Russian hoteliers have applied to online booking service Booking.com with a request to cancel all invoices issued to hotels for February 2022.
Representatives of the Russian Hotel Association and the League of Small Hotels, Hostels and Tourist Accommodation believe that Booking .com must cancel accounts due to the fact that the service disconnected all Russian hotels from the system on the same day, and also blocked their work in the personal account. This resulted in lower revenue and loss of customer data. At the same time, Booking was obliged to notify about the termination of work 14 days in advance.
According to Izvestia, citing the chairman of the League of Small Hotels, Hostels and Tourist Housing, Olga Voinova, due to the failure of the service to fulfill its obligations, hotel revenue fell by 50%, and the occupancy was at the level of 10%. At the same time, the bills for February are quite large. Thus, hotels paid Booking 20% of their turnover, which averaged from 300 to 500 thousand rubles per month.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, Vice President of the Association of Lawyers for Registration, Liquidation, Bankruptcy and Legal Representation, considers the situation ambiguous : the service has violated its obligations to the Russian side, which, due to the losses incurred, may ignore the payment of bills. At the same time, according to Vladimir Kuznetsov, both sides hope to resume joint work. If companies do not pay Booking.com bills, it will be more difficult to enter into previous working relationships.
