Booking Sees Resilient Travel Demand, Touts AI-Powered Connected Trip Growth

Travel demand remained resilient in the second quarter, with bookings strengthening from June as Middle East conflict concerns eased. Travelers shifted toward domestic and regional trips rather than abandoning travel, while the U.S. became Booking’s strongest major market. Booking’s Connected Trip strategy and AI initiatives are gaining traction: connected bookings represent a low-double-digit share of transactions and are growing faster than individual bookings. AI is being used for trip coordination, travel planning, customer service and engineering productivity, though large-language-model traffic remains below 1%. The company is pursuing efficiency and shareholder returns, identifying an additional $100 million in savings and reducing customer-service cost per booking by more than 10% year over year. Booking repurchased $7.3 billion of stock in the first half while prioritizing organic investment and selective acquisitions.

Chief Financial Officer Ewout Steenbergen said the company’s second-quarter performance reflected resilient travel demand, with booking trends improving from June after consumers initially delayed plans amid conflict in the Middle East. Speaking at a conference, Steenbergen said travelers became more cautious in March through May but ultimately did not abandon summer trips. Demand strengthened as the direct effects of the Middle East conflict on inbound and outbound travel in the region began to normalize, he said. The remaining effect was more indirect, particularly through oil and jet fuel prices, airline capacity and airfare. Steenbergen said consumers in Europe and Asia shifted toward domestic and intra-regional destinations rather than long-haul or intercontinental travel. However, he said the change represented a shift in destinations rather than a decline in overall demand. “The word that is describing the theme of the quarter was resilience,” Steenbergen said, adding that Booking viewed its second-quarter results as “very solid.”

Steenbergen said the U.S. was Booking’s strongest major travel market during the second quarter, reversing a period in which it had lagged other large regions. He said the company was seeing strength across customer segments, rather than the bifurcated consumer environment seen in prior years. He described Booking’s evolution from a primarily transactional hotel-booking platform into a broader travel marketplace. The company now offers alternative accommodations as well as flights, attractions, rental cars, rideshare and restaurants, he said. About two-thirds of Booking’s traffic now comes directly to its marketplace, according to Steenbergen. The company facilitates payments on a low-70% share of its transactions. Customers are increasingly returning through the Genius loyalty program, he said. Alternative accommodations remain a significant growth opportunity, particularly in the U.S., where Booking’s relative position is smaller than in Europe and Asia, Steenbergen said. The company reported 8% year-over-year growth in listings during the quarter, reaching 9.1 million listings. Booking is working to improve supply, product familiarity and its U.S. market position in alternative accommodations, he said.

Steenbergen said Booking’s Connected Trip strategy—combining components such as flights, accommodations, rental cars and attractions—already represents a l...