{"id":266734,"date":"2021-06-04T17:07:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T14:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/booking-com-to-repay-dutch-covid-aid-in-bonus-row\/"},"modified":"2021-06-04T17:07:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T14:07:06","slug":"booking-com-to-repay-dutch-covid-aid-in-bonus-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/booking-com-to-repay-dutch-covid-aid-in-bonus-row\/","title":{"rendered":"#Booking.com to repay Dutch COVID aid in bonus row"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Booking.com to repay Dutch COVID aid in bonus row<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Online travel<\/a> agency Booking.com said on Friday it will repay more than 60 million euros of coronavirus aid to the Dutch government after a row over bonuses for its bosses.<\/p>\n

Dutch MPs expressed outrage this week after the NRC news<\/a>paper reported that three senior members of the Amsterdam-based site’s US holding company received 28 million euros ($34 million) in bonuses last year.<\/p>\n

“While we have not recovered fully, we have heard Dutch society, and have taken considerations seriously,” a Booking.com spokesman said in an emailed statement to AFP.<\/p>\n

“As we are in a more stable position than when we app<\/a>lied for the NOW (Dutch COVID state aid) program in early 2020, and on a path toward recovery, we will pay back the subsidies received.”<\/p>\n

Booking.com said it had been operating in a “very unpredictable environment” with an 80-percent decline in business at the start of the pandemic and a 165-million-euro loss in the first quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n

The firm said last August that it would cut a quarter of its 17,500 staff worldwide as coronavirus paralysed global travel.<\/p>\n

Dutch social<\/a> affairs and employment minister Wouter Koolmees said Booking.com had “rightly and wisely… taken this step”.<\/p>\n

The Dutch lower house of parliament called on Booking.com earlier this week to repay the aid but Koolmees told MPs there was no way to legally enforce the demand.<\/p>\n

There were also calls on social media for a boycott of the company.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1996, Booking.com has 28 million listings on its website which is available in 43 languages.<\/p>\n

dk-jcp\/wai\n <\/p>\n\n

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Virus sees Booking.com slash quarter of global staff\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Booking.com to repay Dutch COVID aid in bonus row (2021, June 4)
\n retrieved 4 June 2021
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2021-06-bookingcom-repay-dutch-covid-aid.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n