Leaked: Hungarian accommodations may survive after Booking’s decision

Booking.com has not paid its Hungarian partners for months. As a result, many Hungarian service providers found themselves in a challenging situation. They said, provided the company does not pay, they will be forced to shut their business. However, a Hungarian MEP wrote that help is on the way. István Ujhelyi, a non-aligned member of the European Parliament, said the accommodation providers will receive their money next week.

According to Blikk, a Hungarian tabloid, Booking.com brought many Hungarian to the brink of bankruptcy since they did not pay them for two and a half months. Family businesses are particularly affected. We summed up the details of the issue in THIS article. The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) launched a complaint procedure against Booking.com since about half of the Hungarian accommodation providers could be in danger due to the belated payment. 80% of them claim that they have not received a penny from the accommodation agency to date.

Read also:

• Hungarian accommodations in danger due to Booking.com – Read more HERE

Even Orbán’s Fidesz slammed Booking.com. Kristóf Szatmáry, an MP of the governing party, said the company was “abusing its influence and dominance of the market”. According to Szatmáry, Fidesz expected the authorities to investigate the matter and urge the company to pay the Hungarian accommodation providers.

Booking.com issued a statement this week saying they had started to settle their debts but shared no information about why the problem occurred. Now a Hungarian blogger, Gergely Orosz, shed light on the reason. Apparently, it was down to SAP migration. SAPs are enterprise softwares that manage business operations and customer relations.

Read also:

• Booking.com apologises to Hungarians whose accommodation was cancelled by German host because of Orbán’s speech

Booking.com may pay its Hungarian partners shortly

“Heard about a major tech company, which has pretty good software engineers… having a massive outage that none of these engineers can help resolve. Because that outage is an SAP migration outage. Done by not these engineers (who know nothing about SAP) but consultants who do”, he wrote.

One of the hottest topics in the Hungarian media this week is why @bookingcom is not paying accommodation providers for well over a month. The governing party is petitioning the company, demanding answers.

Found out the reason: it’s the SAP migration. This is about Booking: https://t.co/1RyZrO4rXp

— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) August 10, 2023

However, the bigger question is when the Dutch accommodation agency will finally pay its Hungarian partners. István Ujhelyi, a non-aligned member of the European Parliament, seems to have found out the answer. He said the company will allegedly start to settle its debts tomorrow. He added that normal operation will be re-established by next Thursday. He acquired that information after bilateral talks with the leaders of Booking.com. Ujhelyi is a leader of the European Parliament’s travel and tourism committee. Besides, he also serves as an EU ambassador for the United Nation’s tourism organisation. He added his negotiations will hopefully help Hungarian businesses to receive their long-anticipated payments. Earlier, Booking.com said that some Hungarian accommodation providers would have to wait until September to receive their payments, rtl.hu wrote.