# Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG)

> Booking Holdings runs online services for booking accommodation, flights, rental cars, activities and restaurant reservations.

- Exchange: NASDAQ Global Select Market · Sector: Consumer Discretionary · Industry: Travel Services
- Headquarters: Norwalk, Connecticut
- Founded: 1997 (as Priceline.com)
- Employees: 25,550 (June 30, 2026)
- SEC CIK: 0001075531 ([filings on EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001075531))
- Full page: https://inspectstocks.com/stocks/bkng
- Data as of: price 2026-09-28; newest filing used 2026-08-04; latest fiscal period ended 2026-06-30

## Grade

**A+** on the growth-and-cash rubric, 5 of 5 checks passed.

| Check | Result | Now | Before |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Revenue growing overall | passed | $28.2B | $19.3B |
| Revenue growing recently | passed | $28.2B | $26.9B |
| Free cash flow positive | passed | $9.5B |  |
| Free cash flow growing overall | passed | $9.5B | $6.4B |
| Free cash flow growing recently | passed | $9.5B | $9.1B |

Business quality (the + / − mark): 5 of 6 checks passed.

| Check | Result | Now | Before |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Profitable | passed | 19.1% |  |
| Healthy profit margin | passed | 19.1% |  |
| Strong operating margin | passed | 32.9% |  |
| Good return on equity | failed | -96.9% |  |
| Debt under control | passed | -3.48 |  |
| Turns sales into cash | passed | 33.8% |  |

How the grade works: the letter counts failed checks (none → A, one → B, two → C, three → D, four or more → F). It is built from SEC filings only — the share price never enters it — and describes the business, not whether the stock is worth buying.

## Key figures

In US dollars, as filed.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Revenue, trailing twelve months | $28.2B |
| Net income, trailing twelve months | $5.4B |
| Free cash flow, trailing twelve months | $9.5B |
| Net margin | 19.1% |
| Operating margin | 32.9% |
| Return on equity | -96.9% |
| Debt to equity | -3.48 |
| Diluted EPS, trailing twelve months | $132.48 |
| Share price | $163.90 |
| Market value | $123.2B |
| Price / earnings | 1.2x |
| Price / sales | 4.4x |

## What the business does

Its five main brands are Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable. Travelers use them to find and book trips; hotels, other travel providers and restaurants use them to reach customers or manage reservations. The company tracks room nights, rental-car days and flight tickets booked; year over year, these changed by 5.3% (three months ended June 30, 2026, high), -6.5% (three months ended June 30, 2026, high) and 3.7% (three months ended June 30, 2026, high), respectively.

### How it makes money

- **Merchant travel bookings** (66.0% of revenue (year ended December 31, 2025)) — When Booking Holdings handles the traveler’s payment, it earns reservation commissions and transaction revenue, along with payment-related fees and some ancillary revenue. Most merchant revenue comes from Booking.com accommodation reservations.
- **Agency travel bookings** (29.6% of revenue (year ended December 31, 2025)) — When travelers pay the travel provider directly rather than through Booking Holdings, the company generally earns a reservation commission. Nearly all of this revenue comes from Booking.com accommodation reservations.
- **Advertising, restaurant services and other revenue** (4.4% of revenue (year ended December 31, 2025)) — KAYAK earns money from referrals to travel providers and advertising placements. OpenTable earns money from restaurant reservations and restaurant-management subscriptions; other brands also earn advertising revenue.

### Products

- **Booking.com** — A travel booking service for accommodation, flights, rental cars, activities and ground transportation. It lists hotels as well as homes, apartments and other places to stay.
- **Priceline** — A travel booking service, focused mainly on North America, for accommodation, flights, rental cars, vacation packages, cruises and activities.
- **Agoda** — A travel booking service used mainly by customers in Asia-Pacific, for accommodation, flights, ground transportation and attractions.
- **KAYAK** — A travel search service that compares itineraries and prices from many travel websites.
- **OpenTable** — A restaurant reservation service for diners and a reservation-management service for restaurants.

### Customers

- Travelers book accommodation, flights, rental cars, activities and ground transportation through the company’s websites and apps.
- Hotels, property owners and other accommodation providers list rooms or properties and pay commissions or transaction-related charges when bookings are made.
- Airlines, car-rental companies and activity or transportation providers use the booking services to reach travelers and sell available inventory.
- Restaurants use OpenTable to receive reservations and may pay subscription fees for reservation-management services.
- Banks, airlines, corporate travel companies and other businesses can obtain travel inventory through the company’s business-to-business services.

### Competitors

- Expedia Group, Inc. (EXPE) — Online booking of accommodation, flights and other travel services.
- Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB) — Booking homes and other short-term accommodation.
- Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) — Online booking of accommodation, flights and other travel services, particularly in Asia.
- Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) — Google Search and Google Flights compete for travel discovery and price-comparison traffic; these services are part of the listed parent.
- Tripadvisor, Inc. (TRIP) — Travel search, reviews and referrals to booking providers.
- American Express Company (AXP) — Resy, a restaurant reservation service owned by the listed parent, competes with OpenTable.

### What it depends on

- The booking services depend on hotels, property owners, airlines, car-rental companies, restaurants and other providers supplying inventory and honoring reservations.
- The company buys substantial performance-marketing traffic through online search engines, primarily Google, and reports pressure on unpaid search traffic.
- Merchant bookings rely on payment processing and other outside services; handling more payments also brings processing costs, chargebacks and fraud exposure.
- The business operates under changing travel, privacy, consumer-protection, competition and payment rules across many countries.

### What could go wrong

- Travel disruptions can reduce bookings or change where and how people travel. The company reported that the conflict in the Middle East affected long-haul demand, flight capacity, prices and cancellations during the second quarter of 2026.
- Competition from travel-booking services, travel providers, search companies and artificial-intelligence travel tools may draw away customers or require discounts and higher marketing spending.
- Changing laws and regulatory scrutiny can require changes to the company’s services and increase compliance costs; Booking Holdings is subject to additional European requirements under the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.

## More on this company

- [Overview](https://inspectstocks.com/stocks/bkng)
- [Financial statements](https://inspectstocks.com/stocks/bkng/financials)
- [Competitors](https://inspectstocks.com/stocks/bkng/peers)
- [Earnings](https://inspectstocks.com/stocks/bkng/earnings)

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Source: InspectStocks, built from the company’s own SEC filings. This describes a business — it is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.