This week, Booking.com launched a campaign to incentivize those customers in the U.S who had to cancel their bookings within the country as a result of government travel restrictions related to COVID-19 to book a future stay at the same property, when it is safe to travel again.
Encouraging customers to rebook their original property, Booking.com will offer them a 15% reward after their stay, valid for bookings made until December 31st, 2020 with checkout date until April 30th, 2021. To help further support its accommodation partners, Booking.com is also waiving commissions on reservations made as part of this campaign.
This announcement follows other initiatives designed to support partners throughout this challenging time, and as the world begins to travel again. These initiatives include making it easy to clearly display a property’s COVID-19 precautionary measures on its property page and waiving commission on bookings cancelled, date-changed or replaced with a voucher as a result of government travel restrictions in certain places. The policy will be enacted retroactively, where relevant. Booking.com has also introduced a tool to make it easier for partners to increase the flexibility of their policies and is promoting these to help properties benefit from customers seeking flexibility in uncertain times.
“All of us in travel share one common interest: for the travel industry to survive this crisis,” said Arjan Dijk, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Booking.com. “We’re working tirelessly to bring business back to our partners, inspire travelers and reward them for supporting local businesses so that, when the time is right, we can continue to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.”
While travel might be on pause for many in these unprecedented times, with these initiatives Booking.com hopes to make it easier for consumers across the U.S to directly support their favorite local accommodations and for partners to capture future business, when it is safe for travelers to begin exploring the world once again.