Pros
Decent pay for the city of Orlando for unskilled work. Free fruit ( apples, orange, banana, and grapes ) readily available at all times. Free coffee, including espresso. Massage chairs in the break room. Quarterly bonuses based on performance and how much your team lead likes you. Fantastically diverse company. You get to talk to people all over the world every day. Your co workers teach you every day, as they are all from different cultures and speak different languages. They are lenient about performance and give a lot of chances - you really have to screw up your performance to get fired for this. As long as it shows you are trying, they will not fire you for performance even if you suck. Free parking on premises, and those that do not have cars qualify for a hefty travel expense bonus. A constantly changing company that listens to its employees most of the time and changes what needs to be fixed most of the time, even if it takes a while. They are constantly trying to engage, whether it be with parties, spirit days, Booking.com swag, or encouraging posts on the work social media. They usually give you cake on your birthday and frequently attempt to lift spirits with pizza or contests ( depending on the team lead ). It is a good, encouraging company that tries its best, but has gotten too big for the attitude it used to have towards employees and is struggling as it has to adapt to the fact its growing too quickly and taking on too many changes. There are ways to move up if you would like to be a Senior Executive, a Team Lead, a Quality Executive, or a Customer Service Manager. This job gave me quite a bit of skills in patience and problem solving. Thinking on your feet is essential here, and they absolutely give you those skills if you work at it here.
Cons
Over the time I've worked here, I watched it go down hill. When I was first hired, we had fab Fridays twice a month where the company gave us free food or gifts. We were able to listen to music while working. Their motto was numbers don't matter as long as the guest is satisfied. They had a yearly meeting in Amsterdam you could be chosen to attend, all expense paid, that everyone worked towards, and if you weren't chosen, there were parties at your office with games, food, and gifts. Before our eyes we watched this all change. The meeting in Amsterdam was discontinued, fab Fridays faded to one Friday a month, and then disappeared altogether. Music was banned, and suddenly it felt every time you turned, someone was pushing numbers. The system of bonus structure changed, making it harder for employees to get a high bonus, if any. You get heavily impacted on your customer satisfaction scores, despite the fact that most of the time, the guests are rating the hotel or the situation, not you. How your lead sees you and how motivated they are to see you get a bonus is how you get one. The PTO system is wack. They give a massive amount of PTO ( a month ), however, they give it to you all at once, and that is all you get. Sick? PTO. Vacation? PTO. Emergency? PTO. You can't ask for days off unpaid, you can't give them doctors note to get unpaid days off, you can't even give shifts away. You can switch to have days off, but that's it. Although PTO is supposed to be used at the employee's discretion, Booking.com forces you to use yours in order to get a day off at all, even when sick. Although they have FMLA after a year, it's nearly impossible to get and constantly denied. It's a broken system that needs to be fixed, as no other company forces hourly employees to take PTO for a day off or does not allow them to opt for unpaid days off. Even when telling them a year in advance about a vacation, if you don't have the PTO for whatever reason, you will not be able to go or will lose your job. Even if you have a doctors note letting them know you physically can not work, if you don't have the PTO, you're either coming in anyway or getting written up. And if you get written up, it lasts forever and never falls off. In the long run there is one thing a prospective employee should remember about this job title - it is a call center. It is also the complaints department. You are going to be yelled at. Screamed at. Blamed. Sometimes Booking.com's system screws up but they will adamantly deny all responsibility and point fingers at hotels that have no idea how our system works, leaving the agent forced to stammer and stutter out excuses to both the guest and the hotel to try to spin blame when we all know really who's fault it is. Guests are angry and they're going to take it out on you. Grab your patience, your softest, most calming voice, and get ready. Quality and coaching is vastly dependent on the Team Lead and the Quality Executive you have. I had several teams during my time, and some quality executives would ding me for things others had told me to do. There was no winning unless you hone yourself to exactly what THAT quality executive wants. The parking is free but lately there have been break ins and a few people's car windows were smashed. My own tire was slashed in the parking lot. They got extra security, but it was like pulling teeth to get it. There are ways to move up, but they are so few and far between that the entire building goes for them when they pop up. Anywhere outside of your building is barely worth hoping for since you'll most likely never get it. All of the good jobs are in Amsterdam. It's a good job for now. If you can't see yourself in a specific position there, it's best to get the skills and the name on your resume and go somewhere that will help you grow and excel into higher positions after a while
