Wall Street expects Booking Holdings to post $7.2 billion in Q2 revenue on the back of 17.5% average commissions and a merchant model that now controls 61% of total revenue. If you're an independent operator watching your cost of acquisition climb every quarter, this earnings call isn't about their stock price... it's about your margins.
Booking just posted $5.53 billion in Q1 revenue, up 16% year-over-year, and immediately spent $3.6 billion buying back its own stock. If you're an independent hotelier wondering where your commission dollars go, now you know.
Booking Holdings just posted a year where room nights grew 8%, free cash flow hit $9.1 billion, and they're plowing $700 million into AI and loyalty to make sure your guests keep booking through them. The question every operator should be asking isn't whether Booking had a good year... it's how much of that year came out of your margin.
