Booking.com will cut a quarter of its staff

Booking Holding, a global hotel booking giant with a website of the same name, has announced a massive staff reduction - the company is going to lay off a quarter of its 17,000 employees, according to Reuters.

The cuts could be up to 25% of the total workforce, the company said on Tuesday. The statement of the company's CEO Glenn Vogel was sent in video format to Booking Holding employees.

Booking said they would try to keep as many jobs as possible. “Unfortunately, as a result of the crisis, we, like many other travel companies, need to take the extremely difficult step of reducing our global workforce, and this could affect 25% of the global workforce,” management said in a statement.

Booking Holding is not the first company in the segment to announce layoffs amid the pandemic. For example, Airbnb, an accommodation booking service, announced large-scale layoffs back in May - the company was also going to lay off a quarter of its staff - about 1,900 employees.