Eleven upper floors tower up into the sky above a high ground floor.

Some of them are scaffolded, the top two are already glazed.

In addition, construction site containers from the Strabag subsidiary Züblin are stacked on top of each other.

It is building the “ODE” residential and business complex on Oosterdokseiland, very close to Amsterdam Central Station.

42 exclusive apartments are being built at this point near the IJ, the former arm of the sea that runs through Amsterdam like a wide river. Some are still available, for example type A 016 with three rooms and 114 square meters for just under 1.1 million euros. Above all, however, the booking platform Booking.com will move in here with its new headquarters. Simulations show an impressively illuminated glass complex, shining out into the twilight. Another proud stone in the rich mosaic of Amsterdam architecture is said to be ODE.

Booking.com now has less pride to report itself.

Not only did the popular hotel broker experience a slump in the middle of the construction of his new business temple: Corona largely paralyzed the travel industry.

Now the company has also damaged its reputation by giving its board members high bonuses - and changing the rules especially for them.

65 million euros in corona aid from the state

Last year, Booking.com received around 65 million euros in payment assistance from the Dutch state, which is roughly equivalent to the German short-time work allowance. That was already controversial in the Netherlands at the time - because of the high profits that the group had made in previous years. Booking.com was established in the Netherlands and has its operational headquarters in Amsterdam. The company is suspended under a holding company that is listed on the US stock exchange. Because of the corona pandemic, it was announced that 4,000 jobs would be cut, up to 1,000 in the Netherlands - despite the state's wage aid.

The daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad recently reported that the three board members of Booking Holdings were jointly awarded bonuses worth the equivalent of around 28 million euros for 2020 - mainly in the form of share packages to be monetized over the next three years.

Simple employees also received bonuses.

"Vulture behavior"

The invitation to the Annual General Meeting makes it clear that the criteria for the manager bonuses have been changed due to the Corona crisis.

"Even if the company's performance is a key factor in individual bonus payments for our board members, the remuneration committee reserves the right to adjust the bonus pool or the individual bonuses up or down at its own discretion," it says at one point.

Parliamentarians were outraged across all parties. "Scandalous and immoral", "antisocial" and other ratings fell on the combination of government support and bonuses. Gert-Jan Segers, parliamentary group leader of the four-party coalition Christian Union, quoted from the Bible: “Greed is the root of all evil.” Thierry Aartsen, parliamentary group member of the business-friendly and right-wing liberal VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, spoke of “vulture behavior”. “You are formally abiding by the rules of the game. but that is not the point. You just have decency in your backside, I want to say flatly ”, although the latter noun could also be translated more roughly.

Legally everything is flawless because Booking.com took state aid when bonuses were not a hindrance.

In a parliamentary debate, a member of the Socialist Party demanded - in his own words on behalf of 141 out of 150 MPs - that Booking.com pay back at least the foreseeable bonus amount.

The company initially pointed out that the bonuses would only be paid out in the future.

In the end it gave in to the pressure and announced that it would repay around 65 million euros.

"We have followed the debate in Dutch society over the past few days, we take it very seriously and we have an eye for the sensitivity of this issue," said a written communication.

Incidentally, Booking.com causes trouble on a completely different level: the construction site has been obstructing pedestrian and bicycle traffic from the train station to the southeast for many months. According to the original plans, the complex should be completed in March of this year. Now Booking.com expects to move in "in the second half of 2022", as the company announced on request. "Probably towards the end of 2022."