Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) Business

Item 1.  Business

Our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. We aim to provide consumers with a best-in-class experience with tailored planning, payment, language, and other options seamlessly connecting them with our travel service provider partners. We offer these services through five primary consumer-facing brands: Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, and OpenTable:

We are proud of the meaningful progress we are making on our strategic initiatives as we continue to create more value for our consumers and partners, including:

•achieving record annual room nights in 2025;

•integrating new generative artificial intelligence ("Gen AI") features to enhance the consumer and partner experience and drive efficiencies in our operations;

•continued advancement towards our Connected Trip vision to make planning, booking, and traveling simpler, more personalized, and seamless;

•expanding Booking.com's Genius loyalty program across verticals and continuing to improve loyalty programs across our brands to provide a more personalized experience for consumers and incremental value to partners;

•partnering with leading Gen AI organizations;

•continuing to increase brand awareness and localization in key geographies such as Asia and the U.S.;

•increasing adoption of our payments platform and capabilities;

•growing our alternative accommodations offering;

•executing on our Transformation Program (as defined below) to drive efficiency and help create capacity for reinvestments in our strategic priorities for long-term value creation; and

•broadening our supply and increasing flight and attraction ticket growth at Booking.com and Agoda.

Our common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BKNG." We refer to our company and our subsidiaries and brands collectively as "Booking Holdings," the "Company," "we," "our," or "us."

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Our Business Model

We derive substantially all of our revenues from providing online travel reservation services, which facilitate online travel purchases by travelers from travel service providers (which we generally refer to as "consumers" and "partners," respectively). We also earn revenues from payment facilitation, advertising, restaurant reservation and management services, travel-related insurance offerings, and other services.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, we had revenues of $26.9 billion, which we classify as "merchant" revenues, "agency" revenues, and "advertising and other" revenues.

•Merchant revenues are derived from transactions where we facilitate payments from travelers for the services provided, generally at the time of booking. Merchant revenues include travel reservation commissions and transaction net revenues, which is the amount charged to travelers, including the contra-revenue impact of merchandising, less the amount owed to travel service providers; revenues from facilitation of payments such as credit card processing rebates and customer processing fees; and ancillary fees, including travel-related insurance revenues. The majority of our merchant revenue is from Booking.com's accommodation reservations.

•Agency revenues are derived from travel-related transactions where we do not facilitate payments from travelers for the services provided, and consist almost entirely of travel reservation commissions from Booking.com's accommodation reservations.

•Advertising and other revenues are derived primarily from (a) revenues earned by KAYAK for sending referrals to partners and for advertising placements, (b) revenues earned by OpenTable for its restaurant reservation services and subscription fees for restaurant management services, and (c) revenues earned by our other brands for advertising placements on their platforms.

Our Strategy

We aim to:

•make it easy for people to plan, find, book, pay for, and experience travel;

•provide consumers with comprehensive choices and value, including expanding the range of travel-related products and services available on our platforms;

•create innovative and valuable Gen AI-powered consumer and partner offerings;

•offer platforms, tools, and insights to our partners to drive mutual growth; and

•operate our business sustainably and support more sustainable travel choices by our consumers and partners.

We believe that global travel bookings will generally continue to grow while shifting from traditional offline methods to online channels. We expect to benefit from this growth in travel and the continued shift to online channels as we work to expand our service offerings and increase our presence in key geographies. In particular, we seek to (a) leverage best-in-class technology to provide consumers with a great experience, (b) partner with travel service providers and restaurants to our mutual benefit, (c) operate multiple brands that collaborate with each other, and (d) invest in profitable and sustainable growth.

Deliver value and an excellent experience to our consumers and partners. We endeavor to provide consumers with: (a) personalized and easy-to-use online travel services; (b) a comprehensive selection of travel and payment options; (c) informative and useful content; (d) excellent customer service; and (e) value through competitive prices and loyalty programs.

