Booking.com Arrives In Toronto, Eh

The first thing you’ll notice about Booking.com’s newly opened Toronto customer call centre – it’s first in Canada, fourth in North America and 16th globally – is that it lacks the frenetic pace that’s characteristic of call centres around the globe.

Now admittedly, it’s just ramping up its operations so it’s not up to its full contingent of the 200 staff that it plans to bring on board in 2017, but nonetheless, the 53,355 square foot customer service facility on three floors at 70 University Avenue in downtown Toronto definitely exudes a calm, cool and comfortable vibe that emphasizes its ‘Downtown/Out of Town’ theme.

Things like a lounge that looks like a cabin in the woods, raccoons – well, artsy images of the little devils – on the walls, meeting rooms decorated with photos taken by Booking.com staffers, a kitchen with a large prep space, cafe/canteen with a mini market, games room, bicycle storage and employee lounge areas and all sorts of additional touches that are designed to make it a nifty place to work.

The Toronto call centre will support Booking.com’s 24/7 service to guests and accommodation partners through a variety of channels that will include incoming calls, emails and messaging.

Today, it has over 7,800 customer service agents around the world and the plan for the Toronto centre is to grow its staff here to 600 in the next four to five years.

Todd Dunlap, managing director, Americas for Booking.com, observed:

“Toronto is one of the world’s largest and most diverse cities, truly embodying the multinational culture that exists at Booking.com.”

Dunlap also pointed out that:

“There is an immense talent pool in Toronto and we are looking forward to continuing to expand our employee base throughout Canada.”

Currently, Booking.com has a range of positions open at its Toronto call centre that include operational management roles, along with front-line customer service executive positions to work with its customers around the world, providing service in a variety of languages that include English, French, Arabic, Mandarin, Brazilian, Portuguese and Russian.

(And those interested can check it out by going to www.workingatbooking.com ).

Dunlap explained, during a tour of the new call centre in Toronto, that new recruits will go through a month of training so they understand both the Booking.com product and software.

He also made it clear that Booking.com empowers its employees because it wants them to address the customer issues and deal with them and he emphasized that Booking.com doesn’t use scripts.

For more, go to http://www.booking.com .

Seen in the photo, from l to r, are Booking.com’s managing director, Americas Todd Dunlap and its regional director, customer service Robert Ahearn during the opening of its new customer call centre in Toronto.