What is the hiring process like at Booking.com?

Great benefits Experiments friendly environment Modern campus They have recently improved their hiring process to reduce hire time, the entire process from the first recruiter call to receiving the contract took me less than 2 months, out of which I asked to have 4 weeks to prepare for the interviews.

It seems that there are some difficulties in communication between teams. I had to adjust my start date and even though it was done rather quickly, some teams/systems did not receive the updated information which resulted in some troubles during my pre-start activities. After these problems were found it took a bit more than a week of back and forth with several departments and teams to fix them.

The HR representative was punctual, and the process was smooth and quick.

Not sure why they declined me after the phone interview.

Working as a recruiter at B Booking has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience. The company promotes a collaborative environment, where communication with hiring managers is seamless. Diversity and inclusion are highly prioritized, making the recruitment process both meaningful and impactful. The tools and resources provided are top-notch, which greatly enhances efficiency. Overall, B Booking offers a healthy work-life balance and ample opportunities for professional growth.

While working at B Booking has many positives, there are a few challenges. The high volume of candidates can make the workload overwhelming at times, especially during peak hiring periods. There is occasional pressure to meet tight deadlines, which can lead to stress. Internal processes and approvals sometimes slow down the recruitment cycle. Additionally, navigating cross-departmental collaboration can occasionally be tricky due to differing priorities. Lastly, while the company offers growth opportunities, promotions can sometimes take longer than expected.

The recruitment process was incredibly transparent. My recruiter kept me updated at every stage, and the interviewers were technical but encouraging. Now that I’ve started, the first 7 days have been structured and less overwhelming. A whole day for orientation. pheww.

The internal documentation is vast, so it takes a bit of time to navigate where everything is kept and some are outdated. However internal AI helps mostly. a lot of tools and platforms to learn early on, which can be a bit of a steep learning curve in week one

Working as a recruiter at B Booking has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience. The company promotes a collaborative environment, where communication with hiring managers is seamless. Diversity and inclusion are highly prioritized, making the recruitment process both meaningful and impactful. The tools and resources provided are top-notch, which greatly enhances efficiency. Overall, B Booking offers a healthy work-life balance and ample opportunities for professional growth.

While working at B Booking has many positives, there are a few challenges. The high volume of candidates can make the workload overwhelming at times, especially during peak hiring periods. There is occasional pressure to meet tight deadlines, which can lead to stress. Internal processes and approvals sometimes slow down the recruitment cycle. Additionally, navigating cross-departmental collaboration can occasionally be tricky due to differing priorities. Lastly, while the company offers growth opportunities, promotions can sometimes take longer than expected.

Medical Insurance, lunch vouchers, some colleagues.

If you’re considering joining this company, especially the commercial department, think twice. I’ve never experienced such a toxic and demoralizing work environment. While people in other departments might seem happy, the commercial team is a different story. Expect micromanagement, constant travel, broken systems, and endless KPIs and SLAs. Management within Account Management is a complete disaster. Most team managers lack basic social skills, empathy, or leadership ability. You’re micromanaged to exhaustion, with every minute of your day tracked. The onboarding process doesn’t exist — you get a bunch of links to read and are expected to figure everything out yourself. If it weren’t for a few supportive colleagues, I’d have been completely lost. For a company that prides itself on being “tech-savvy,” the systems are clunky, slow, outdated, and constantly crash. You can report bugs, but don’t expect them to be fixed anytime soon — maybe bring a chair while you wait. The Account Management role is misleading. You’re called an Account Manager, but you have zero autonomy to actually manage anything. Every issue has to go through “ghost departments” that never reply. Partner issues drag on for months, which makes it impossible to do your job properly — yet you’re still expected to hit every target without fail. If you like spending countless hours traveling around the country just to meet arbitrary visit targets, this might be your dream job. But you don’t get to choose your region, so prepare to be three hours from home for most of the week. This was by far the most toxic, demotivating, and poorly managed company I’ve ever worked for. The culture is full of favoritism, micromanagement, and complete disregard for staff wellbeing. Managers get promoted based on who they know, not what they can do. Feedback is ignored, new ideas are dismissed, and morale is on the floor. Many great people have left purely because of the environment — and I don’t blame them. Avoid this place if you value your mental health, your time, or your self-respect.

As a person who joined recently, I was very satisfied with my recruitment process and onboarding. I also appreciate the beautiful office with all its amenities, great benefits, competitive salary and many opportunities to learn and grow.

Hard to understand the responsibilities of different teams, where to report different issues etc as the structure is quite complexed and it changes often

Booking has an excellent international work culture. You get to work from folks from around the world, and that is itself a learning experience. The work-life balance is excellent and their recent policy change for 22-weeks paternal leave is super awesome. Sprint plannings ensure that you're not overloaded, and you can always find time for family and your personal life. Teams work in small sizes so you get to interact with all the stakeholders so that's a very positive side. When you join, their relocation team ensures that your experience is seamless. They put the stress out of concern when you think you're moving to a new country. And don't forget the compensation: it's best in the market! I mean, I've interviewed with FAANG companies and only a very few of them have been able to match my compensation.

Moving up the ladder within company, unless you're a fullstack dev, is difficult. There's barely any innovation, or scope for it, unless you work for a core team that develops one of the inhouse frameworks. After a while, the boredom gets you. With each passing year, you understand how detrimental all of it is for your career. You can learn new tech, but on your own, because most of the times, it won't align with team requirements. Again, unless something falls within the policy, it ain't gonna happen. Policy runs everything here, from people to process.

Clear interview process guidelines Great interview experience Convenient onboarding framework Great place to work (office, benefits, culture)

Interview experience might not be consistent

None to share about this company

Absolutely pathetic hiring. I went through the complete hirings process and recieved and offer letter and gave a written confirmation along with joining date and also provided all the documents for background verification. The about 5 days after the confirmation the HR reached out to me and I was unable to pick the call and returned the call later that day which she did not pick up nor return it. After which I was Assuming that things are going well. Meanwhile I had given my resignation in my former company and was serving notice. 15 days later received an email the my application is rejected. Feel like the whole hiring was botched and HR was least bothered to follow up. Absolutely pathetic