Once one of the Netherlands' feats, Booking.com, the world's largest and most popular hotel booking website, has turned into one of the country's most hated sites, after its management deceived Dutch authorities and misused government financial support it received. , which amounted to 65 million euros at the beginning of the global Corona crisis.
The site had received this amount as part of the government aid provided by the Netherlands to companies in the country, to help them overcome the Corona crisis, and to preserve the jobs of workers in these companies. Its main center is in the capital (Amsterdam).
The number of employees at the site in the Netherlands is 5,500 employees, while the number of employees around the world is 17,500 employees.
The company's move at the time sparked a storm of anger in the Dutch media and on social media, and criticism reached the Dutch government itself, which received a large share of criticism;
Because it did not impose conditions on the company to prevent laying off any employees in return for the amount of assistance it received from the government.
Millions for company managersمدراء
The issue of Dutch government aid to the "Booking" company returned to the fore last month, after it was revealed that the company's management granted bonuses to some of its managers, estimated at tens of millions, despite the stifling economic crisis the world is witnessing, and although the company itself has reduced the salaries of a large part of its employees. ;
Because of the suspension of tourism in most countries of the world.
These bounties brought the hotel booking site back into public debate in the Netherlands, this time in the Dutch parliament, where a government minister called for the company to be morally responsible and return the amount of aid it had received to the Dutch government.
The company responded under the influence of popular and governmental pressure, and returned the amount of assistance to the Dutch government a few days ago, in a move that is not expected to repair the damage done to the company's reputation, at least in the Netherlands.
And "Booking" still refrains from speaking to the Dutch or international media, and did not respond to Al Jazeera Net's questions.
The company’s management granted bonuses to some of its managers, estimated at tens of millions, despite the stifling (European) economic crisis.
A blow to the company's reputation
The Dutch writer and economic thinker, Martin Arets, predicted that "Booking" received a major blow to its reputation in the Netherlands;
But it is expected that the damage will be limited when it comes to talking about the company's position in the global market, which it dominates greatly.
Arets believes that the company will continue to lead in the field of hotel reservation sites;
However, its crisis with the Dutch government will greatly harm its recruitment of talent, who may not prefer to work in a company such as "Booking", and that these talents are very important in the future of the company, which will face great competition in the coming years.
Aretz stressed the sensitivity of the Internet giants to criticism, and although these companies do not mind apologizing;
However, it alone has become insufficient and meaningless sometimes if it is not accompanied by a real change in the internal policies of these companies.
It seems that the unprecedented attack on the "Booking" company, will take different forms, and could develop into real challenges for this company, as it was recently announced in the Netherlands the launch of a new hotel reservation site whose economic model is based on greater respect for hoteliers.
A number of the owners of tourism companies in the Netherlands also dared to publicly criticize “Booking”, which they did not dare to do in the past, such as Ad Smit, director of a tourism company in Costa Rica, who stressed on his page on a social networking site his criticism of the exploited conditions. For the website, which has always been against the interest of hoteliers, who pay to sign up for the website, for fear of being out of competition.
The recent crisis could also lead one of the giant technology companies such as Google, Facebook, and others, to create similar services, especially since the model on which the "Booking" site is based does not include much innovation.
The most dominant company in the world
The Booking Company was founded in 1996, and today it is one of the largest hotel reservation companies on the Internet, with the capacity to rent 38 million rooms worldwide.
In the year before Corona, the company’s profits amounted to 5 billion euros, knowing that it was paying from 5 to 10 billion euros annually to the Google search engine;
In order for the latter to show the site as the first choice for those looking for hotels around the world.
The Dutch website founder, Geert Jan Bruinsma, sold the company to the US company Priceline in 2005 for 110 million euros, and the company's value today is estimated at 70 billion dollars.