Booking.com is the only issue: A (nearly) fictional report from Budapest's party district
Translated from Hungarian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
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- A Budapest nightlife district worker describes the challenges of dealing with drunk tourists, including cleaning up vomit and managing difficult guests.
- The worker's primary concern is maintaining a high rating on Booking.com, which directly impacts their income, overriding issues like guest behavior or noise.
- The article highlights the precarious financial situation of service workers who must prioritize guest satisfaction and platform ratings over personal well-being or ethical concerns.
A night porter in Budapest's bustling party district faces a nightly battle with drunk tourists, where cleaning up vomit and managing unruly guests are part of the job. Zoltán, who earns a modest hourly wage, finds himself constantly navigating the consequences of revelers' excesses.
The Australian boss is completely indifferent to who vomited how much, and whether there was carrot in it. He is focused on Booking, and if any of these crazy guests give him a low rating for his four apartments, he can't give Zoltán and his colleagues a generous bonus.
His main concern, however, isn't the mess or the disruption, but the critical Booking.com rating. The Australian owner of the apartments emphasizes maintaining a high score, threatening lower bonuses for staff if guests leave negative reviews. This pressure means Zoltán must tolerate even the most outrageous behavior, including a recent incident where a drunk tourist vomited on a homeless person.
What can a self-respecting night porter do in such a situation? His room for maneuver is limited.
Zoltán's limited options highlight the precarious position of service workers. He can't rely on police for help with drunken tourists, and his colleagues are equally bound by the need to appease guests for the sake of their shared employer and income. The owner's focus remains solely on the Booking.com score, with little regard for the human element or the well-being of those affected by the tourists' actions.
The police patrol will laugh at you if you start whining about drunk tourists.
Ultimately, Zoltán's decisions are driven by financial necessity. He suppresses his own sense of right and wrong, choosing to prioritize the potential for a thick envelope of cash over confronting unacceptable behavior. The article suggests that as long as tourists don't commit crimes and maintain their ratings, service workers like Zoltán are expected to tolerate their disruptive presence.
So, vomiting is not an issue. Drunk tourists are not an issue, aberrant sex fiends are not an issue. Nothing is an issue. Booking is the issue. We have to maintain a 9.7 rating. That's it.
DistantNews Editorial
Originally published by Magyar Nemzet in Hungarian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.
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