Booking.com has serious issues again, several Hungarian accommodation providers in difficulty
Spabook recalled that the company has had several serious problems in the recent past: the payment scandal started almost a year ago to the day, and in February Booking blocked several hotels worldwide because the system showed a debt in the payment of commissions, despite the fact that the hotels had paid the commission and settled their accounts with Booking. Then, at the end of April this year, news broke that Booking had sent several accommodation providers a significant overpayment due to a bug.
Spabook subsequently reported that several Hungarian accommodation providers were not being paid by Booking due to a system error.
According to the news portal, an overpayment of HUF 99,114 for one of the victims resulted in a debt of EUR 98,209, while in the case of another victim, Booking is claiming more than EUR 73,000.
And because of an incorrect foreign exchange booking, one of the hosts is waiting in vain for payment of its bills of €543 and €563, which would have amply covered the HUF 99,000 overpayment.
Booking is refusing to pay on the grounds that the €98,209 owed is not covered by the €1106 in outstanding booking fees which the guests have already paid to Booking.
However, there were some accommodation providers who had the correct foreign currency but still did not receive their money from the company, and in order to speed up the process, they voluntarily refunded the overpayment to zero out the balance, but as a result several things happened:
- Some reported that their debt had been cleared but they had not received any money since then,
- others had their debt cleared, their balance was zeroed out, but then a huge debt appeared,
- and there were others whose debt was not cleared and the payment was not booked.
Cover photo: Shutterstock
