Booking.com: Accommodation hosts go unpaid by travel firm

Accommodation owners say they have been left out of pocket by online travel firm Booking.com, with one man claiming he is owed about £50,000.

Mark Winship, 42, of Kegworth, Leicestershire, said he had not been paid since June for short-stay rentals.

Another host, Bev Murray, said she was "horribly worried" she would not receive the £2,700 she was owed.

The company blamed "unforeseen technical issues" and said it was urgently working to resume payments.

Mr Winship owns properties in Kegworth, Castle Donington, Derby and the New Forest.

He said thousands of other hosts across the world were also suffering delayed payments.

"I haven't been able to pay any of my staff... it has been extremely challenging for business," he said.

Booking.com takes payment from the customer and then pays the host once it has deducted fees and commission.

In recent weeks, Mr Winship said the site had invoiced him for commission for money he had not yet received.

"It's ridiculous... Booking.com have been impossible with next to no communication," he added.

"As hosts we have been left completely in the dark. We still don't know if and when we are going to be paid."

Mrs Murray, 59, who owns one cottage in Staithes, North Yorkshire, said she had not been paid since June and was owed £2,700.

"It's so stressful; it is eating into my money, which I don't have," she said.

"I had it in writing I would be paid last Friday and that has not happened.

"My payments have been pushed back five times now."

A statement from Booking.com said it was "urgently working to resume payments, which were delayed as a result of a planned system maintenance".

It said that the "majority of our partners have now received payment" but "in a small number of cases, there have been unforeseen technical issues that are being quickly resolved by our team".

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