Q3 2026 Travel Sector Earnings

BKNG:

Matt CostAnalyst, Morgan Stanley

Hi, thanks for taking the question.I am sure you have seen data out there showing that a lot of the commercial activity that is happening on these early agents is skewing towards travel.I guess, to the extent that you are seeing that come to your brands, should we view that as something that is just a convenience for people who are going to book travel already, or is there an aspect here where by removing friction from a very complex purchase process, there may actually be incremental demand that is engendered by these tools?Thank you.

Glenn FogelCEO and Director, Booking Holdings

That is an interesting thing, and we are seeing the data you are mentioning.Lots of people using these personal agents or any form of AI to do travel discovery.It is easy, it is interesting, people like to do travel discovery throughout all the time.It does not end up with a lot of bookings, as Ewout mentioned.The referrals numbers are pretty darn small, and we believe we are getting a good number of the total number out there.What does it mean for us, though?Over time, it may end up being another perhaps significant way that we get business, the way we have gotten business in the past from other people who had a front door of discovery.

It may be making it easier for people, less friction to try and learn what they need to do, so perhaps we end up with things that are actually going to convert at a higher rate.We believe it is important enough that we are coming out with things like Vayo, like Lola, and all our brands coming out with things too, so people can come to us first.Look, what I really want to do is complete our Connected Trip using AI to make it easier, provide more value to the consumer, so that when they are thinking of travel, they are always wanting to come to us first.