181–190 of 301 posts
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what about facebook?
Facebook is kinda tame compared to Booking.com. Imagine Facebook if the like counts and comments were all false, and there were things flying across your screen saying "20 people are reading this comment, you should also do it". Then you got Booking.com.
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The same goes for Banks, a.o. Dutch banks. They are a bit more picky though. Domestic and US is fine, Russian and Chinese is not.
This is nonsense. Source: I have been working in the cyber security department of a major Dutch bank.
If not, wouldn't that show deference to US Gov's interests (even indirectly)?
This isn’t surprising to me. I know lots of people who work for this company in the Netherlands, and I’ve heard a lot of inside stories about the questionable business practices that go on there. Starting at the very top, with the fraudulent marketing lies to sell you rooms because there’s only X number of rooms left, which is entirely bogus, and for which the courts have punished them, if I recall. They’re not inter…
For some reason, the hotel business seems pretty shady. My sense from crawling the web is that it's one of the areas that have the most blackhat SEO as well. Straight up linkfarms. This is sheer speculation, but I do think the hotel business is really convenient to get into if you have a questionable side-business and need to launder money. Who is to say if a room was occupied or not that night, if that foreigner who…
Unless you're talking total dumps, which relies on cash business only (and does'nt have a turnover to make money laundering worthwhile) I think you're flat out wrong.
My guess is that reputable hotels take in very little cash (it's actually frowned upon and they will ask for a security deposit). The lion share will be credit card transactions and the rest will be invoices for corporate customers and large travel agents.
Not much scope for money laundering here.
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To play the devil's advocate here - I do the same as you, but last month when I booked a 3 week vacation Booking offered better prices than the hotels themselves. They also didn't pull any stunts like other hotel aggregators do (show you a price and change it when you get to the checkout). I also had a single instance in the past where I wanted to prolong my stay at a hotel, and the hotel clerk told me I'd get a bett…
It’s because booking purchases the rooms wholesale, and typically well in advance of the stay dates. They can offer you a lower price because hotels use them to make their business more predictable.
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To play the devil's advocate here - I do the same as you, but last month when I booked a 3 week vacation Booking offered better prices than the hotels themselves. They also didn't pull any stunts like other hotel aggregators do (show you a price and change it when you get to the checkout). I also had a single instance in the past where I wanted to prolong my stay at a hotel, and the hotel clerk told me I'd get a bett…
> Booking offered better prices than the hotels themselves In this case, you can contact the hotel and ask for a better offer. Works sometimes.
Before any Dutch members get worked up, I'm Dutch.
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For some reason, the hotel business seems pretty shady. My sense from crawling the web is that it's one of the areas that have the most blackhat SEO as well. Straight up linkfarms. This is sheer speculation, but I do think the hotel business is really convenient to get into if you have a questionable side-business and need to launder money. Who is to say if a room was occupied or not that night, if that foreigner who…
> Who is to say if a room was occupied or not that night, if that foreigner who paid in cash really existed. Here in th EU, they usually have a look at your passport. I think it's enforced by law in some places. Government overreach
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Bert Hubert publicized this event a year ago. And he is one of the most influential bloggers in Europe. The problem is muuuuch larger.
For every newspaper article that covers actual US espionage, I can show you ten that speculate on the potential of espionage by Huawei and other Chinese companies. I think we in western europe are kind of embarrased by US surveillance and the fact that we cannot do anything about it. That is why we try to ignore it and not talk about it.
The company's response is very much in line with standard Dutch policy. Unless someone forces you to do something, only do the absolute bare minimum necessary to not go to jail. The common term for this is "zesje" (little six in English), which comes from school and university where it's the bare minimum grade to pass. Anything more than the bare minimum is considered a waste of work. Before any Dutch members get wor…