Booking.com took a stand against the Russian invasion!
the latest travel company to offer support for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine
From the previous blog post, I wrote about how Airbnb helped refugees fleeing Ukraine from the Russian invasion by offering them temporary housing in neighboring countries to up to 100,000 Ukrainians. So, in this blog post, I will be telling how one of Airbnb’s competitors, an online travel agency booking.com, reacted to this situation.
Not only just home-sharing firm Airbnb but also an online travel agency, Booking.com took a stand against this situation by joining other Western companies in suspending operations in Russia and Belarus over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Booking.com has become the latest travel company to offer support for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. The company helps hotels across countries to provide free or discounted rooms to displaced families.
Booking.com’s Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Fogel, said in his LinkedIn post: “Since the shocking news of the beginnings of war in Ukraine, in addition to supporting our colleagues and rapidly mobilizing donation funds to assist with humanitarian efforts on the ground, our teams have worked diligently to build new tools and resources to offer additional support for refugees who have had to flee their homes in Ukraine amidst this tragedy. Beginning March 21, 2022, Booking.com’s technology is helping our partners offer free and heavily discounted accommodations in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Czechia, Italy, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands to help refugees fleeing Ukraine at this unimaginable time. Through this initiative, we aim to maximize accommodation participation and have as much impact as we can as this devastating war continues.”
This situation needs to make a decision and take action promptly since it can affect brand image and corporate social responsibility. For example, we can see in this post from one of Booking.com’s customers on Booking.com Partner Hub almost a month ago.
Therefore, I believe that the decision of the CEO of booking.com to deal with this crisis would be a good choice to maintain brand image and show how the company is responsible for the community.
