Moroccan Hotels Clash with Booking.com Over Foreign Currency Commission Payments

Booking.com representatives in Morocco and hotel professionals are expected to hold a meeting on August 2 next to discuss the Dutch group’s decision regarding the payment of commissions in foreign currency and "try to cancel it to preserve the interest of national operators," Lahcen Zelmat, president of the National Federation of the Hotel Industry (FNIH), told the website Le360. Until now, the commissions were paid in dirhams.

The platform justified this decision by a change in the requirements of Bank Al-Maghrib. Information denied by the director of banking supervision, Hiba Zahoui, during a press briefing dedicated to the presentation of the annual report on banking supervision. "Bank Al-Maghrib has not given any particular instructions in this direction. This is a subject that potentially may fall under the government or the Foreign Exchange Office. The central bank is not involved in the payment methods or the currencies chosen for such or such services, it is not within its scope of intervention," she specified.

This decision by the Dutch group has sparked heated controversy. On July 14, the FNIH, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Tourism, Crafts and Social and Solidarity Economy, Fatim-Zahra Ammor, denounced a "unilateral" decision that "harms the interests of national operators". They also called on the supervisory minister to intervene with the head of government or the Minister of Economy and Finance to have Booking.com’s decision canceled.