Booking.com to cut hundreds of jobs in Amsterdam as part of global restructure
Hundreds of Booking.com employees in the Netherlands are set to lose their jobs, a spokesperson for the company has confirmed to NU.nl. Booking’s parent company had already announced plans to trim its workforce in November, but the exact figures had not been disclosed until now.
The vacation booking platform has 13,000 employees worldwide, with 7,000 currently working in Amsterdam. The spokesperson stated that the reorganization will certainly affect the offices in Amsterdam. “More than 200 and fewer than 1,000” jobs will be cut in the capital, the spokesperson said.
“The exact number has not been officially confirmed yet, but it is close to a thousand,” the spokesperson added when asked how many people will be laid off globally. “We are in the middle of the process.”
The dismissals are not related to financial difficulties; the company reported a 37 percent increase in net profit to 5.9 billion dollars last year (just over 5 billion euros), along with a rise in revenue.
According to the company, the layoffs are part of an effort to operate more efficiently. “We don’t want to have so many layers in the organization anymore,” the spokesperson told NU.nl. “Our people are managing the work of other managers. It has become too bureaucratic.”
Booking.com is expected to provide more clarity about the reduction in its workforce within a few weeks.
