Booking.com confirms that a technical glitch that affected payments to hotel partners has been resolved, and that it is working urgently to process remaining transactions.
“We understand the frustration of the accommodation hosts and owners that have been unduly affected by an ongoing technical issue, and can confirm that the system errors that affected the payments have now been corrected and the transactions of most of our partners have been processed,” a spokesperson at Booking.com in Singapore told TTG Asia.
The online travel agency raised the ire of hosts and owners worldwide when weekly payouts stopped for thousands of them. A check on Booking.com’s Partner Hub shows some hosts and owners complained they had not received payment for end of June and July bookings. The payouts are payments guests made to Booking.com directly, minus the OTA’s commission.
Said a host/owner on Booking.com’s Partner Hub: “Absolute disgrace on payout delay. Endless phone calls and messages. No one replies. What a time to do maintenance on you (your) finance department in busiest month of July.”
In Asia, a September 5 article on Thaiger, which combed chat groups and Facebook pages, said for some, payments had stopped since as far back as April or earlier. Thaiger is a well-read English news and lifestyle platform in Thailand, a key market for Booking.com and the base of its sister OTA, Agoda.
According to the report, in a message in late June, Booking.com promised payouts for reservations checked out between June 28 and July 19, to be processed by July 24. However, as one host pointed out, the promised date came and went without any money transfer.
After a prolonged silence, the online travel agency sent a new message to hotels on August 1, pushing the payout deadline to August 4. A few properties started receiving payments but thousands are still in the dark and on the hook for big money, according to the report.
When contacted by TTG Asia, the spokesperson said, “We acknowledge that for some this has taken longer than it should have, and continue to work urgently to finalise the rest of the transactions. If any partner has an issue, they can contact us through the Partner Hub.”
“We always strive to support each of our accommodation partners in the best way possible, and fully understand the importance of processing payments on time,” she said.
