Going in the wrong direction - Software Engineer Booking.com Employee Review

2.0
Jun 12, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company is really keen on providing a lot of learning opportunities, such as free access to Safari books, Linkedin Learning etc. Also, they host tech events frequently and are open to sendings employees to conferences. Moreover, there are a lot of opportunities for people to get promoted and even change career paths.

Cons

The benefits package and most importantly the salary is far below par. People get low salaries and even when they get promoted they get salary increases that are almost an insult. There is a massive wave of employees that leave the company because of financial reasons, but the company refuses to admit it. On the contrary, they ask for people to “talk to their manager” if they are concerned, as if their manager is allowed to give them the salary they deserve. Also, on another topic, the company claims to “Love straight talking”. Well, apparently they don’t love it that much when the “straight talking” is questioning someone from the higher management. I cannot see how a company can improve when they do not listen to our feedback. Speaking of which... Whenever there is a feeling that unpleasant feedback will be given through a channel, they shut it down or heavily moderate it. Recent examples are deleted Sli.do questions or the “dissapeared” My Voice survey.

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Booking.com Response
8y
Hi and thanks for your review and feedback it is appreciated, as contrary to what you may say in your review, we really do take all feedback on board. I’m glad that you are enjoying the learning opportunities and the career progression that you are getting at BookingGo. As you will have noticed, we have been working hard to create a world class learning offering as well as putting in clear career paths and transparent guidelines on how to progress. With regards to salary and benefits package, it is certainly not true that we have a ‘wave of employees’ leaving us, in fact this year turnover across the business and in Engineering in particular is the lowest that it’s ever been. I like to think that this is in large part down to the work we’ve done on development and progression. We regularly benchmark our salaries externally and are confident that our salaries are competitive. If talking to your manager doesn’t feel right (although I would still encourage you to do this) then you can go and catch up with our CTO in one of the monthly open drop in sessions he now holds in The Beach. On your final points, the Your voice survey hasn’t disappeared, we will be running it in July this year. There are chances to ask questions in the Engineering all hands every month, the all colleague update every quarter, on workplace or to your manager or the people team whenever you would like. I believe that on one occasion some questions on Slido were accidentally archived which we acknowledged at the time, however this was a one off. If you have concerns please raise them in any of the forums above, I can assure you that we are not ‘closing our ears to the concerns of our employees’. Ryan.

Explore other reviews about Booking.com

5.0
May 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great, definitely recommend if looking for start up

Cons

No cons all pros only

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Booking.com Response
2w
Hi, thank you for the wonderful feedback! We're so glad to hear that Booking.com has been a great fit for someone with a startup mindset. Our culture of experimentation and innovation is something we're really proud of, and it's great to know it resonates. We hope you continue to thrive here! The Booking.com team
3.0
Jun 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The team had a fun environment.

Cons

You have to deal with tough customers.

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