The global hotel booking service Hotels.com (part of the Expedia Group) is closing its business in Russia and stops accepting bookings from Russian users staying after March 31, 2022. This was reported by the company’s website.
In addition, a screen from the personal account of one of the Russian clients of the service is published on social networks. Dear Customer, We would like to inform you that from April 1, 2022, we will close all travelers’ accounts related to the Hotels.com website and program in Russia. We are sorry for these unexpected changes and would like to share additional important closure information. as well as what it means to you, “the statement said.
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Currently, the service does not allow you to choose the date of arrival in April this year on the Russian version of the site. When switching to versions for other countries, all dates after April 1 are available for booking, including for Russian hotels (except for the territory of Crimea).
Hotels.com does not explain the reasons for its decision, however, according to Vice President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers Vadim Prasov, this outcome was quite expected, as previously announced the termination of work in Russia and Expedia, part of the service in one holding.
Although Hotels.com does not name a direct reason for restrictions on Russian customers, the most likely reason is the rapid entry into force of the so-called “landing law”, which obliges foreign services with a large number of registered Russian citizens to open their own offices in the country.
“Hotels.com started working in Russia almost at the same time as Booking.com, but it’s clear that the latter has been more successful. It is likely that the turnover and sales of Hotels.com in Russia were not significant enough to continue its presence in our market on new terms. As for hotels, even if you stop working with this service, sales losses will not be significant, “says Vadym Prasov.
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Leonid Pustov, the founder of Travel Startups, agrees that the law on landing could be the last straw for the global service.
“As far as I know, Hotel.com has not been active in attracting Russian audiences for a long time. We can assume that the volume of reservations was small and the deletion of accounts of Russian customers will not affect the schedule of market forces, “he said.
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