Booking Holdings — Financial Results
Revenue Grew 13% to $26.9 Billion, Driven by Strong Booking Volumes
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenues | $26.9B | $23.7B | +13.4% |
| Total gross bookings | $186.1B | $165.6B | +12.4% |
| Room nights booked | 1,235M | 1,144M | +8.0% |
Gross bookings (the total dollar value of all travel services booked) crossed $186 billion, lifted by healthy demand in Europe and Asia. About 3 percentage points of the revenue growth came from favorable currency movements, since most of the business is conducted in Euros and British Pounds. The underlying travel demand, however, was genuinely strong on its own.
The Shift from Agency to Merchant Payments Is Reshaping the Business
| 2025 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant gross bookings share | 70% | 63% |
| Merchant revenues | $17.8B (+25.5%) | $14.1B |
| Agency revenues | $8.0B (-6.5%) | $8.5B |
Booking.com is increasingly collecting payment directly from travelers rather than simply passing them to hotels to pay (merchant vs. agency model). This shift boosts gross bookings and opens new revenue streams like payment card rebates, but it also adds costs for payment processing and fraud. Management noted that in 2025, the extra revenues from facilitating payments exceeded the extra variable costs — a positive sign.
A Cost-Cutting Program Is Delivering More Than Expected
The company launched a Transformation Program in late 2024 to streamline operations. Originally targeting $400–450 million in annual savings, the program has already enabled roughly $550 million in annualized savings — well ahead of schedule. About $205 million in one-time restructuring costs were recorded in 2025. The program kept personnel expenses nearly flat (+1.5%) even as revenues grew 13%, which meaningfully improved the ratio of staff costs to revenue from 14.1% to 12.6%.
KAYAK Took a $457 Million Impairment Charge
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Goodwill impairment | $180M |
| Intangible asset impairment (trade names + agreements) | $277M |
| Total | $457M |
An impairment charge is a one-time write-down when an asset is judged to be worth less than it's recorded at. KAYAK's meta-search business (which compares prices across travel sites) is facing rising customer acquisition costs, squeezing its future cash flow outlook. This charge does not affect cash but it does reduce reported net income and signals that KAYAK's competitive position is under pressure.
Marketing Spending Rose but Held Steady as a Share of Bookings
| 2025 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing expenses | $8.2B | $7.3B |
| As % of gross bookings | 4.4% | 4.4% |
Total marketing spend rose $900 million — primarily performance marketing through Google and affiliate channels. The good news is that more travelers are booking directly (a mid-fifties percentage of room nights in 2025, up from a low-fifties percentage in 2024), which reduces reliance on paid search. This offset slightly weaker returns on performance marketing, keeping overall marketing efficiency flat year-over-year.
The Company Returned Over $7.5 Billion to Shareholders
The company repurchased $6.4 billion of its own stock in 2025 and paid $1.2 billion in dividends. A new $20 billion buyback authorization was approved in early 2025, with $21.8 billion still remaining. The company also holds $17.8 billion in cash and investments, giving it significant financial flexibility while carrying $5.7 billion in cumulative debt interest obligations still to be paid on existing senior notes.