Online travel & related services company
Booking Holdings Inc. is an American travel technology company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines including namesake and flagship Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, Kayak.com,
Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com, Momondo, and OpenTable. It operates websites in about 40 languages and 200 countries.
The company ranked 340th on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.[3]
History
In 1997, Jay S. Walker founded the company in Stamford, Connecticut, which launched Priceline.com, an online travel site, that used a Name Your Own Price bidding model.[4]
In 1999, the company became a public company via an initial public offering, making Walker, who owned a 35% stake in the company, a multi-billionaire.[5][4]
The company experimented with selling other products and services such as groceries, gasoline, home mortgages, and cars, but these offerings were discontinued in 2000.[6][7]
On April 1, 2014, the name of the company was changed from priceline.com Incorporated to The Priceline Group Inc.[2]
In July 2017, the company acquired the Momondo Group.[8]
In August 2017, KAYAK acquired the assets of Mundi, a Brazilian metasearch company.[9][10]
On February 21, 2018, the name of the company was changed from The Priceline Group Inc. to Booking Holdings.[11][12] On February 27, 2018, the company changed its ticker symbol from "PCLN" to "BKNG".
In 2021, Booking Holdings announced its intention to acquire Etraveli Group AB, the operator of the website GoToGate, and hotel distributor Getaroom, for €1.63 billion.[13] The Government of the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority has launched an enquiry into the acquisition, and as of November 2022, Booking Holdings is continuing to defend its proposed acquisition.[14][15]
Management and finances
CEOs
Jeffery H. Boyd was named chief executive officer in 2002 and remained in that role until becoming chairman of the board for Booking Holdings in 2013.[16]
Effective January 1, 2014, Darren Huston was named chief executive officer of the company, replacing Jeff Boyd.[17] On April 28, 2016, Huston was forced to resign following an undisclosed personal relationship with an employee, and Boyd was named interim CEO.[18]
Effective January 1, 2017, Glenn D. Fogel was named chief executive officer and president.[19]
Revenue sources and statistics
In 2017, 89% of its gross profit was made outside the United States– most of which came from Booking.com.[2][20]
In 2022, consumers booked 896 million room nights of accommodation, 62 million rental car days, and 23 million airplane tickets using websites owned by Booking Holdings.[2]: 47
In 2017, 93.4% of revenues were derived from commissions and 6.6% of revenues were derived from advertising.[2]
US$17.09 billion (2022)
US$2.782 billion (2022)