Booking.com Reviews

Cons

difficult to grow in the company

Cons

- limited opportunities for career progression

Cons

- For most people the role of customer service guest or partner specialist gets unbearably repetitive and boring after 1 year max. It is definitely '' a must '' to try moving to a different role within the company as soon as possible to remain engaged and stimulated.

- Although it should not be like this, your whole experience in the company will depend on which team leader you get. The way the company is structured gives a lots of power to team leaders over their agents. The danger of this is if you get a nice team leader who is friendly and supportive it is a big plus for your journey in the company but if you get the contrary, you will probably have a hard time there.

- Targets and KPI's are unrealistic, it is almost impossible to reach them all consistently on a monthly basis. Although officially the company used to say '' the customer is at the center of everything we do '' in reality they prioritize quantity (even if job is badly done) above quality. The most frustrating target is CSAT which is judged on surveys customers will receive after their interaction with agents, half of the time if not more, the guest doesn't make any difference between you as an agent, the accommodation and the company so even if you was great with him or her, it is most likely you will still get a bad survey which will affect you to the point of being put on what they called ''performance plan'' this can lead to a formal meeting and warning depending your team leader.

- The system they are using to measure if agents are on target has changed 3 times during my time there. The latest one is some kind of artificial intelligence that no one fully understand including those who made it. So basically if you think the system is wrongly registering your points which is very common, you can't prove it to your team leader.

- There is a very negative atmosphere of complaining in the London office. Lots of agents are there just for the money and hate their jobs. The few people who are genuinely passionate about their jobs and great at it have to be very strong mentally to remain positive.

- The main system agents are using to work changes almost every week and many times without agents being notified in advance which can be stressful. Also bugs are very frequent on this same system.

- Company uses a Facebook at work system called Workplace to create a social life in the office and promote company events or sharing information. It is helpful however this same system gives you sometimes a feeling that you are in a virtual world, it does not really make you feel you are building real relationships with your colleagues and also all those notifications after a while can really distracts you from your core duties.

- For your salary to be interesting, you are forced to work unsociable hours (nights, lates and weekends).

- Progression in the London office is very hard because variety of roles to grow is very limited, unless you are willing to relocate to Amsterdam office where you will get more opportunities. Another issue with progression is that the competition is high because the number of internal vacancies in the London office is very small compared to the number of agents.

- Most of the seniors (older staff trained to help agents on cases) are friendly and supportive but some of them are lacking active listening skills, those one seems not interested at all to help, they rush you on the phone by robotic answers without trying to understand your questions.

- HR is great for simple queries and requests but inefficient and very frustrating when it comes to big issues.

- A/C system is dysfunctional all year long and it has been the case for a long time. The office gets often freezing or boiling inside despite the temperature outside. Lots of people are getting sick because of it but company will not take this into consideration when it comes to apply their sickness policy which used to be getting a warning after 3 instances of absence. Last summer you could see in the office very often agents having to work with blankets over their shoulders and coats during their shifts while it was 30 degrees outside.

Cons

- Its not challenging and the CS role is repetitive
- Opportunities for growth within the company are limited

Cons

Rigid company rules - 3 latenesses a year mean no bonus
Rigid company structure - non flexible career progression

Cons

no meritocracy, many narrow-minded people

Cons

Sometimes the size of the company makes things move slower than anticipated which can cause frustration.

Cons

Hard to achieve targets.

Constant streams of complaints.

Unhelpful and overbearing team leaders.

Cons

The job itself changed dramatically within the last year, being now focused on evaluating hundreds of calls every month, in which recurring issues are rarely addressed when solicited.

Quality Executive performance is measured in a (quote) "Holistic" way, there is little to no objectiveness as to what is not meeting, meeting or exceeding expectations.

The sickness policy of the company can have you receive a verbal warning for feeling ill as little as three separate days within a 12 months rolling period. Lateness is also counted towards sickness instances, needless to say these have nothing to do with each other. Discretion of the Team Leader applies when interpreting this policy, resulting in some employees being held up to completely different standards than others.

Whilst Customer Service Agents are micro-managed to a ridiculous extent, management has little to no control whatsoever.
I have been working to support different team leaders in different teams. I have seen very significant cases of management not acting in a professional manner and reported some, nothing tangible has ever been done. On the contrary, on a couple of cases promotions were given within a month of reporting.

Almost all internal positions given within the last 12 month have been temporary roles. Those who apply for positions have to go though extensive interview and preparations processes, for positions on contracts that last at times three months. When approaching the end of the contractual period, the employee is told if they will be getting an extension or be returned to their old role. Thanks to this process the company can save an amount in pay, and keep all temporary employees on edge, having them fear for their future and work twice as hard.

Cons

Customer/Partner specialists very well pressed to reach unrealistic targets. The job is stressful per se like in other call centres; some agents speaking some languages are most of the time on the phone listening to both realistic and unrealistic complaints(really demotivating task), whereas some others work on the picklist only (which is equally bad for the PSAT/CSAT, KPI related to the quality of the job as it is related to unresolved past cases) and listening to the music.
-Changes of procedures occur continuously.
-Quarterly bonus set to meet expectations only (almost impossible to exceed them).
-Booking Annual Meeting (BAM) in Amsterdam “transformed” (read “cancelled”);
-Many positions (Guest Reviews, CRA etc) disappeared and or fused with other departments within few months, forcing many employees to leave the company;
-contact per hours (the second most important KPI which shows the productivity of the agent) is measured on number of calls received, not any more per single item. Good luck!
- small properties heavily strangled by the rules dictated by the company.
- A lot of Bookers do not know how to use the website to reserve rooms/apartments. Not user friendly at all.

Internal Promotions:

the pre-selection is based on the above-mentioned KPIs. Absences in the past might influence the final verdict. However, it is the grade of connection you have (networking inside and outside the office with the key players) that will give the opportunity to grow professionally inside the company, despite the ridiculous videos prepared in the headquarter want to persuade you that meritocracy is key.

Seniors:

Most of them are not very approachable, they undergo a metamorphosis once they leave their previous job as simple agents.

Team leaders:

Their main duty is to report who complains too much in their own group to their line managers who know how to get rid of them. No leadership skills, no technical knowledge of the software, no knowledge of the easiest procedures (this is especially true for those hired externally). Most of them belong to ONE NATIONALITY.

Customer service managers:

They are in competition among themselves (and the rest of the offices worldwide) they push their team leaders to get from their teams the best KPIs in order to get bonuses.

Also here, only ONE NATIONALITY. Does the obsession of their motto “The right people in the right place at the right time” want to suggest that other nationalities are not good in managing a call centre office??

HR:

They work for Management, despite they hypocritically claim to support agents (which is the majority part of the offices)
and that the internal promotion process is clear and fair.

This department has the courage to send to some of its former employees an email to refund the company some money (the amount varies from €50 to €500 and sometimes more) as they calculated their last payslip incorrectly and blackmail them in case they will not give money back.

Here again, only ONE NATIONALITY.