Japanese hoteliers planning to sue booking.com over payment failure

Dhaka: Renowned online travel agency Booking.com is reportedly facing payment failures in Asia and Europe. Reports further said the payment failures is making some Japanese hoteliers ponder filing a class-action lawsuit against the company.

Reports cited Japanese hotel owners saying that over the past few months, Booking.com has been failing to promptly transfer customer payments to the hotels, leaving hotel bills unpaid for days or even months.

Read More: Journey Plus brings cruise ship from Assam with int’l tourists

Reports also cited the lawyer taking on the class-action lawsuit saying that around 40 people have consulted with him about Booking.com’s payment failure, of which three have decided to take part in the lawsuit which will be filed by him soon.

For instance, Kazaya Group that operates several hotels around central Japan said their hotels have experienced delays in payments since June, 2023, added the reports.

Read More: Mumbai airport expects to cross 51m  passenger mark this fiscal 

A Kazaya Group representative was notified via an email from Booking.com that, due to system maintenance, the revenue from the end of June and all throughout July would not be transferred until August, 2023.

As these hotels rely mostly on Booking.com for reservations, such failure of payment on time means the hotels had essentially no income for the entire month of July, 2023.

Reports further cited Kazaya Group saying that they are yet to receive payment for their September 2023 revenue, yet Booking.com continue to charge them commission fees for using the platform.

They claimed Booking.com still owes the company around JPY 6 million.

Due to the payment failures from Booking.com’s end, the hotels could not pay their staff on time. This has led to staff quitting the hotels, further mentioned the reports.

Many hotels are on the verge of bankruptcy due to this issue while some have not been able to pay their employees for three months, according to the reports.

Booking.com issued a statement on their website on October 10, apologising for “updates to their payment system” causing issues for some of their partners.

They explained that the problem occurred during a planned maintenance operation that they were carrying out in order to transfer over to a new payment system.

“Most payments have resumed but due to unforeseen technical difficulties, there are still delays with some of our partners,” the statement read. “We are urgently working to resolve these issues.”

The statement was released following reports about the possibility of a class-action lawsuit against the company.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Booking.com—one of the largest online travel agencies in the world—is facing similar complaints worldwide.

There have been reports that hotel owners have been left unpaid for months in Southeast Asia, Europe and the UK.

• T