Excellent year for Booking.com after pandemic-lull

Booking.com had an excellent 2022 after two lean years during the coronavirus pandemic. The Amsterdam-based accommodations site had 13 percent more income last year than in 2019, before the coronavirus. Last month, it even had more bookings than ever before, NOS reports.

At the start of the coronavirus, Booking.com still needed government support through the NOW wage subsidy scheme. Thousands of employees in the Netherlands lost their jobs over the past years, because the company’s revenue model was hit hard by coronavirus-related travel restrictions. Booking.com cut a quarter of its jobs worldwide.

But last year, Booking.com saw travelers return to its site and then some. The company booked over 16 billion euros in turnover, 13 percent more than in 2019. At the bottom of the line, Booking.com made 2.9 million euros in profit, still nearly 40 percent lower than before the pandemic.

Booking.com ended up having to repay 65 million euros in coronavirus support received from the Dutch government after controversy about the fact that the company still paid bonuses to its top executives despite the crisis.