Online travel company Booking Holdings is seeing positive outcomes from its latest tech-driven initiatives, according to its second-quarter earnings report.
Booking Holdings Thursday (Aug. 1) reported a 7% year-over-year increase in room nights booked, reaching 287 million for the second quarter. This growth highlights strong demand for travel services and underscores the success of the company’s new technology integrations.
Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel noted the number of nights booked has surged nearly 20% annually over the past two years, reflecting robust progress in meeting customer needs.
“I am proud to report second-quarter results that exceeded the high end of our expectations for room nights and revenue,” Fogel said during the company’s earnings call. “As expected, the travel market has continued to normalize, and we are pleased with the strength of our underlying business.”
Gross travel bookings hit $41.4 billion, up 4% from the previous year, while revenue rose 7%, to $5.9 billion.
Booking Holdings provides online travel and related services in more than 220 countries and territories through five primary consumer-facing brands: Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable. A network of subsidiary brands includes Rocketmiles, Fareharbor, HotelsCombined, Cheapflights and Momondo.
Fogel emphasized the company’s continued focus on its strategic initiatives, including the “connected trip” vision, AI advancements, and expanding the Genius loyalty program. Despite some anticipated deceleration in room night growth for Q3, Booking Holdings remains optimistic about prospects and ongoing improvements in customer experience.
More new customers are coming in through the flight vertical, Fogel noted, “and we’re delivering a better offering for our partners and our travelers. We’re positive about our future.”
Booking Holdings is advancing its “connected trip” vision by integrating accommodations, flights, rental cars and attractions into a single platform, aiming to streamline the booking process and enhance the customer experience. The company is also advancing its use of artificial intelligence (AI) with new tools like a trip planner and travel assistant and exploring generative AI to improve self-service capabilities and customer support.
The feature is showing promising results. The company reports significant growth in both new and returning travelers, highlighting the success of this integrated approach designed to streamline travel planning and enhance user engagement.
Additionally, Booking Holdings is expanding its Genius loyalty program to cover not just accommodations, but also rental cars, flights and attractions to elevate customer loyalty and engagement across its services.
“We’re advancing our connected trip vision, continuing to develop AI capabilities and enhancing our Genius loyalty program,” CFO Ewout Steenbergen said. “We also increased our spend on social media in a disciplined manner, reaching platforms our travelers are actively using. It’s a very attractive channel for us now, and it’s really important to highlight the success we’re gaining there.”
Steenbergen noted many loyalty program members are moving into the second and third levels and represent 30% of active travelers. “We’ll continue to explore opportunities in our Genius loyalty program to deliver more benefits to our travelers.”
The company is also turning to GenAI to support live agents by enhancing information access and documentation.
“We continue to take steps to make the experience easier, more personal, and more enjoyable,” Fogel noted. “We have always envisioned AI at the center of this vision. We will work to further incorporate this technology into our platform.”
Regarding alternative accommodations, Booking Holdings offers a wide range of options beyond traditional hotel stays. This includes vacation rentals, furnished apartments, budget hostels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, and unique stays like treehouses and houseboats, luxury villas and farm stays.
“We started from behind and we’ve done a really good job of catching up,” Fogel said. “We don’t try and steer them. We want them to have the best tools they need. I care that they get what they want and then come back.”
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