Google plays hardball with pandemic-affected travel site, freezes its ad account
by Mitra Sorrells, PhocusWright
As the coronavirus infiltrated communities around the globe and human movement came to a screeching halt, travel industry companies of all sizes took an abrupt and profound hit.
Bookings and revenue plunged – upwards of 90% in many cases – and travel executives scrambled to find ways to pay their bills without going under.
One of those executives, the CEO of a large online travel search and booking platform founded more than a decade ago who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, says one of the first things he did was to talk to his Google account representatives, since the company had “fairly significant” invoices outstanding from the first quarter of 2020.
He proposed a payment plan for the outstanding debt, and asked Google to continue to keep his accounts live so his company could capture new business as travel resumed.
The response he got from Google was a surprise.
Google plays hardball with pandemic-affected travel site, freezes its ad account
