Bud Finlaw Net Worth 2026: BookIt.com Founder

No reputable outlet has published a net worth for Arthur Paul "Bud" Finlaw, the founder and CEO of the online travel agency BookIt.com. The $8 million figure this page used to show had no source and has been removed. His business story has two halves: BookIt grew from a 2000 start-up into a Panama City Beach, Florida, employer of more than 350 people, and then in March 2020, as the pandemic hit, it suspended operations and stopped paying resorts for guests, leaving many travelers stranded.

What is Bud Finlaw's net worth?

There is no estimate from Forbes, Bloomberg, Celebrity Net Worth or a major newspaper, and BookIt.com was privately owned, so its revenue and his earnings were never published. Given the company's collapse in 2020 and the refund claims that followed, any figure based on its earlier size would be unreliable. We give none.

Bud Finlaw yearly earnings, monthly income and salary

The old page said he earned $400,000 a year, $34,000 a month and $1,200 a day. No source was given and none exists that we could find. It also said he started at BookIt and "worked his way up to become the owner"; in fact he founded it. We have removed the income table.

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How BookIt.com grew

In 2010 PCBDaily described BookIt as a fast-growing local technology employer that ran its own custom-built booking website and sold mostly Caribbean and Florida trips. In 2014 Nearshore Americas reported that Teleperformance would run BookIt's Jamaica call center, starting with 60 agents and planning to add more than 150. Finlaw said the company had looked at several locations before choosing Jamaica.

The 2010 move gave BookIt a training room for about 30 new hires at a time, up from six, with two to three weeks of training on the same phones and computers agents used on the job. Roughly half of the call center staff handled customer service and half took bookings, and the site was hosted in two out-of-state data centers, including one in Dallas, for redundancy.

The 2020 shutdown

On March 17, 2020, Finlaw wrote to hotel partners that cancellations had overwhelmed new sales since the start of the pandemic. Because BookIt had sold only all-inclusive resort packages for the past three and a half years, he said, it had nothing to sell. He told partners the company would suspend regular operations, reduce its team by about 85 percent, and would not pay for arriving guests who did not cancel. The Points Guy published the letter along with reports from travelers who were asked by resorts to pay again for rooms they had already paid BookIt for.

Local station WMBB reported customers who said they had paid BookIt thousands of dollars and then had to pay hotels directly. In July 2020 WMBB reported that BookIt had received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan of $1 million to $2 million. The company had employed 168 people before the shutdown, government records showed. Its interim finance chief said about 35 staff were still working, mainly on refunds, and that 70 percent of displaced travelers had been refunded by then.

Massachusetts settlement

In December 2020 Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced that BookIt and Finlaw would pay $551,835 to 539 Massachusetts consumers for canceled trips, USA Today reported. The state had sued in June 2020 over alleged unfair and deceptive practices. BookIt admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. USA Today reported that consumers in other states were still seeking refunds and that complaints had been filed with federal agencies and several states, but we found no report of a court finding against Finlaw personally. The Panama City Beach Police Department was still collecting complaints about the company at the time, and a Facebook group of more than 2,500 people shared tips on getting refunds from card issuers and airlines. The company told customers it had begun sending restitution request letters that fall.

Personal life

Finlaw is based in the Panama City Beach area. The old page named his wife as "Abbey" and described his schooling, childhood, age, height and weight. None of that was sourced, and we have removed it. His full name, Arthur Paul Finlaw, appears in the Massachusetts settlement coverage.

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How this page was checked

Company history comes from PCBDaily, Nearshore Americas and PhocusWire. The 2020 events come from Finlaw's own letter as published by The Points Guy, WMBB and USA Today. Legal matters are described as reported, including that BookIt admitted no wrongdoing. No reputable source gives his net worth.