Tourism giant Booking is not willing to provide service to the former Selina hotels in Israel, which recently changed owners, and is demanding payment of all past debts of the previous operator as a condition for renewing the advertising.
The new hotel operators are not responsible for the past debts. The attorney for the new owners claims that the blocking is illegal, and is allegedly an abuse of Booking's power. Booking, taking an original approach, claims that from its perspective the debt is associated with the property and not its owner.
Entrepreneurs who rented two properties of the former chain, the Selina Hotel on the Tel Aviv beach, owned by oligarch Roman Abramovich, and a property in Mitzpe Ramon, explained that when they tried to advertise on the popular website they found that they were blocked, and were told that until past debts were paid Booking.com would not advertise them on its platform. The renting companies, M.R. Hotels & Resorts and Beach T.L.V. Tourism Ltd., under the management of Ofer Dabul, are now operating the hotels they rented under a new name - the Saban chain.
The Selina chain collapsed in September, leaving behind huge debts in Israel and abroad, including to Booking.com. After a trustee was appointed, it was purchased by a Singaporean company, which apparently has no interest in operating the subsidiary Selina Israel, and its hotels in Israel returned to their original owners. Some of them will be operated by other companies, such as the Hajj Group, to which some of the hotel properties were mortgaged, and Booking.com's decision could also harm it.
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"The Saban chain began operating the hotels on October 1. After the collapse of Selina, the property owners vacated the hotel and we took their place," said Dabul. "We independently rented the properties from their owners to operate them, under our company. We have no connection to Selina, either direct or indirect. Selina has huge debts with Booking.com. We sought the help of the Hotel Association to intervene in our favor, and it didn't help. If there is a debt for which they will sue the company that collapsed, why are we being punished? Why am I a party to this? It hurts us because many vacationers come through Booking."
Attorney Hila Ackerman, Saban's representative, says that: "It is forbidden to condition the provision of a service on the debt of another legal entity."
Booking responds: "In accordance with our terms of supply, in the event of a change of ownership or operator, all debts are associated with the property and must be settled in full as a condition for reopening the properties on our platform."