Inside Booking.com’s Sleek Budapest Office

Michal
Technology
6 years ago

Booking.com is a popular online platform owned by The Priceline Group, that helps people find the best hotel deals. Recently, Booking.com hired architecture firm DVM Group to design their new offices in Budapest, Hungary.

“The center of the office is a community reception area. The wood-beamed ceilings give a warm, homelike atmosphere to the space. The hanging chairs are suitable for relaxation and rest, and the soft sofa evokes cozy conversations. The backdrop is decorated with a mosaic-like colored Budapest map, and the lockable cabinets are decorated with fine blue-painted motifs. The themes of the small meeting rooms reflect popular Hungarian tourist destinations, such as Hévíz, Tokaj and lake Balaton. Their stylized graphic elements decorate the glass walls, and the walls are covered with full-scale landscape photographs. Clamshell chairs, lampshades and cushions harmonizing with the colors of the photos reinforce the youthful dynamics of the office. The Danube meeting room is decorated by employees’ pictures of their own travels, while the dominant artwork of the Budapest meeting room is a montage of the most popular global destinations of Booking.com. The rigorous functionality of the office space is relaxed by lively modular carpets, colored pinboards and painted wall surfaces. Common meals become a real community event in the cozy kitchen that evoke the atmosphere of the “ruin pubs” of Budapest, thanks to the concrete-like surfaces decorated with playful graphics, and the black ceiling with the engineering and cable trays on display. The floor covering has cement tile inserts from turn of the century houses. Fruit and snacks packed in wooden boxes on the vegetable stalls await those coming to the kitchen to eat, talk or play table football. The rustic wooden surfaces of tables, benches, countertops and wall coverings give warmth and contrast to the dark colors. The vivid chairs and the carbon fiber lightbulbs hanging on textile cords are extravagant accessories of the “vintage” atmosphere,” says DVM Group