Booking CEO Says Small-Bet Playbook Will Fend Off AI Disruption — Interview

What happened

Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said the company is making small investments in multiple AI startups while it waits to see how artificial intelligence changes travel booking. He said the company does not yet know which uses will prove most valuable. AI referrals generated significantly less than 1% of Booking.com room nights in its latest quarter.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

Booking’s small, spread-out investments let it test AI uses without committing heavily to a single approach. If travelers increasingly use chatbots to discover or book trips, successful experiments could help protect Booking’s bookings and revenue; weak results would limit the cost of those tests.

Analyst inference

The article describes investor concern that AI chatbots and agents could challenge Booking, but says current adoption for booking remains limited: referrals from large language models produced significantly less than 1% of room nights. Executives say AI is used more for trip discovery than completing bookings.

Confirmed

What to watch

1. Watch whether large-language-model referrals become a larger share of Booking.com room nights; the article reports they were significantly below 1% in the latest quarter. Analyst inference
2. Look for details on how many AI startups Booking backs, the size of those investments, and which travel uses they test; the article provides no amounts. Analyst inference
3. Watch whether AI tools shift from helping travelers discover destinations and deals to completing bookings, which could change how customers reach Booking. Analyst inference

Evidence

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