Booking.com

Greece's tax administration intends to ask for help from short-term property leasing platforms in order to identify the owners or managers of some 20,000 properties that have not been declared to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) as they need to be in order to be given the necessary property registration number.

Concerns are growing about serious turbulence in Greek tourism after warnings by Thomas Cook and easyJet that the reduced demand for travel services would have consequences on their financial results.

Booking.com does not need to have a travel agency license since it does not operate as one but acts as a "middleman," according to a 63-page report presented by a group of experts to a court in a case in Istanbul involving the online agent and the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB).

Global travel site Booking.com has named a small resort village in southern Albania as one of its top ten "hot spots" for adventurous travellers in 2019.

Its list of the "most stunning spots on the globe" starts with Wadi Rum in Jordan, whose red-sand landscape is likened to Mars and the fabled "Silk Road" city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

Airbnb is playing an increasingly dominant role in the Greek housing market. The owners of more than 126,000 apartments and houses in our southern neighbor rent them through the platform.

It seems that every stone the tax authorities turn over reveals major instances of tax evasion. By checking the declaration of revenues through online travel platform Booking.com, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue discovered that considerable revenues had been concealed by hotels and other forms of tourism accommodation.

The Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), which has paved the way for blocking Booking.com in Turkey, has decided to take legal action against 20 other online reservation and travel portals.

The Greek tax mechanism has planned random checks with the aim of identifying taxpayers with revenues from short-term property rentals through online platforms. Due its current inability to cross-check the data, the tax officers will go undercover posing as guest-clients in a bid to establish whether revenues are declared.

An update of the customs unions agreement with the European Union will be beneficial for ties between Turkey and the EU, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Sept. 27. 

"The update will be the most positive platform for our relations with the EU in upcoming period. I expect no obstacle in this regard," said Zeybekci, speaking at the Istanbul Financial Summit.

Turkey will meet top representatives from Booking.com over an economic and commercial formula which may end a controversy over the website's unfair competition moves, according to a top economy official.