Inside Booking.com: Ousted CEOs, Power Struggles and Local Backlash
Photo Credit: A workplace scene at Booking.com circa 2015. Youtube.com/TechTalksCentral/Booking.com
Skift Take
These journalists pierced the prevailing narratives about what was actually going on behind the scenes at Booking.com.
Beyond the press releases and public appearances by Booking Holdings executives, what was really going on at Booking.com's Amsterdam headquarters behind closed doors – including during monthly Freaky Fridays booze-fests?
Three Dutch investigative journalists with the newspaper NRC tell the story in the 2021 book, "The Machine." Originally published in Dutch, it has received little mention in English-language press and the authors say it is set to be adapted into a fictional TV show on a Dutch public broadcasting channel.
“Booking is one of the few European tech companies that turned into a global success," one of the journalists, Stijn Bronzwaer, told Skift recently. "Everyone is familiar with the website, but no one knows the people and the stories behind this company. We felt it was time to reconstruct this piece of internet history.” The other authors were Merijn Rengers and Joris Kooiman.
The book makes several references to Skift's oral hist
