Booking Holdings

What does Booking Holdings own?
Booking Holdings owns Booking.com (world's largest online accommodation platform), Priceline (U.S. online travel agency), Agoda (Asian hotel booking), KAYAK (travel metasearch), OpenTable (restaurant reservations), and Rentalcars.com. Booking.com is the company's largest and most important brand.

Is Booking Holdings publicly traded?
Yes, Booking Holdings Inc. trades on NASDAQ under ticker symbol BKNG. The company has no controlling shareholder, with ownership distributed among institutional investors including Vanguard Group and BlackRock. In Q1 2026, the Board approved a 25-to-1 stock split effective April 2, 2026.

What is Booking Holdings' annual revenue?
In FY2025, Booking Holdings reported revenue of $26.9 billion, up 13% year over year. Gross travel bookings were $186.1 billion, up 12%. Adjusted EBITDA was $9.9 billion with a margin of 36.9%. Free cash flow was $9.1 billion.

Who founded Booking Holdings?
Booking Holdings was founded in 1997 by Jay Walker as Priceline.com in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company was renamed Booking Holdings in 2018 to reflect the prominence of Booking.com, which was acquired in 2005 for approximately $133 million and grew to become the world's largest online accommodation platform.

What is Booking.com?
Booking.com is the world's largest online accommodation booking platform, offering more than 28 million listings of hotels, apartments, homes, and other accommodations in more than 220 countries and territories. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and is the dominant brand in European online hotel booking.

What is the Connected Trip?
The Connected Trip is Booking Holdings' strategic vision to integrate all aspects of travel planning and booking across its brands, allowing travelers to plan, book, and manage their entire trip (flights, accommodation, car rental, activities, dining) through a seamless, personalized experience powered by AI and data.

Who is Booking Holdings' CEO?
Glenn Fogel has served as Chief Executive Officer of Booking Holdings since January 2017. Fogel has been with the company since 2000 and led the acquisitions of Booking.com, Agoda, KAYAK, and OpenTable.

Booking Holdings was founded in 1997 by Jay Walker as Priceline.com in Norwalk, Connecticut. Walker's concept was a "name your own price" model for travel, in which consumers would submit a bid for airline tickets or hotel rooms and Priceline would attempt to match the bid with a willing supplier. The model was innovative and generated significant media attention, with William Shatner serving as the company's spokesperson in memorable television commercials.

Priceline.com went public in March 1999 during the dot-com boom, with its stock rising dramatically on its first day of trading. The company's market capitalization briefly exceeded that of major airlines. However, the dot-com bust in 2000-2001 caused Priceline's stock to fall more than 99% from its peak, and the company struggled to find a sustainable business model.

The transformative acquisition came in 2005, when Priceline acquired Booking.com, a Dutch hotel booking platform founded in Amsterdam in 1996, for approximately $133 million. At the time, Booking.com was a small European hotel booking site. Under Priceline's ownership, Booking.com grew explosively, expanding its hotel inventory and geographic coverage to become the world's largest online hotel booking platform.

Priceline continued its acquisition strategy, acquiring Agoda in 2007 (a Bangkok-based hotel booking platform focused on Asian markets), KAYAK in 2012 (a travel metasearch engine that allows users to compare prices across multiple booking sites), and OpenTable in 2014 (a restaurant reservation platform). The company renamed itself Booking Holdings in 2018 to reflect the prominence of Booking.com within its portfolio.

Glenn Fogel became CEO in January 2017, succeeding Darren Huston. Fogel had been with the company since 2000 and had led the acquisitions of Booking.com, Agoda, KAYAK, and OpenTable. Under Fogel's leadership, Booking Holdings has focused on the "Connected Trip" vision, which aims to integrate all aspects of travel planning and booking across the company's brands.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted Booking Holdings' business in 2020, as global travel demand collapsed. The company's gross bookings fell approximately 55% in 2020. Booking Holdings responded by reducing costs and headcount, and the business recovered strongly as travel resumed in 2021 and 2022.

In FY2025, Booking Holdings reported strong results, delivering double-digit revenue growth, expanding Adjusted EBITDA margin by 193 basis points, and accelerating room night growth in every quarter. Gross travel bookings reached $186.1 billion, up 12% year over year, reflecting continued strong travel demand globally.

Booking Holdings has established comprehensive sustainability initiatives focused on carbon neutrality, sustainable travel, and responsible business practices. The company has committed to science-based targets validated by SBTi, aiming to achieve near-zero emissions for its own operations by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2040. The targets include reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 95% and absolute Scope 3 emissions by 50% against a 2019 baseline by 2030, with further reductions through 2040.

Booking Holdings' sustainability strategy encompasses three pillars: Sustainable Operations, More Sustainable Travel, and Sustainable Industry. The company works with accommodation partners to promote environmentally friendly practices and supports travelers in making sustainable travel choices.

The company maintains strong ESG performance and has been recognized as an ESG leader in the travel industry. Data privacy and security represent critical components of Booking Holdings' ethical framework, with comprehensive practices to protect customer data, payment information, and travel preferences.

• Science-Based Targets Initiative Validation: Recognition for climate targets aligned with global climate goals and commitment to net-zero emissions by 2040.
• ESG Leader Recognition: Multiple awards for strong ESG performance and sustainability leadership in the travel industry.
• AI Integration Leadership: Recognition as one of the first travel companies to integrate Generative AI for travel booking automation.
• Connected Trip Vision: Awards for innovative integrated travel planning and booking experience across multiple brands.
• Online Travel Leadership: Recognition as the world's largest online travel company by gross bookings.
• Financial Performance: Recognition for strong FY2025 results with double-digit revenue growth and expanding EBITDA margin.

Booking Holdings and Booking.com have faced regulatory scrutiny in multiple markets related to their market power and practices. European competition authorities have investigated Booking.com's "parity clauses," which required hotels to offer the same or lower prices on Booking.com as on other channels. Booking.com agreed to remove these clauses in several European markets following regulatory pressure. The company's dominant position in European hotel booking continues to attract attention from competition authorities.

The company has faced scrutiny regarding its commission rates, with some hotel associations arguing that Booking.com's commissions are too high and that the platform's market power gives it excessive leverage over hotels.

In 2024, Booking Holdings faced a data breach notification requirement after a cyberattack on a third-party service provider exposed customer data. The company must comply with complex data privacy regulations including GDPR in Europe and various state-level privacy laws in the United States.

Google's expansion into travel search and booking services creates competitive challenges for Booking Holdings' metasearch businesses, particularly KAYAK. Google's dominance in search raises questions about fair competition in the online travel sector.