“Football, business, night life”. Booking.com recommends Donbass hotels to the tourists without any mentions about the war
“Sport, business, night life” – that’s how the worlds’ biggest booking network Booking.com advertises Donetsk.
The fact that Donetsk and Lugansk are under control of DNR and LNR terrorist groups hardly affects the content of the Booking.com. It continues to recommend Donbass hotels to the tourists without any mentions about the war, that goes on.
Benefits of some hotel complexes are measured in distance to Donbass-arena, which does not work or to Donetsk Airport, which is ensanguined with the blood of Ukrainian warriors and has been lying in ruins for more than a year.
- Why Booking.com doesn’t warn users about the risks of booking a hotel in areas, that are controlled by heavily armed bandits and where and anti-terrorist operation still goes on?
- Is there such a site policy for every “trouble spot” in the world?
- Why is Booking misleading customers by advertising “football”, “sport”, “business” and even “night life” (!) in occupied Donbass, while a football club “Shakhtar” hasn’t played at its’ Donbass-arena field for more than one and a half years and has been exiled?
Smak Podorozhnyka raised those issues and asked the Booking.com customer support service. There we were redirected to the Media relations department. But after a week we still have no responses from the media relations.
As of today, 11 Donetsk hotels and 2 Lugansk hotels still remain in Booking.com service. There are both budget (from 280 UAH per night) and luxury offers.
Against the backdrop of rampant “Motorola” and “Givi”, the way of presenting the information about a Bukhta Pirativ (eng. Pirate Bay) hotel and its’ name itself at the web-site looks especially ambiguous.
On the walls in the room you can see rifles and pistols.
It is noted, that the hotel is situated in Makiyivka, which is 1 km from a “Continent razvlecheniy” entertainment center and 25 km from Donetsk Airport.
Remarkably, in view of the unstable security and economic situation in the region, almost all hotels, including the most expensive provide the possibility of booking without credit card and offer reservation cancellation without penalties.
We have to admit that evaluation of service in different hotels that their guests leave at the Booking.com is quite high, sometimes even “brilliant“.
Some reviews – for example, about a Donetsk 4-star hotel “Ramada”, mention: “Despite all the problems, they have kept a decent level of service”, “This is the house of peace in the turbulent city …” “Everything is super, shooting is not actually heard“.
Hotel staff is praised for good English.
And the visitor from Russia, Igor (wasn’t it one of “military specialists” whose presence in Donbass Putin finally acknowledged?) says that it is “tight with the wine list” in the hotel, but it has “understandable explanation – war.”
But an anonymous visitor from the Netherlands observes: “There are too many armed men in the hotel…”
Yes, of course, even during the war people need somewhere to sleep when they come to town, captured by Russian-terrorist troops of the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ or ‘Lugansk people’s republic’.
But you will agree, that information about hotels should be given in accordance with the realities, warning travelers about the risks and dangers.
Or at least not to lure people to occupied Donbass with a non-existent “football”. The Dutchman’s comment about “many armed people” was tagged as ‘useful’ by two users.
Booking itself is indifferent to the presence of militants with machine guns in the hotel.
Dmytro Lykhoviy, Smak Podorozhnyka (Taste of Plantago)
Translated by: Dana Lykhoviy
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