Hungarian accommodations in danger due to Booking.com

Hungarian accomodations are in a critical situation because of Booking.com. In the last few days, there have been numerous complaints about the company not paying their partners the money they are owed. Booking.com responded yesterday in a statement and has since started to settle its debts. However, many businesses, especially family-run ones, are still in danger.

There were first reports at the end of July that large sums of money had not arrived in the pockets of Hungarians using Booking.com due to a payment disruption. The service provider had completed the maintenance but had not transferred the money to the accommodation providers. This led to a complaint procedure against them by the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH), Index reports.

Booking.com fails to pay Hungarian accommodation providers

Later on, several Hungarian accommodation providers told Index that they had not received millions of forints from Bookings. One of them even reported a backlog of HUF 5 million. The Hungarian Tourism Agency (Magyar Turisztikai Ügynökség, MTÜ) estimated in a survey that about half of Hungarian accommodation providers could be affected by the non-payment. Private and other accommodation, mainly run by family businesses, are most affected.

Nearly half of those who have responded to the survey so far are experiencing disruption, with 80% complaining that they have not received their accommodation fee from the accommodation agency to date.

“It is outrageous and unacceptable that in a sector where sales are now largely online, one of the dominant multinational players is trying to assert its dominance over small businesses, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of families. Moreover, it is doing so in the high season“, said Zoltán Guller, President of the Board of Directors of the MTÜ.

Most accommodation providers have still not received payment

Only 15% of Hungarian accommodation providers were lucky enough to receive the accommodation fee after a considerable delay.

Almost half of the respondents also complained about the fact that the payment deadline is constantly changing on the platform. The survey also covered the way in which information was provided: 25% of respondents did not receive any information and 25% of them reported that the Booking customer service was not able to help them at all with their problem.

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