Booking Holdings puts numbers behind AI assistant performance

Travelers using Booking Holdings’ artificial intelligence (AI) assistants at Priceline and Agoda converted at about twice the rate of non-users, the company said Tuesday.

CFO and EVP Ewout Steenbergen shared the figures during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, adding that Agoda assistant users had average booking values about 20% higher. The company did not disclose what share of visitors use the assistants or the underlying conversion rates.

“These experiences show the difference between recommending a trip and actually enabling someone to book it seamlessly,” president and CEO Glenn Fogel said in prepared remarks.

Despite positive results from its own AI tools, Booking Holdings continues to see limited traffic from external AI platforms. Referrals from large language models (LLMs) have accelerated in recent weeks but still account for significantly less than 1% of Booking.com's room nights, Steenbergen said.

“Organic referrals increased following the release of the latest ChatGPT models, which improved citation rates and drove more traffic to our platforms,” he said. “Paid referrals are also growing as we continue to partner with OpenAI by expanding into additional markets and testing and refining our approach.”

Steenbergen also reported early engagement with Vayo, a recently launched AI travel assistant that helps travelers plan and manage trips. He said users are connecting their email accounts and showing strong conversational engagement.

Booking Holdings launched both Vayo and Lola, a membership-based AI assistant, as standalone startups. The company has said both ventures allow it to test capabilities for potential use across its established brands.

Asked whether newer personal AI agents are generating more referrals than established LLM platforms, Steenbergen said traffic from both remains very small and neither is growing noticeably faster.

Fogel also raised questions about how regulation could affect the adoption of personal AI agents, particularly in Europe, citing rules governing access to personal information and the ability of platforms to combine advertising and commerce.

“I think there's parts of the world where the adoption of these horizontal personal agents may be much slower than is anticipated,” Fogel said.

Q3 2026 financial results

Booking Holdings reported a 1% decline in Q3 revenue to $8.9 billion, reflecting a $900 million revenue reduction related to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation involving Priceline and a B2B affiliate partner.

In its quarterly filing, the company said FTC staff intended to recommend a complaint alleging “unfair or deceptive business practices related to disclosures, fees, customer support and billing practices.” Booking Holdings also recorded a $100 million accrued loss related to the matter and said no settlement has been reached.

Excluding the FTC-related adjustment, revenue increased 9% year over year to $9.8 billion. Adjusted net income rose 8% to $3.5 billion, while adjusted EBITDA increased 9% to $4.6 billion.

Booking Holdings reported 345 million room nights in the third quarter, up 7% year over year, compared with 5% growth in the second quarter. Gross bookings increased 10% to $54.5 billion.

Flight tickets jumped 19% to 21 million, accelerating from 4% growth in the previous quarter. According to the company’s earnings presentation, connected trip transactions, which involve travelers booking multiple components of a trip, grew nearly 20% and accounted for a low double-digit share of Booking.com's transactions.

Marketing expenses rose 11% year over year to $2.6 billion, slightly outpacing gross bookings growth. They accounted for 4.8% of gross bookings, up from 4.7% a year earlier, attributed in part to faster growth in affiliate marketing expenses and declining organic search traffic.

Steenbergen said global travel demand softened toward the end of the third quarter, driven by slower international travel. He also cited disruptions and elevated airfares related to the Middle East conflict, as well as localized unrest in some European cities, as factors affecting demand in October.

Booking Holdings expects a further slowdown in the fourth quarter, forecasting a 1% to 3% increase in room nights and a 2% to 4% rise in gross bookings.