There were 3 rounds- 1 introductory and 2 technical rounds. After these rounds, the recruiter called me and informed me that I have cleared all the 3 rounds and have received positive feedback from the team. Also, my final round will be organized at the Booking office. However, soon after, the recruiter went non-responsive. I kept on following up about the next steps, and the interview date, but didn't receive any response. Finally, after following up for a month with the recruiter I finally reached out to the hiring manager directly on Linkedin. Next day I received below response from the recruiter:
"Before a month we were organizing your application to the marketing analyst position here at Booking.
I'm afraid that in December we were able to identify a candidate that was suitable for the role who we will be moving forward with, so sadly the position has been filled."
Post this, I requested for detailed feedback about why I was dropped even after performing well, but I haven't received any response yet.
Also, it seems, the position is still open.
This is highly unprofessional behavior from Booking and their recruitment team. I can understand they could have identified a good candidate, however, there seems to be a clear bias in the process as they could not remove any candidate from the application process after promoting him to the next round.
Such behavior in the recruitment process hints at unethical and opportunistic working culture at Booking.
The entire process of interviewing at Booking is lengthy and exhausting and a lot of hard work goes in from the candidate, however, beware, in spite of all the efforts from the candidate, he could be opportunistically parked for indefinite time or removed without proper feedback.