We are executing against our long-term strategy to create an ideal AI-powered traveler experience, offering our customers relevant options and suggestions at the times and in the language they want them, making trips booked with us seamless, easy, and valuable. We refer to this as the "Connected Trip." The goal of our Connected Trip vision is to offer a differentiated and personalized travel planning, booking, payment, and in-trip experience for each trip, enhanced by a robust loyalty program that provides value to travelers and partners across all trips. In the near term, we are focused on providing consumers the ability to build a complete travel itinerary from AI-powered inspiration and planning to in-trip suggestions for attraction options. We continue to grow our Connected Trip verticals in 2025, including 37% year-over-year flight ticket growth, and about 80% attraction ticket growth off a small base. We believe that the growth of our payments capabilities removes friction across the travel experience and delivers additional value for consumers and partners. We offer consumer-facing Gen AI capabilities across our brands, including trip planners, AI assistants to answer consumer queries, and a price comparison tool. Gen AI has also improved customer service resolution times and customer satisfaction.

We also aim to establish mutually beneficial relationships with our partners. We believe they benefit from participating in our services by increasing their distribution channels, demand, profile and reputation, and inventory utilization in an efficient and cost-effective manner. We offer Gen AI powered tools like Smart Messenger and Auto-Reply to enable partners to engage with guests more efficiently. Partners also benefit from our trusted brands and marketing efforts, expertise in offering an excellent consumer experience, and ability to offer their inventory in markets and to consumers that they may otherwise be unable or unlikely to reach, for instance due to language or payments services we can offer on their behalf.

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Operate multiple brands. Our brands allow us to offer numerous services, appeal to different consumers, pursue distinct marketing and business strategies, encourage experimentation and innovation, and focus on specific markets or geographies. We continue to optimize collaboration among our brands to provide consumers with comprehensive and value-oriented services, share resources and technological innovations, and co-develop new services. We invest to support growth by our brands, whether through increased marketing, geographic expansion, technological innovation, or increased access to travel service offerings.

Invest in profitable and sustainable growth. We seek to operate our business to drive long-term profitability and growth. We have made significant investments in people, technology, marketing, and our travel offerings, particularly towards our strategic initiatives such as the Connected Trip, payments, and in key regions such as Asia and the U.S. In 2025, we continued our investments in Gen AI to accelerate internal productivity and improve the consumer and partner experience. Through our Transformation Program (as defined below) we are driving efficiencies to create capacity to invest in long-term growth. We also regularly evaluate and may pursue potential strategic acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, or investments.

Service Offerings

Booking.com. Booking.com is the world's leading brand for booking online accommodation reservations, based on room nights booked, with operations worldwide and headquarters in the Netherlands. At December 31, 2025, Booking.com offered accommodation reservation services for approximately 4.4 million properties in over 220 countries and territories and in over 40 languages, consisting of approximately 500,000 hotels, motels, and resorts and approximately 3.9 million homes, apartments, and other unique places to stay.

In 2025, Booking.com offered flights in over 55 markets. It also offered in-destination tours and activities, rental car reservation services, and ground transportation services across thousands of locations worldwide.

Priceline. Priceline is a leader in discount travel reservations, primarily in North America, with headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. Priceline offers online accommodation, flight, and rental car reservation services, as well as vacation packages, cruises, activity, and affiliate programs.

Agoda. Agoda is a leading online accommodation reservation service catering primarily to consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, with headquarters in Singapore. Agoda also offers flight, ground transportation, and attractions.

KAYAK. KAYAK, headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, provides online meta-search services that allow consumers to easily search and compare travel itineraries and prices from hundreds of online travel platforms at once. KAYAK offers its services in over 60 countries and territories.

OpenTable. OpenTable is a leading brand for booking online restaurant reservations. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, OpenTable provides online restaurant reservation services to consumers and reservation management services to restaurants, primarily in the United States.

