Booking Holdings Takes Solitary Path in Online Travel Debate Over Offering Financial Relief to Partners

While Airbnb is issuing $17 million in grants to some super hosts, and Google, Expedia Group, Trip.com Group and Tripadvisor are offering various forms of advertising or marketing credits, loans or financial relief to partners, Booking Holdings is a holdout and isn't mounting a financial recovery effort. Booking Holdings, which includes brands such as Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda, has chosen to forego taking the financial relief route and instead is working on recovery toolkits for partners, sharing data to entice bookings, and is rolling out consumer incentives to generate demand, according to spokeswoman Leslie Cafferty. Cafferty argued that some of these measures can have a longer-term impact than offering partners a one-time payment. Some of these travel industry relief efforts — particularly Airbnb and Google's programs —  have found themselves in the line of fire. Airbnb ironically is the only hospitality-specific program that Skift found that's actually handing out any money. Facebook says it is offering a $100 million program of cash grants and advertising credits for small businesses in or near its operational areas. Applications appear to be mostly available in the United States and Canada to date. Airbnb's Super Host Relief Grants Airbnb has a $17 million grant program for super hosts, but many have complained that the criteria for qualifying have been opaque, and they haven't even received a grant application, let alone any payments. To apply, super hosts must first receive an application from Airbnb. In mid-May, Airbnb stated that it handed out $7.4 million in grants to 4,000 su