The Booking.com online reservation system has ceased to accept Belarusian bank cards for payment of its services.
According to a Belarusian travel agent’s Instagram post, she encountered this issue a few days ago while trying to book accommodation in Italy for tourists from Minsk. The woman claims to have tried cards from various financial institutions, and initially, she could only make payments using cards from “MTB,” “BSB Bank,” and “Alfa-Bank.” However, payments through these cards are no longer going through.
According to the travel agent, the problem lies in Booking.com transitioning to the American payment system Stripe.
In March 2022, amid the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Booking.com stopped displaying hotels and hostels located in Russia and Belarus. Users cannot search for or book accommodation in Russian and Belarusian cities on the service’s website. However, the search for hotels in other countries remains accessible to residents of Russia and Belarus.