Marketing and Brand Awareness

We have established widely used and recognized e-commerce brands through marketing campaigns and strategic use of performance marketing spend. We invest in marketing and other brand building to preserve and enhance consumer awareness of our brands.

Competition

We compete globally with both online and traditional travel and restaurant reservation and related services. The markets for the services we offer are intensely competitive and constantly evolving. Competing offerings can be launched at a relatively low cost, with the pace of innovation increasing and the cost to do so decreasing as a result of Gen AI. Our current and potential competitors include the largest global technology companies, which have significantly more consumers, consumer data, and resources than we do, and may be able to leverage other aspects of their businesses to compete more effectively with us.

We currently or may in the future compete with companies including:

•online travel, restaurant reservation, and meta-search services;

•large online search, social media, and marketplace companies;

•travel service providers (such as hotels, airlines, and rental car companies);

•companies offering Gen AI-powered assistants and agents, or other AI-powered offerings;

•traditional travel agencies, travel management companies, wholesalers, and tour operators;

•financial services and credit card companies; and

•companies offering software solutions and technology services to travel service providers.

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For more information regarding current and potential competitors and the competitive nature of the markets in which we operate, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors - "Intense competition could reduce our market share and harm our financial performance."

Government Regulation

Our business operates globally and is subject to a wide range and sometimes conflicting set of evolving laws and regulations across multiple jurisdictions including those relating to payments, the digital marketplace, data protection and privacy, competition, consumer protection, and the travel industry (e.g., the EU's Travel Package Directive). We expend significant cost and effort to maintain compliance programs, systems, and controls in response to these requirements and to meet expectations of stakeholders. As we evolve our offerings or as governments implement new or evolving views of laws and regulations, the scope and complexity of compliance will increase. For example, following the European Commission's designation of us as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act ("DMA") and Booking.com as a "Very Large Online Platform" under the Digital Services Act ("DSA"), we became subject to new requirements and scrutiny. Similarly, as we expand our payment offerings, any failure by us to comply with changes in European payment services regulation, including Payments Services Directive 3 and the proposed Payment Services Regulation, could limit our ability to offer certain payment features in the European Union. Violations of laws or regulations could result in fines, penalties, and criminal sanctions against us, our officers or employees, and prohibitions or interruptions on how or where we conduct our business.

For further discussion, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors - "Information Security, Cybersecurity, and Data Privacy Risks" and "Legal, Regulatory, Compliance, and Reputational Risks."

Technology

Our business is supported by multiple systems and platforms designed with an emphasis on scalability, performance, redundancy, and security. We are continually modernizing our technology by building new applications with modern development tools and application programming interfaces, and we increasingly rely upon public cloud infrastructure. Our applications utilize digital certificates and other security technologies to help us conduct secure communications and transactions, as appropriate. The systems infrastructure and web and database servers of our operations are hosted in data centers in Europe, Asia, and North America, and each provides services and support typical of hosted data centers. See Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors - "Information Security, Cybersecurity, and Data Privacy Risks."

Intellectual Property

We rely on intellectual property such as trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets to support our business as well as domain names or other intangible rights or property secured through purchase, licensing, or other agreements with employees, travel service providers, vendors, and other parties. We have filed applications for protection of certain aspects of our intellectual property in the United States and other jurisdictions, and we hold patents in several jurisdictions. See Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors - "We face risks related to our intellectual property."

