimum length of stay of seven nights, and for the monthly rate plan, a length of stay […]
Booking.com to slash 25 per cent of global workforce
Reading Time: 3 minutesUS / Netherlands: Four months after Booking.com chief executive Glenn Fogel admitted company job cuts were “probable”, the online travel agency has announced an extensive round of layoffs, with 25 per cent [roughly 4000 employees] believed to be affected. The layoffs are symptomatic of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the global travel industry, including accommodation […]
Booking Holdings wins trademark Supreme Court case
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Booking Holdings, which manages travel brands such as Booking.com, Kayak, Agoda and Priceline, has won a legal case in the United States over the naming of its flagship website, Booking.com. The case, which made its way to the American Supreme Court, asserted that the website’s name referred to a generic service, and could not […]
Booking.com extends chairwoman Tans’ contract until 2021
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Netherlands: Booking.com chairwoman Gillian Tan’s contract has been extended until 2021, a year longer than initially expected. The move is seen as something of a surprise, as her initial contract was due to expire later this month. Booking.com, the largest of the booking holdings brand, was led by Tans until June of last year […]
Leading travel companies unite to create Covid-19 travel database
Reading Time: 2 minutesUK: A group of global travel companies have banded together in order to create a Covid-19 travel database. The platform is being led by the European Covid-19 Travel Alliance, whose members include leading OTAs Booking.com and Trivago, as well as Raddison Hotel Group, KLM, and Iberostar Hotels & Apartments. The core idea behind the initiative […]
France proposes to build OTA to compete with Airbnb, Booking.com
Reading Time: 2 minutesFrance: The French government has announced proposals to build an OTA to compete with Booking.com and Airbnb. The website would be a cooperative effort between the government and the tourism industry. Eric Lombard, the head of French State-controlled financial institution Caisse des Depots & Consignations said to Bloomberg: “This sector has been very much de-intermediated […]