Realising Booking.com’s state-of-the-art global headquarters

Booking.com is one of the world’s largest online travel agencies. When they set out to create a new HQ office – they enlisted our support to guide them. From advisory support in developer negotiations, to developing the building’s programme of requirements and designing the core and shell.

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Project facts

Supporting Booking.com with the build of their first owned office building.
A state-of-the-art HQ campus, exceeding standards in flexibility, air quality and acoustics.
A flexible programme of requirements to realise a pleasant work environment in design and construction.
Project management integrating design teams, monitoring progress and assessing budget.

The initial driver for this project came from Booking.com’s rapid growth and success in recent years. Expanding quickly, they already held several offices across Amsterdam. But this was creating operational challenges – creating silos and making collaboration more difficult. The offices themselves were hidden away from the tourist centres where Booking.com wanted to be seen as active members of their community.

They set out with a question – can we bring all 7,000+ of our employees under one roof?

With existing office space in Amsterdam either limited or unable to meet the needs of their size, their question soon shifted – can we build the office that would bring all our employees under one roof?

This reassessment presented new challenges, and opportunities. Booking.com had never built their own office – they’d always brought their fit-out to an existing space. Here, they would need to create an office flexible enough at its core to adapt to the needs of their current staff, and the staff of the future.

The chance also opened new doors of potential – to elevate and accelerate their sustainable initiatives and create a bespoke space that could serve communities beyond their own staff.

But they would need experience and expertise to make it happen. That’s where we came in.

Creating the vision and setting the standard for a modern workplace

Our role began at the earliest stage as the experience of our Real Estate team helped Booking.com’s own real estate team establish the internal processes and approval lines that would ensure smooth progress and alignment on such a large-scale project. The completed building is the largest single-use building in Western Europe.

Central to our collaboration was the creation of an ambitious, flexible programme of requirements (PoR). It would become the bible of the project – laying out design objectives, constraints and criteria, space requirements, quality levels, flexibility and expandability, and more.

Here, we helped bridge the gaps between the expectations of the developer responsible for the land on which the office would stand; and Booking.com’s desire for the flexibility to make changes to the design. Allowing the final building to be fit for the very latest wants and needs of its staff.

This special collaboration has resulted in a landmark building, showcasing what is possible when an ambitious workplace vision is realised.

René KarremanGlobal Director of Workplace Strategies

An agile workforce, ready to adapt

In developing the programme of requirements, we helped Booking.com understand what they wanted from the building. The company operates within agile frameworks day-to-day, with digital ways of working allowing different teams to interact and work together with speed and adaptability.

We encouraged Booking.com to build on these smart and agile ways of working, using the physical workplace to promote the building of ideas across silos. Despite their digital workflows, being spread across Amsterdam before, Booking.com’s tech environment was separate from their software, or from their marketing.

With a building that encouraged interactions – both deliberate and chance – we knew that Booking.com’s proposition to employees and customers would improve.

What resulted was a flexible, future-ready programme of requirements – ready for the challenges, changes and opportunities of the project that lay ahead. The strength of our collective work in those early stages was proved when the pandemic struck in the midst of the project.

Despite the overhaul of working norms that resulted – we didn’t have to change course drastically at any point in the build or design. Our plans were already flexible – and had been designed with future workplace visions in mind.

The core-and-shell – A healthy environment for collaboration and creation

Following the creation of the programme of requirements, we were appointed to oversee the design by UNStudio and specifications of the building’s core-and-shell. CBRE were appointed to complete the fit out. With all of us working together to ensure everything aligned.

The target was to achieve BREEAM certification for sustainability. The final space would leverage sensors to operate like an eco-system, automatically regulating lighting and temperature based on actual occupancy. More than 800 solar panels would be installed on the roof, while cutting edge thermal energy storage technology would store and recover both hot and cold air deep beneath the ground during the summer and winter, using no gas at all.

Behind the slick user interface, and iconic brand – Booking.com operates like a finely tuned machine. Our job in handling the core and shell was to ensure their office did the same; that behind the stunning architecture, these finer details that would ensure a state-of-the-art build, clicked – from materials and floorings to air and acoustics.

The brief was one of our most challenging. Booking.com’s design had each floor of the building represent a different location – from Greece to Tokyo – with its own material features. We had to ensure all these different elements found their right place in the core-and-shell – while also exceeding standards in air quality and acoustics.

In air flow quality, we’ve achieved 90% fresh air flow through the building via the design of HVAC systems – the standard is 70%. And in acoustics we created a near-silent work floor through meticulous attention to design and construction – ensuring no leaks in the connections between walls and floors (no small task on a building of this size and complexity).

The direct collaboration with good professionals who have helped us enormously with their great dedication and craftsmanship.

Marnix MaliDirector of Real Estate & Workspace Services at Booking.com

Seeing it through to the end

As our core and shell came together with the fit-out from CBRE, Booking.com asked us to advise and oversee the quality and standards of construction. We were well placed, having been there from the earliest stages, developing the programme of requirements from which everything was now flowing.

We made regular site visits to inspect works and monitor construction – reporting back to the project team and advising where needed to overcome obstacles.

The completed building opened in June 2023 and sets a standard for global offices.

Even before the pandemic, the world of work was shifting, with tech companies all competing for the same talent – whether engineers, designers or developers. A healthy, exciting working environment offers a differentiating factor capable of tipping the balance. In the creation of this benchmark office, Booking.com have given themselves the upper hand in acquiring, nurturing and retaining talent.