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Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

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Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#161

Post by donmcronald »

speeder wrote: post #46
mminer237 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does inflation help the rich? Doesn't that devalue their net worth?

high inflation but not enough to trigger hyperinflation instead lead to quickly rising asset prices, like stocks, land, and so on. Also rich people can sometimes take loans with interest lower than inflation, this is basically free money.

> Also rich people can sometimes take loans with interest lower than inflation, this is basically free money.

In Canada you can borrow well below 2% and housing prices in hot markets have been going up well over 10% YoY with a lot of predictions of 20%+ this year.

Free money indeed. You just need $1 million+ to play the game.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#162

Post by CyberDildonics »

ep103 wrote: post #71
trentnix wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

disaster capitalism Taking egregious sums of state aid is crony capitalism and is market manipulation. And wherever you find egregious market manipulation, you'll almost always find government doing the steering.

disaster capitalism is a term coined by Amy Goodman to describe the efforts of the most politically influential to steer the economy towards regular crises, and then take advantage of those crises via crony capitalism

That would not apply here, since this was not a financial crisis or caused by systemic long term effects of direct government action.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#163

Post by jiofih »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #153

I stopped using them around two years ago when I was finally fed up with the increasing amount of dark patterns and gaslighting they did on their site. The reviews also became more and more inflated, I stayed at places with a 8.9 rating that were really shabby and subpar. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I booked a room at a hotel that had great reviews and lovely photographs, only to come to a place th…

The rating goes from 8 to 10 in practice, so 8.9 is like a 5-7 :)

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#164

Post by andrepd »

amelius wrote: post #40
savant_penguin wrote: post #7

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

Imho, the main error is that they gave away the money unconditionally. The fact that the particular government didn't foresee this outcome is quite astonishing.

> The fact that the particular government didn't foresee this outcome is quite astonishing.

Charitable of you to think that this isn't by design.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#165

Post by hutch120 »

savant_penguin wrote: post #7

The real error here is public money being given to private companies. Let them break Fund people, not companies

Government has been sold on the "Hobbes" vision of society and believes an assertion of authority is necessary in order to prevent civil chaos. They will never give money directly to people until this changes. https://issuepedia.org/Hobbes_vs._Rousseau

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#167

Post by freetanga »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #151

Covid has got me thinking about the government’s role in social welfare. Providing social welfare through money allows for people to misallocate the money or skim off the top of the money. For the vast majority of people their covid stimulation money did not go into their pockets, it went to their landlord or their mortgage holder resulting in a massive wealth transfer from public funds to banks and those who own lan…

Five minutes later you have contracts for 5 dollar bananas and 4 dollar apples in every government…

I like the idea but I much rather trust individuals (some of which will misuse funds) than politicians.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#168

Post by inter_netuser »

akomtu wrote: post #144
inter_netuser wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1% loves pandemics.

I remember it was mentioned in the gervais principle book: when an organization approaches its final stage, the top brass collects anything of value and jumps the ship, leaving the clueless staff. These recessions are a lot like this value extraction phase.

Absolutely. Strip the country of assets and flee to a stable jurisdiction.

Wonder where will the American elites flee. Maybe won't need to, guns and all.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#169

Post by hugoromano »

mschuster91 wrote: post #29
hugoromano wrote: post #12

Stop using marketplaces and book directly, these companies have no risks and take 16% to 30% commissions. If consumers start booking directly, recovery from the pandemic will be much faster.

> Stop using marketplaces and book directly Easier said than done if you want to pay with anything else than cash. Or if you want at least a somewhat functioning website where you can see if the venue is actually available and do booking.

I know it is hard, but I have done it and I am a Revenue Manager in hospitality and a tours company. You have to be strong, it is a long process where you get repeat customers and friends of customers. A small loyalty program, best protection if your customers deals directly. one on one relationship but it works.

Re: Booking.com gives €28m in bonuses to three top execs; Took €65m in State aid

#170

Post by woobar »

compscistd wrote: post #50
hugoromano wrote: post #12

Stop using marketplaces and book directly, these companies have no risks and take 16% to 30% commissions. If consumers start booking directly, recovery from the pandemic will be much faster.

Some perspective from someone who has worked in hospitality: Some brands have fought back in creative ways. An essential part of being listed on Booking or Expedia is to agree to never advertise lower prices anywhere else, including your own website. That means you can share a $100/night rate on your own brand's site (with no commission) and you can't tell Booking or Expedia to show rates over $100. Thus, users have…

Hilton does same thing and it is not penalized but Booking.
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