The American company Booking Holdings, which owns the Bookings.com brand, reported a Q1 2020 loss of $699 million, compared with Q1 2019 when the company produced earnings of $765m. The online accommodations platform produced 43 percent fewer nights booked over the period, the result of the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. However, that figure does not reflect the true impact of the crisis because the coronavirus did not really hit until March.
CEO Glenn Vogel said that overnight stays fell 60 percent in March compared to the previous year, and by over 85 percent in April. However, Fogel said that there are signs of recovery in domestic travel. Booking.com has filed to apply for support from the Dutch government to pay its 5,500 workers in the Netherlands. But the company undertook a major share buyback program in 2019 and borrowed $4bn recently on international capital markets.
