Aug 4, 2026 earnings call — Connected Trip, AI and cost savings focused
Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $2.6 billion, up 9% year-over-year and above the high end of guidance.
Revenue $7.4B (est $7.2B) · EPS $2.54 (est $2.43)
Key quotes
"Connected Trip transactions, where travelers booked more than one travel vertical with us for the same trip, grew in the low double-digit range and represented a low double-digit percentage of Booking.com's total transactions."
"During the quarter, we continued advancing AI capabilities across our portfolio, including beginning to roll out testing of Booking.com's new AI-powered discovery experience, which helps travelers in the early inspiration phase of planning a trip."
"we identified additional opportunities, increasing our expected annual run rate savings from approximately $550 million to approximately $650 million."
Analyst Q&A 9
AI impact on bookings and satisfaction
Q (Mark Stephen Mahaney): Analyst asked whether AI (Penny) has improved conversion, book-to-look or customer satisfaction in the 1.5 years since launch.
A: Management said AI effects are real but still very small and they will not share percent gains yet. They are pleased and expect better personalization and resolution with Gen AI, and noted traffic from LLMs is under 1% of room nights and not moving much recently.
"And this is important, it's still very small, and we're not at a stage where we're going to start giving away percentages, numbers, increases in CSAT or anything of that nature." — Glenn Fogel
LLMs, content and e-commerce partnerships
Q (Alex Brignall): Analyst asked how Booking appears inside LLM results and how Google/OpenAI e-commerce efforts have evolved versus expectations.
A: Management said having large, reliable content helps them show up in LLM prompts but referrals from LLMs are low; they continue to work closely with frontier players and are testing things like Google's agentic booking. They emphasized also building direct discovery and personalization on their own brands (Booking, Priceline Penny, Agoda gallery).
"But even more important to me is making sure that we are offering our own opportunities for people to come to us direct." — Glenn Fogel
Why flights and cars diverged from rooms
Q (Justin Post): Analyst asked why air decelerated and rental cars were down while room nights grew, and what that means for Connected Trip.
A: Management said Connected Trip remains important and payments share rising to 73% helps the flywheel. They explained air was hit by reduced airline capacity and higher ticket prices (and Middle East war effects), travelers shifted to domestic/shorter bookings with higher ADRs, and accommodations economics were less affected.
"If you look at global demand, that was clearly impacted by airline capacity and also higher flight ticket prices during the second quarter." — Ewout Steenbergen
Testing AI discovery on Booking.com and Iran impact
Q (Kevin Kopelman): Analyst asked extent of testing, learnings and potential rollout of AI discovery on Booking.com; also asked where Iran impact landed versus prior assumption.
A: Management said the Booking discovery test is very early with no usable data yet but initial impressions are positive for inspiration-to-book convenience; the test is limited and not rolled out to all customers. On Iran/Middle East impact, they said Q2 impact was higher than Q1 with normalization starting in June/July, expect a smaller impact in Q3 but indirect airline effects to continue, and full-year guidance already assumes 7 of 12 months impacted.
"I find it adding convenience, making it easier for people to go through their ideas, their inspiration, working from that all the way through to be doing their booking." — Glenn Fogel
U.S. growth plan and $100m savings detail
Q (Ronald Josey): Analyst asked what the roadmap is to grow in the U.S. (inventory, alternatives, Penny) and where the extra $100 million of savings comes from.
A: Management said U.S. progress comes from improving product, service, inventory, marketing, and local fixes, and they want higher alternative accommodations growth in the U.S. The additional $100 million in savings comes from digging deeper in existing categories, mostly procurement, raising the transformation target to $650 million from $550 million to self-fund strategic initiatives.
"So we are happy because now we raised the overall target to $650 million from $550 million." — Ewout Steenbergen
SEO pressure and AI search effects
Q (Lloyd Walmsley): Analyst asked whether SEO pressure is from AI search or SEM shifts and whether AI is sending more customers directly to hotels.
A: Management said Google display changes including an AI overview likely pressured SEO, but their direct channel (mid-60s) has not decreased and is growing in absolute terms. They do not have evidence that AI is sending many customers straight to hotels and emphasized app and direct usage remain strong.
"So our direct mid-60s hasn't gone down at all." — Glenn Fogel
AI accelerating product development and ROI
Q (Stephen Ju): Analyst asked if AI has sped up product development and experimentation at Booking.
A: Management said AI is improving many parts of the business and speeding development, with positive ROI seen today. AI costs are rising but remain a low single-digit share of tech spend; they use metrics and cost-aware model routing (cheaper models for simple tasks) and track AI cost per merge request, which is coming down.
"We have introduced very specific metrics to measure the benefit of this." — Ewout Steenbergen
B2B consolidation and investment opportunities
Q (Kenneth Gawrelski): Analyst asked what investment opportunities emerge from consolidating B2B operations and how they view growth or share gains.
A: Management said they combined Agoda, Priceline and Booking B2B into one unit to offer a best-in-class platform led by Omri Morgenshtern, aiming to grow the business and be more competitive for large customers. They also warned to be disciplined on incrementality to avoid cannibalizing higher-margin B2C business.
"And that when we go to a potential customer, we can offer a very best-in-class platform." — Glenn Fogel
Which customers B2B will serve
Q (Jed Kelly): Analyst asked whether consolidated B2B will focus more on corporate travel clients or still power leisure-focused brands.
A: Management said the B2B platform will serve anyone who needs inventory and supply, prioritizing bigger players that move the dial (banks, airlines, TMCs) but not neglecting small self-serve customers if efficient. They will allocate resources to areas with the best returns.
"So Jed, it does it for everyone and anyone who needs inventory and supply." — Glenn Fogel