Supporting refugees from Ukraine

In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis faced by the people living there, we’re enabling our partners in certain countries to support refugees by offering them a place to stay for free or at a significantly reduced rate. Of course, Booking.com will waive our commission fee for these reservations. 

We’re grateful for the expertise and advice we’ve received from our partner, UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), to make sure that our support reaches those in need.

Which partners can offer a special rate to refugees from Ukraine?

Partners with properties located in certain countries can offer refugees leaving Ukraine a place to stay for free or at a significantly reduced rate. To do this, you can create a Ukraine Refugee Rate for your property. Of course, Booking.com will waive our commission fee for these reservations.

At the moment, partners in the following countries can create this rate: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The special rate is currently applicable for bookings and stays until 30 September 2022.

Who can book a stay using this rate?

This special rate enables partners to offer people leaving Ukraine a place to stay for free or at a significantly reduced rate. When your guests arrive, we recommend that you ask them for some form of identification document to confirm that the rate was booked by eligible guests.

Please also keep in mind that they are likely to have had to leave their homes with little time to prepare. We therefore recommend that you accept passports, ID cards or any other form of documentation that demonstrates your guests were residing in Ukraine.

You can cancel reservations within reason should you find that this rate wasn’t booked by eligible guests.

Rate details and cancellation policies

Given the incredibly challenging circumstances people leaving Ukraine are facing, you can only use this rate in conjunction with Fully Flexible rates. This allows the people you’re helping to have as much control and flexibility over their booking as possible. They’ll be able to cancel at any time without charges. If you haven’t already set up a Fully Flexible rate for your property, please do this before creating this special rate.

When you create this rate, you can choose to either:

• Offer a discount of between 50% and 99% on your usual rates; or
• Offer accommodation for free. In this case, for technical reasons we’ll display the price of the room or unit as EUR 0.01 (before any taxes and fees), or the equivalent in your local currency, but your guests won’t need to pay anything.

If taxes or other fees apply to the booking based on relevant laws and regulations in your country, you'll need to handle these as you would normally since they're outside of our control. However, we do encourage that you waive any additional booking-related fees, such as cleaning fees.

How the reservation process works

This rate is currently applicable for bookings and stays until 30 September 2022. Last-minute bookings can be made from zero to three days before check-in, and for stays of up to 30 days. This condition is designed to help you avoid overbookings at your property and ensure space for those who need it.

To best support these guests, we encourage you to collect payment (where applicable) during check-in using a pay at property policy. But if that's not possible, we'll support payment options for you. In addition, because you can only use the Ukraine Refugee Rate in conjunction with Fully Flexible rates, these guests will be able to cancel at any time without charges, and there are no no-show fees. Of course, Booking.com will waive our commission fee for these reservations.

Creating this rate

If your property is eligible to create this special rate and you’d like to help offer people leaving Ukraine a place to stay, here’s how to set it up:

1. Log in to the extranet
2. Click on Promotions
3. In the Humanitarian aid section, click on Assist next to Ukraine Refugee Rate
4. Select whether you’d like to offer a percentage discount on your usual rates or to offer accommodation for free
5. If you choose to offer a percentage discount, enter your chosen percentage (between 50% and 99%)
6. Select the rate plans and rooms or units you’d like the rate to apply to
7. Click on Review
8. Check the details you’ve entered and then click on Activate

Cancelling ineligible bookings

In the event that a guest books the Ukraine Refugee Rate but isn’t eligible for it, you’ll need to cancel the reservation. You can do this by sending the guest a cancellation request with a note explaining that you believe the booking was made in error. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service team and they’ll support you with the cancellation process.