CEO Glenn Fogel shared a progress report on Booking Holdings’ AI endeavors ranging from Priceline‘s Penny and conversational shopping to Booking.com’s implementations in search and self-service and Agoda’s use to boost efficiency.
“In very early testing from a small sample set, we are seeing a noticeable uplift from users who engage with Penny compared to non-Penny users,” Fogel said.
“We’re also looking at other metrics,” said Ewout Steenbergen, EVP and CFO of Booking Holdings. “So it’s not only conversion, although we see there … some very early positive signs. But again, the sample size is still very limited. We’re also looking at faster search, shorter path between search and ultimately booking, lower cancellation rates, positive customer satisfaction, more engagement. So many of those data points are all pointing in a positive direction.”
Among the ventures highlighted, Fogel said Booking.com is introducing AI capabilities to support travelers earlier in the booking journey. These include improved natural language search, discovery features and smart filters, which have been rolled out in accommodations and are now being tested in the cars vertical.
And results have also shown that service flows for complaints and cancellations at Booking.com are reducing customer service contact and boosting self-service adoption, according to Fogel.
“This quarter at Agoda, we saw a double digit year-over-year reduction in customer service costs per booking, driven by AI-assisted automation helping us reduce costs and operate more effectively at scale,” Fogel said.
The updates come as the online travel agency works to keep travelers discovering and shopping on its platform instead of doing so via general AI models.
“It’s very important to protect customers that are coming direct to us,” Steenbergen said. “We want to make sure that they have an experience in our environment that is at least as good as they can get at a generic, horizontal agent.”
The company has also partnered with AI incumbents externally, Fogel reminded listeners, referencing OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Amazon.
“We continue to believe AI-enabled productivity and efficiencies are an area of notable opportunity,” Fogel said.
Stock repurchase program
Booking Holdings also gave an update on its stock repurchase strategy, which an investor previously criticized, warning it could make the company vulnerable should an unexpected downturn occur.
But executives don’t appear to be swayed.
“Our confidence in these initiatives and our future growth profile is reflected in a capital allocation strategy that we’ve employed for well over a decade, including the record $3.6 billion in share repurchases we completed in the first quarter,” Fogel said.
“Since 2014, we have reduced our share account by over 40% even after accounting for the dilutive impact of stock-based compensation by opportunistically investing in this long-term vision through our share buyback program. No one is better positioned than we are to understand what our long-term value can and should be relative to market fluctuations on any given day or quarter.”
The company said it effected a 25-for-one stock split of its common stock earlier this month and declared a cash dividend of $0.42 per share payable on June 30 to stockholders at the close of business.
Q1 2026 financial results
Booking Holdings, which is parent to Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline, Agoda and OpenTable, saw a strong start to 2026 despite headwinds tied to the conflict in the Middle East.
Underlying performance “exceeded expectations” across key metrics, Fogel said, adding the results highlight the resilience of the business.
Fogel said the company stayed focused on factors it could control such as leveraging AI and expanding its global reach.
It recorded 338 million room nights for the first quarter of the year; a 6% rise compared to the same period last year. Gross bookings grew 15% year over year to reach $53.8 billion in Q1.
“We estimate that the Middle East conflict impacted our room night and gross bookings growth by approximately two percentage points,” Fogel said on the call, noting that value accounts for countries in the region that have been directly impacted and those bookers whose travel was affected.
“Excluding this impact, we believe our room nights would have been up by approximately 8%,” Fogel said.
Booking Holdings reported a net income of $1.1 billion for Q1 2026, a 225% increase compared to the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.3 billion for the quarter, up 19% compared to Q1 2025. Revenue totaled $5.5 billion, marking a 16% year-over-year increase.
Marketing expense for Q1 2026 was 3.8% of gross bookings, equal to Q1 2025. Marketing spend was nearly $2.1 billion for the three months ending March 31, up from nearly $1.8 billion during the same period in 2025.
The company said in its second quarter guidance that it is assuming direct and indirect impact from the conflict in the Middle East will endure through June.
This article was originally published on Phocuswire
