The troubled Booking.com has announced it will not participate in a second round of government support by subscribing to the NOW 2.0 support measures. Now that the first emergency package has expired, the road is clear for Booking to announce a massive layoff round. Employees meanwhile join a union since it company is going through the biggest crisis. Since its inception, the company has seen bookings drop 85 percent last month. 

"By asking for support from certain governments, we bought time," Pisano wrote in a message on Booking's intranet. "Although we are very grateful for the help, the aid does not solve the problems in the longer term."

If Booking had signed up for an extension of the NOW scheme, the company would have been faced with new requirements. One of these new requirements is that companies that receive government support after June 1 should not distribute profits to shareholders, pay bonuses or buy back their own shares. The works council and Booking.com are discussing what a social plan, which should steer the departure of employees in the right direction, will look like. 

In October last year launched Booking.com, one of the largest digital travel platforms in the world, an on-demand taxi service in partnership with Grab. This gives users of the Booking.com app access to the largest driver service in 8 countries in Southeast Asia.

Booking.com was founded in Amsterdam in 1996 and has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest e-commerce companies in the travel industry in the world. Booking.com is part of Booking Holdings Inc. , and has more than 17.500 employees, in more than 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide.

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