Not as good as they make themselves out to be - processes and spreadsheets! - Anonymous employee Booking.com Employee Review

1.0
25 July 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There were some good colleagues from all over the world, offices are nice and it's generally a fun environment. Couldn't complain about the casual dresscode.

Cons

I don't recognise from these reviews how amazing this place is supposed to be. There used to be straight talking, but around the same time the values were launched, the place started becoming political and the transparency which used to be there started disappearing. Some of the treatment I have seen of people has been horrendous and more and more employees who actually know the business are being pushed out. It used to be an innovative place with room for everyone's opinions. This has been swapped for long and tedious processes, meetings about meetings and endless amounts of backstabbing. Not exactly about getting things done. The company covers themselves in choirs and a subsidised cool canteen to make themselves look better than they actually are. It was a better place to work before they tried convincing everyone how amazing they are. If you are willing to never question a manager's decision, say "how high" when a manager says jump and to stick your nose up the backside of managers/directors and play a constant polictical game, you will fit right in. For non-robots, no amount of free fruit and porridge will compensate for how Rentalcars is being managed these days. Unfortunately, there is not much support from the HR department, or the People Team, as they have re-branded themselves as. They do investigations without giving any prior notice or allowing employees to bring a witness. I've seen this happen to several people and it doesn't make them very trustworthy, but just seems like they take part in the political game and expect to be consulted in even the most trivial decisions. I've also know people who have complained about certain things regarding the management, which they pretend to take seriously, but nothing happens. It's not as unique as they think. It's turning into the corporate wafflers they claim not to be. Just look at how many people have left who made it the success it is today. It just seems like a lot of people don't care about the business in the same way they used to.

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Booking.com Response
9y
Hi and thanks for your response. I am clearly disappointed that you feel the way that you do but I welcome your input. As you would expect I completely disagree with the majority of the points that you raise. I do not intend to respond point by point as you clearly have very strong views and I don't think I am going to change them. What I would say is that we are a business that is growing and changing at a rapid rate and change is seen by people in many different ways. You say that you don't recognise the comments made on here but if you track back by date, you will see that there are a number of colleagues who would not recognise the picture that you are painting and that the direction of travel is generally seen as positive. This was also backed up by our recent engagement survey. Are we perfect? No. Are we where we want to be? No. Are we working hard to become a truly amazing place to work? Absolutely. I am sorry that this was not an environment for you but I wish you well for your future career. Thanks Ryan

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Booking.com Response
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Hi, thank you for the wonderful feedback! We're so glad to hear that Booking.com has been a great fit for someone with a startup mindset. Our culture of experimentation and innovation is something we're really proud of, and it's great to know it resonates. We hope you continue to thrive here! The Booking.com team
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