Booking.com has a hard time delivering payouts to vacation rental hosts* European hosts are hardest hit * This is on top of years of broken promises and instability with their payment infrastructure + They have had tons of technical difficulties, communication fails * They sent this message to hosts this summer… ​​“Payout for reservation check-outs between 28 June – 19 July will be processed by 24th July 2023 in one consolidated payment. Regular payout schedule is expected to resume by 27th July 2023.”“Payout for reservation check-outs between 28 June – 19 July will be processed by 24th July 2023 in one consolidated payment. Regular payout schedule is expected to resume by 27th July 2023.” * Hosts actually voiced their concern because ON the payment date - no payment to be found - then Booking changed their tune and said ok - new date August 4 * A lot of hosts have thousands of dollars stuck in Booking’s financial system. While expenses have to be paid TODAY, booking is making hosts wait until tomorrow… * A huge issue here is that booking.com is not really doing much to fix this - not really showing responsibility and this creates more distrust - hosts who are impacted, do not feel they can rely on the platform * Is booking.com insolvent? Well no, they have a diversified company - this is more of an issue with their financial infrastructure - this is mainly a tech issue more so than a finance one. * Comparison to other platforms: Airbnb and VRBO have generally done better with their payout records * Connect with Me: john@vacationhomehelp.com * This episode is brought to you by the Vacation Rentals with John Newsletter my very own email newsletter every Friday that features 4 bullet points highlighting cool things I found this week in the short term rental world including apps, books, tech, new hacks, tricks, articles, and other weird but interesting short term rental stuff of value that I stumbled upon. It's free and will always be free. You can subscribe here.