Booking.com one mission story

Nowadays, social media is part of our daily life. People want to share their everyday experiences with others: they study and work in different cities, they fall in love and relocate to different countries, traveling becomes the normality for leisure and for business, a quiet month in your hometown is an exception. Social media allows us to stay connected with our families and friends; it allows to share our experiences, no matter where we are. Social media also serves as a platform for new opportunities. Businesses advertise new positions and promote their products, employees of the companies re-post and share information with their peers. The best insights for the business of an organization are gained from the inside of that very same organization. Many companies understand this and try to use social media to tap this potential. For global companies with different offices around the world, social media is also an opportunity to connect and engage with current employees. Booking.com is one such international company that uses public Social Media in different ways: it (1) engages with current and future employees by posting the latest news about the company, (2) promotes new positions, (3) engages current employees to share their experiences about the roles, the cities they live and work in, and their experience of relocating to a different country or a new city for a new position, (4) share their passion for traveling.

Booking.com (B.com) is one of the largest Online Travel Agencies in the world. It offers wide selection of different accommodation types across the Globe. There are more than 1 Mln properties on the website in 111,123 destinations in 227 countries. It features 118,900,000 reviews from real guests, which is also a form of social media.  Booking.com guarantees best price for any type of the property, let it be a small room in a mountain chalet or luxury villa. Booking.com services are fee free. These days you can access Booking.com via desktop, tablet, mobile; you can also download their highly rated app. Established in 1996, Booking.com B.V. is part of the Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN) and is truly international, with headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands and almost 200 other offices worldwide. The website is available in more than 40 languages and operates its own in-house 24/7 customer service assisting guests in their native language and ensuring best customer experience by providing exceptional customer service.

In April 2017 Booking.com announced the opening of its first customer call center in Toronto. In the press coverage of the new center Toronto mayor John Tory commented:

Toronto is gaining worldwide recognition for its emerging technology scene, vibrant culture and educated, multicultural talent pool. I’m thrilled that Booking.com will call Toronto home, create hundreds of jobs for our talented residents and contribute to our reputation as a global centre for diversity, innovation and economic growth.

With already over 14 000 dedicated employees in almost 200 offices worldwide and continuing expansion, it is challenge for Booking.com to keep its unique culture. Booking.com supports collaboration and the sharing of experiences between employees. Employees from different offices, cities, countries and even continents meet for trainings, work collaborations and, of course, social events. Social media plays an important role for a large global organizations like Booking.com; it allows its employees to stay connected, to not only be part of a shared work environment but to become friends, to follow each other on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and communicate.

Booking.com’s official accounts on social media, e.g., on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter keep employees from all over the world updated on the latest news about the organization. In addition to internal updates, social media allows current employees to share public posts with their peers and to comment on them. For example, the news about new customer service office in Toronto was re-posted on Linkedin by current employees to attract the attention of a wider audience.

The company also actively involves its current employees to participate in promotion of Booking.com culture and encourages to share their stories. There are many videos posted on Booking.com official social media accounts that can help potential job seekers to understand better roles they are interested in, get an idea of Booking.com work environment. For example, here is  Youtube video in which Booking.com employees living and working in Berlin promote its unique city vibe and office:

 

Another example is of Booking.com e-commerce copywriters team explaining what they do at work:

Lessons for Others

Booking.com business is about travel and company is passionate about it. Booking.com has some incentive campaigns for its employees to encourage them travel the world. Social media is part of Booking.com culture, which allows company and employees to share their moments when they travel. The latest video tells Booking.com one mission story with help of their own employees. Booking.com challenged 14 000 employees to document their year of travel back in 2016. This video tells everything you need to know about travel and how exciting it is. 

There are more ways to use public Social media and involve employees, most probably they are already applied and not mentioned in this post. However, Booking.com is a successful example of involving its employees in day-to-day business strategy on Social media. After checking their official posts and videos it’s very tempting to apply for work there, as well as plan the dream holiday using their services and not postpone it anymore. Many employees comment on Social media how proud they are to be working for Booking.com, which is the best free advertisement. Together Booking.com and its employees promote the brand, internal culture and share their one mission story: passion for what they do.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

---

References