While I lack direct first-person experience, I've heard some pretty harrowing tales about the state of booking.com's backend over the years from multiple indepe

While I lack direct first-person experience, I've heard some pretty harrowing tales about the state of booking.com's backend over the years from multiple independent sources, which makes me think that "technical reasons" is at least plausible. Also, from a quick search, Booking seems to be doing fine financially.