Booking Holdings: how the business works

• Booking.com (about 4.4 million properties)

  The largest brand, based in the Netherlands. At Dec 31, 2025 it listed about 500,000 hotels and 3.9 million homes, apartments and other places to stay, in over 220 countries and territories. It also sells flights in over 55 markets, activities and rental cars.

• Priceline

  Based in Norwalk, Connecticut. Discount travel, mainly in North America: hotel stays, flights, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises.

• Agoda

  Based in Singapore. Books places to stay mainly for travelers in Asia-Pacific, plus flights, ground transport and attractions.

• KAYAK

  A travel search site in over 60 countries and territories that compares prices from hundreds of travel sites at once. It earns fees for sending travelers to them, and ad income.

• OpenTable

  Restaurant reservations for diners and reservation management services for restaurants, mainly in the U.S. Restaurants pay reservation and subscription fees.

1. 1Booking recorded $26.9 billion of revenue in FY2025, plus $1.1 billion of interest, dividends and investment gains.
2. 2Marketing took $8.2 billion: search-engine ads, payments to affiliates and meta-search sites, and brand advertising.
3. 3Sales and other costs, such as payment processing and customer service, took $3.5 billion, and staff took $3.4 billion.
4. 4Technology, admin, depreciation, a $457 million KAYAK write-down and restructuring took $3.1 billion, leaving $8.8 billion of operating income.
5. 5Interest, currency losses on euro debt and tax took $4.6 billion, leaving $5.4 billion of net income.

• Places to stay

  Booking.com listed about 4.4 million properties at Dec 31, 2025, up from about 4.0 million a year earlier. About 3.9 million were homes, apartments and other alternative accommodations.

• Traffic from search engines and other sites

  Marketing cost $8.2 billion in FY2025. The 10-K says performance marketing costs vary because they depend on others' spending in the same channels.

• A payments system

  Merchant bookings, where Booking handles the payment, were 70% of gross bookings in FY2025, up from 63% in FY2024. They bring payment fees and also processing costs.

• People and technology

  About 24,300 employees at Dec 31, 2025, about 21,400 of them outside the U.S. Information technology cost $908 million in FY2025.

• Alphabet (Google)

  NASDAQ: GOOGL

  Named in the 10-K: Google links travel search to its search engine and has built travel into Google Maps and Gemini. The 10-K also says a significant portion of Booking's traffic comes from Google and other search engines.

• Airbnb

  NASDAQ: ABNB

  Named in the 10-K as competing directly with Booking's accommodations business in homes and other alternative stays.

• Expedia (Vrbo)

  The 10-K names Vrbo, owned by Expedia, as competing directly with Booking's accommodations business.

• Compare: Airbnb vs Booking Holdings  →

• Room nights

  Mixed

  +6.7%, Q3 FY2026

  Room nights grew 6.7% in Q3 FY2026, above the 3% to 5% Booking guided in August. Its Q4 FY2026 outlook is 1% to 3%, citing Middle East disruption and higher airfares.

  Status: Mixed, partly on track.

• Handling payments (merchant)

  Working

  About 75% of gross bookings, Q3 FY2026

  Merchant bookings were about 75% of gross bookings in Q3 FY2026, up 3 points from a year earlier. Merchant revenue rose from $3.7 billion in FY2021 to $17.8 billion in FY2025.

  Status: Working, on track against what the company said.

• Homes and apartments

  Working

  About 37% of Booking.com room nights, Q3 FY2026

  Management said alternative accommodation room nights rose 7% in Q3 FY2026 and listings rose 9%. The share was about 36% in FY2025.

  Status: Working, on track against what the company said.

• Flights and the Connected Trip

  Working

  68 million flight tickets, FY2025

  Flight tickets rose from 49 million in FY2024 to 68 million in FY2025. Management said trips linking more than one service rose almost 20% in Q3 FY2026.

  Status: Working, on track against what the company said.

• Transformation Program savings

  Working

  $650M run-rate target for 2027

  Booking said on Nov 3, 2026 it is on track for $650 million of annual run-rate savings in 2027. It realized about $250 million in FY2025.

  Status: Working, on track against what the company said.

• AI travel products

  Early

  Under 1% of Booking.com room nights

  Management said on Nov 3, 2026 that referrals from AI chat tools (LLMs) had accelerated over the last several weeks but still accounted for significantly less than 1% of Booking.com room nights. It launched two AI-based products in September and October 2026.

  Status: Early, too early to judge.

Status compares progress with what the company itself said it would do: Working = on track against what the company said; Mixed = partly on track; Behind = behind the company's own plan; New = recently announced; Early = too early to judge.