Seasonality and Other Timing Factors

In 2025, our gross bookings were generally similar in each quarter of the year, with a slightly above-average amount booked in the third quarter and a slightly below-average amount booked in the fourth quarter. We generally recognize our marketing expenses as they are incurred, which is typically in the quarter when the gross bookings for the associated reservations are recognized. However, we would generally recognize revenue from these bookings when the travel begins (at "check-in"), and accommodation check-ins in Europe and North America are generally highest in the third quarter during those regions' peak summer travel season and lowest in the first quarter. As a result of this timing difference between when we record marketing expenses and when we recognize associated revenues, we typically experience our highest level of profitability in the third quarter and our lowest level of profitability in the first quarter. In addition to the typical seasonality effects, our quarterly results and quarterly year-over-year growth rates can be impacted by:

•length of the booking window (the average time between the booking of a travel reservation and when the travel begins), which impacts the relationship between our gross bookings (recognized at the time of booking) and our revenues (recognized at the time of check-in). In 2025, the booking window was generally longer than in 2024 as an increased percentage of bookings were made for travel that was to occur further out from the time of booking;

•the level of acceleration or deceleration in the gross bookings growth rate. For example, our operating margins are typically negatively impacted in the near term from gross bookings and related variable marketing expense growth acceleration, as revenue growth is typically less impacted by accelerating gross bookings growth in the near term. Any such acceleration would positively impact revenue growth in subsequent periods as a portion of the revenue recognized from such gross bookings will occur in future quarters. Conversely, in periods where our gross bookings growth rate substantially decelerates, our operating margins typically benefit; and

•the date on which certain holidays (e.g., Easter or Ramadan) fall.

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Human Capital Resources

Our employees are fundamental to delivering on our mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. Our goal is to attract, develop, and retain highly-skilled talent and to foster opportunities for colleagues to grow and develop their careers. We seek to attract the best and most innovative talent from a wide range of sources to achieve our long-term strategic goals. By cultivating a diverse leadership and workforce that reflects the broad spectrum of people we work with throughout the world, we gain valuable insights from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences that help us understand the needs of our global consumers and partners. We are committed to engaging with our employees across our Company and maintaining a productive workforce that is proud to work for Booking Holdings.

Our Board of Directors and the Talent and Compensation Committee have oversight of our human capital management. As a result of our operating structure with multiple distinct brands, our approach to human capital management can vary by brand.

Workforce

As of December 31, 2025, we employed approximately 24,300 employees, of which approximately 2,900 were based in the United States and approximately 21,400 outside the United States. Approximately 97% of our employees are full-time employees. We also retain independent contractors to support certain functions.

We operate in over 220 countries and territories and in over 40 languages globally, and believe that a diverse workforce operating in an inclusive environment has been a part of our success and will help us achieve our long-term strategic goals. Given the broad geographical nature of our business and workforce, we are committed to creating workplaces that embrace the cultures and practices of our employees and we prohibit unlawful discrimination of any type.

Attraction, Development, and Retention

It is critical that we attract and retain the top talent in our industry. We believe that we offer a rich culture where employees feel empowered to do their best work with opportunities to grow as well as competitive compensation and benefits. We are focused on our employees' engagement and mental well-being, career satisfaction, and development. We offer tailored learning opportunities to enable employees to upskill while at work and drive career conversations between employees and their managers, as well as succession planning.

We measure organizational culture and engagement and regularly connect with our employees through engagement and quick pulse surveys to request feedback, and the results of these efforts are shared with senior management. We view our engagement surveys as an important tool for management to solicit and respond to employee feedback.

Employee Relations

We consider our relations with our employees to be good, and we work collaboratively with relevant works councils, employee representatives, and other labor organizations.

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Company Websites

We maintain websites with the addresses www.bookingholdings.com, www.booking.com, www.priceline.com, www.agoda.com, www.kayak.com, and www.opentable.com, among others. We are not including the information contained on our websites as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available free of charge through the www.bookingholdings.com website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such material with the SEC. These reports and other information are also available, free of charge, at www.sec.gov. In addition, the Company's Code of Conduct is available through the www.bookingholdings.com website and any amendments to or waivers of the Code of Conduct will be disclosed on that website.

We intend to use the Investor Relations page of our website (ir.bookingholdings.com) to disclose material information for purposes of the SEC's Regulation Fair Disclosure. We encourage our investors to monitor this website in addition to our other public announcements and SEC filings as information posted on that page could be deemed to be material information.