- A rental host is claiming that Booking.com hasn't paid him for months, and owes him $63,000.
- Mark Winship said he's even been invoiced for commissions on payments he hasn't received.
- The travel company said a "small number" of its hosts haven't been paid due to "technical issues."
A vacation property host in the UK says travel company Booking.com still owes him around $63,000 after it failed to pay him for customer stays since June.
Mark Winship, 42, who owns serviced houses and apartments in Southampton, Yeovil, and Leicester, said he hasn't been able to pay his staff because of the delays, the BBC reported on Thursday.
The travel site has also been invoicing Winship for its commission fees off payments he hasn't received, he told the outlet, adding that he knows many other hosts were not getting their money either.
"As hosts we have been left completely in the dark. We still don't know if and when we are going to be paid," Winship added, per the BBC.
In a Monday episode of his show, "The Secret Serviced Podcast," Winship said there was still "no prospect of payment at the beginning of this week."
One of Winship's staff, who said on the podcast that she spoke to a representative for Booking.com, told him that they had no word on when the payments would come in.
Winship and his team have since started calling customers to encourage them to book directly with his family-owned business.
"Because nobody knows what's going on, nobody knows if their money is safe," Winship said. "And obviously, if we don't receive the money for their booking, strictly speaking, we shouldn't be giving them access to the property."
Winship added that it was never his intention to "undermine" online travel agents but said that his team is forced to act under "unprecedented circumstances."
Booking.com told the BBC that it was "urgently working to resume payments, which were delayed as a result of a planned system maintenance."
The firm said most of its hosts were notified of the delays in advance, and have since received payment.
However, "in a small number of cases, there have been unforeseen technical issues that are being quickly resolved by our team," it said in its statement to the BBC.
The outlet further reported that several hosts across the UK are still chasing Booking.com for thousands of dollars in payments for property rentals and holiday stays.
Winship and Booking.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.