• Official (GAAP): Revenue, FY2025

  $26.9B

  Company's own measure: Gross bookings, FY2025

  $186.1B

  Booking's measure of the total dollar value of travel booked through Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda, generally including taxes and fees, net of cancellations. It is not Booking's revenue.

• Official (GAAP)

  No official figure measures this; it is the company's own operating measure.

  Company's own measure: Room nights booked, FY2025

  1,235 million

  Up 8.0% from 1,144 million in FY2024. Q3 FY2026 room nights were 345 million, up 6.7%.

• Official (GAAP): Revenue, Q3 FY2026

  $8.9B

  Company's own measure: Adjusted revenue, Q3 FY2026

  $9.8B

  Adds back the $900 million revenue reduction for the FTC matter at Priceline. Adjusted revenue rose 8.7%; GAAP revenue fell 1.3%.

• Official (GAAP): Operating income, FY2025

  $8.8B

  Company's own measure: Adjusted EBITDA, FY2025

  $9.9B

  Adds back depreciation and amortization, the $457 million KAYAK write-down, transformation costs and some tax and legal items. Stock-based pay (what this means)Stock-based payPay given as shares instead of cash, which spreads ownership more thinly. Learn more stays in as a cost.

• Official (GAAP): Operating income, Q3 FY2026

  $3.4B

  Company's own measure: Adjusted EBITDA, Q3 FY2026

  $4.6B

  Same definition, also leaving out the $900 million revenue reduction and $100 million accrual for the FTC matter.

• Official (GAAP): Diluted EPS, FY2025

  $6.62

  Company's own measure: Adjusted EPS, FY2025

  $9.12

  Filed as $228.06 and $165.57 before the split; both ÷ 25 (Cityfort calculation from the FY2025 10-K and the Q4 FY2025 earnings release). It also leaves out amortization of acquired intangibles and currency swings on euro debt.

• Official (GAAP): Diluted EPS, Q3 FY2026

  $3.61

  Company's own measure: Adjusted EPS, Q3 FY2026

  $4.66

  Same definition, after the split.

These are the company's own measures, defined by the company. They are not comparable across companies, and they are not added together. Each sits beside the nearest official (GAAP) figure.

Learn: Non-GAAP measures: what a company's "adjusted" numbers leave out · Stock-based compensation and dilution: pay that becomes shares

• Net debt is debt at carrying value ($20,061 million) minus cash and cash equivalents ($15,814 million) and long-term investments ($435 million) at Sep 30, 2026 (Cityfort calculation from the Q3 FY2026 earnings release balance sheet). On the same basis it was $951 million at Dec 31, 2025 (Cityfort calculation from the same balance sheet).
• Stockholders' equity was negative $10.4 billion at Sep 30, 2026 because of buybacks, not losses: treasury stock was $64.2 billion and retained earnings $45.4 billion. Debt-to-equity is therefore not shown.
• Cash includes money collected from travelers before their stays. Deferred merchant bookings, mostly owed to properties, were $6.45 billion at Sep 30, 2026.
• Most debt is unsecured senior notes, many in euros. In May 2026 Booking sold €1.9 billion and $750 million of notes; euro amounts are not converted here. A $2 billion revolving credit line was undrawn at Dec 31, 2025.
• In FY2025 operating income covered interest expense 5.5 times ($8,825 million ÷ $1,617 million; Cityfort calculation from the FY2025 10-K).

Officers and directors (as a group), shares

0.2%

From the company's proxy statement (DEF 14A), later Schedule 13G filings and the share counts on its latest annual or quarterly report. Each holder row shows the date of its own filing.

Learn: How to read a proxy statement (DEF 14A): Nvidia's 2026 proxy · Form 4 insider filings: who files, the codes and the footnotes

Auditor

Deloitte & Touche LLP, since 1997

Auditor changes

None in the period covered

Audit qualifications

None reported

Related-party dealings

Booking's 2026 proxy says the Audit Committee reviews related-person transactions over $120,000, and its related-person section lists no such transactions.

Credit rating

Moody's and S&P (ratings of Booking's senior notes, as stated in its May 2026 pricing term sheets) A3 (Moody's) / A- (S&P) (outlook not stated in the term sheets), May 6, 2026

A credit rating describes the company's ability to repay debt. It is not a rating of the share.

Share price

$168.72

Market value (market cap)

$125.5B

P/E

18.2×

Source: BKNG historical prices, Oct 20 to Nov 5, 2026; Form 10-Q, Q3 2026 (quarter ended Sep 30, 2026); Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings release (8-K Exhibit 99.1) and 3 more