Booking.com introduced restrictions on work in Crimea

Booking.com reservation service excluded the possibility of booking rooms for relaxing in Crimea, TASS reports. "Unfortunately, at the moment, it is impossible to book residence in the Crimea on our website at the moment on the purpose of rest," the service reports to reserve a hotel room, a hostel or an apartment anywhere in the peninsula.

The reason for the ban was the need to comply with the sanctions of the European Union against Crimea. "Like a Dutch company offering its services from the Netherlands and having a website there, Booking.com adjusted the work of the website and the reservation process to be sure that users who want to book a placement object in Crimea were able to do this, on the condition that their goal is only a business travel," the company explained.

Its representative also added that as an international company, Booking.com does everything possible to ensure compliance with applicable laws.

According to information from real estate owners in the Crimea, their sites on Booking.com are blocked from July 16. In addition, the service has stopped collecting reviews and evaluation of tourists in Crimean objects.

At the same time, however, reservation in the hotels of Crimea marked "I travel at work" is possible in normal mode. It has not yet been possible to get the company's comments whether the restriction of the possibility of reservation by the company's decision is caused by a technical failure.

The Crimean authorities called the Booking.com ban on reservation, as restrictions do not concern business trips, RIA Novosti was told in the press service of the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea.

The Crimean Ministry of resorts and tourism nevertheless recommends that hotels look for alternative sources of promotion: through cooperation with Russian tour operators and travel agents and with online braking systems - residents of Russia.

The press secretary of the Russian Union of Trade, Irina Tyurina, told Interfax that the termination of Booking.com in Crimea will not affect the tourism business. “It mainly affects independent tourists who book objects of accommodation for the rest period on this site. It is worth noting that only one convenient service has stopped working, so travelers will always be able to find an alternative,” the expert explained.

Earlier in Rosturism, he already spoke about the possibility of creating Russian search engines that can compete with Booking.com, noting that this is a business task, not a state.

According to the head of the department, Oleg Safonov, Rosturism is interested in the market for a large service of online domestic development, which could compete with Booking.com, not only in Russia, but also abroad, and thereby give an additional impulse to expand the assortment for tourists, establishing the best combination of price and quality.

In addition, Rosturism admitted that he does not have the authority to ban the use of Booking.com, as well as plans for any regulation of its activities.