Russia's Culture Ministry to Review Booking.com Partial Block Request
Booking.com comes under review by Russia's Culture Ministry following Rostourism's request for partial blocking of the platform
Rostourism submitted its request to gather opinions from relevant professional public associations. Recall that back in April of this year, tour operator "Svoi Turisticheskiy Servis" and specifically Sergey Voytovich already requested the blocking of this service following a new wave of anti-Russian sanctions. Additionally, they proposed blocking other major American travel websites, such as TripAdvisor and Airbnb. In essence, it appears that Russia's hotel market is controlled by the aforementioned American companies.
However, S. Voytovich notes that changes to the website's operations would only affect hotel and accommodation bookings within Russia, while the ability for ordinary Russians to book rooms abroad would remain unimpeded as before. In turn, foreign guests would be able to book hotels and accommodations in the Russian Federation without any restrictions. According to the head of "SvoyTS" tour operator, Booking.com is a legitimate travel company, except it is not legally registered in Russia as a tour operator. Yet in practice, it arranges transfers, sells airline tickets, and hotel rooms. As a result, the Russian Federation loses substantial tax revenue and avoids Rospotrebnadzor oversight regarding consumer complaints.
Meanwhile, approximately 70% of booked hotel rooms in Russia's accommodations belong to Booking.com. However, the Russian Union of Tourism Industry does not support this viewpoint regarding the Booking website. There have been previous complaints about this service when Russian travel agencies filed a corresponding complaint with the Federal Antimonopoly Service. This was because Booking's terms explicitly forbid Russian hotels from setting prices lower than on any other sales channels. Thus, creating the most comfortable conditions for itself. But no violation was detected, since the website is not a monopolist on the market. According to SimilarWeb data, in April 2018 this service ranked 67th among Russian websites by traffic. It received 420 million visitors. Meanwhile, the highest traffic percentage in global rankings comes specifically from Russia, with the United States in second place.
As a result, Booking.com will not be restricted from accessing the territory of the Russian Federation, as the Culture Ministry is categorically opposed to its blocking: "Besides, we have no authority to ban it, nor do we have any plans to regulate its operations on Russian territory. Furthermore, we absolutely dislike the way this issue is being framed," the Ministry responded.