Booking.com has made a big update to the AI trip planner on its mobile app.
31.10.2024 - 03:05 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal / Glenn Fogel
After finishing up a strong third quarter, Booking Holdings upped its outlook for the full year, pointing to strength in room nights, alternative accommodations, flights, AI, Europe and Asia.
Its share price was up more than 6% in after-hours trading Wednesday evening.
The company’s alternative accommodations’ room nights outpaced Booking’s core hotel business – 14% growth for these short-term rentals versus an 8% jump for hotels and short-term rentals combined. Short-term rentals made up 35% of accommodations bookings in the third quarter, up 2 percentage points year-over-year.
During the company’s earnings call, CEO Glenn Fogel said the company’s alternative accommodations business is around two-thirds the size of “the biggest homes player in this marketplace,” namely Airbnb.
The 8% overall room night growth, which exceeded the company’s outlook, was driven by strength in Europe.
Asia accounted for 24% of Booking.com’s room nights, higher than before the pandemic. Room nights in Asia saw double-digit growth in the third quarter.
Air-ticket sales, propelled by Booking.com and sister brand Agoda, grew 39% year-over-year. A year earlier the growth was 28%.
Connected-trip bookings, where travelers might book an accommodation plus a flight, for example, rose 40%.
Fogel said the development of AI across the the group’s brands represents “one of the most exciting times” ever at the company.
“This type of technology is really transformational,” Fogel said. “And it’s going to make it so much better for all people in the travel industry, particularly for the traveler.”
In October, the company’s Priceline brand “launched Penny Voice, which enables Penny to engage in verbal conversations with travelers and to assist them with planning trips searching for hotels and servicing bookings,” he said. “As Priceline continues to enhance this offering, we envision that Penny will be able to anticipate needs based on preferences and past interaction and then respond in a real-time voice.”
Penny, which is an AI travel assistant that launched without voice in June 2023, has had more than 3 million interactions with travelers so far, Fogel said.
Fogel said 3 million sounds big, but it’s small for a company the size of Booking Holdings.
He declined to project what the financial impact of AI might be one day. “We’re not going to project those kind of numbers right now,” Fogel said. “But what I will say is it’s incredibly important.”
For the third quarter, Booking Holdings notched net income of $2.5 billion, on par with a year earlier. The company took a $365 million hit during the quarter because of a proposed settlement with Italian regulators, but also saw a $250 million reduction in U.S. income taxes flowing out of a court
Booking.com has made a big update to the AI trip planner on its mobile app.
As the temperatures fall, so are airfare prices. Frontier Airlines is running its «Full Size Sale», which provides fares as low as $19 to destinations around the United States. Best of all, the flights can be booked five days of the week, whereas previous promotions from Frontier have been more limited in date availability. The sale ends on October 31, 2024 at 11:59pm EST, however tickets can be purchased for travel through February 26, 2025. This makes the sale a great option for travelers and families looking to take a winter getaway, or fly to a destination with warmer temperatures. Travel + Leisure spotted a variety of one-way flight deals including:
JetBlue is celebrating winter early with a pre-Halloween sale that has one-way fares starting at just $49.
Southwest Airlines has unveiled a new bamboo cup and wooden stir stick for in-flight beverage service that's expected to help the low-cost carrier reduce its single-use plastics by more than 1.5 million pounds annually.The new cold cup is comprised of 93 percent non-plastic materials, with a pulp blend consisting of 75 percent bamboo and 25 percent paper with a polyethylene lining while the new stir stick is made from 100 percent FSC-certified birch wood.The new cup and stir stick are part of Southwest's Nonstop to Net Zero strategy, which has set a goal to eliminate single-use plastics from inflight service where feasible by 2030."We expect our new bamboo cold cup, wood stir stick, and other initiatives to exceed our goal to reduce plastics from inflight service by 50 percent by weight by 2025, and we're excited to continue collaborating with our suppliers to work toward our goal of fully eliminating, where feasible, single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030," Helen Giles, Managing Director of Environmental Sustainability at Southwest Airlines, said in a statement."It's been a year of work since we announced our Nonstop to Net Zero strategy, including our initiatives to tackle single-use plastics in our inflight service," added Giles. "Today's announcement celebrates the hard work and dedication of many Teams across Southwest to meet these goals."This past summer, Southwest eliminated additional plastic by transitioning to a paper overwrap for its napkins made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled materials.
Oct 28, 2024 • 6 min read
Amtrak is making a fall rail trip even sweeter by allowing travelers who book a private Roomette to bring someone along with them for free.
Booking.com modified its sustainability program and will now help hotel partners obtain third-party sustainability certifications.
A getaway to warmer weather just got easier and cheaper.Avelo Airlines recently announced four new routes from the Orlando, FL area, and is celebrating with $46 fares. With the expansion of new routes, Avelo will be opening a new crew base at Lakeland International Airport, which is one hour and 15 minutes south of Orlando Airport, and one hour east of Tampa Airport, making it an alternative option for passengers visiting each of the two major Florida cities. From Lakeland, Avelo will launch service to Rochester, NY, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Concord, NC (which is near Charlotte, NC) and Manchester, NH (which is near Boston, MA). The low-cost carrier operates its flights from regional airports that are adjacent to major cities, which explains the Manchester and Concord airport options. Each new route will operate twice weekly, and Avelo states they are the only airline to operate direct service between each of the markets.
My wife and I have four young children who have traveled with us all over the country.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sara van Geloven, freelance editor and project manager. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Nunavik is one of our Best Places to Go in North America in 2024, part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024—find even more travel inspiration here.
Low-cost Breeze Airways is running a limited-time promotion with 40 percent off round-trip bookings through next May — making it the perfect time to plan travel into the new year.