Connected Trip
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FY2026 Q2
In line
Booking Holdings Inc. earnings call
Buzzberg read
Connected Trip transactions grew low double digits, outpacing overall transactions.
Booking Holdings reported a strong Q2 2026, beating guidance on all key metrics despite the ongoing Middle East conflict. Management struck a cautious but resilient tone for Q3, guiding for stable growth and maintaining full-year expectations. The call focused heavily on AI integration (including testing with OpenAI and Google), the launch of a new AI-powered discovery experience, and the ongoing strategy around the Connected Trip and B2B expansion. Q2 results beat guidance with 5% room night growth and 8% revenue growth, aided by resilience in domestic travel.
Buzzberg read Connected Trip transactions grew low double digits, outpacing overall transactions. Booking Holdings reported a strong Q2 2026, beating guidance on all key metrics despite the ongoing Middle East conflict. Management struck a cautious but resilient tone for Q3, guiding for stable growth and maintaining full-year expectations. The call focused heavily on AI integration (including testing with OpenAI and Google), the launch of a new AI-powered discovery experience, and the ongoing strategy around the Connected Trip and B2B expansion. Q2 results beat guidance with 5% room night growth and 8% revenue growth, aided by resilience in domestic travel. Read full analysisCollapse analysis
Booking Holdings reported a strong Q2 2026, beating guidance on all key metrics despite the ongoing Middle East conflict. Management struck a cautious but resilient tone for Q3, guiding for stable growth and maintaining full-year expectations. The call focused heavily on AI integration (including testing with OpenAI and Google), the launch of a new AI-powered discovery experience, and the ongoing strategy around the Connected Trip and B2B expansion. Q2 results beat guidance with 5% room night growth and 8% revenue growth, aided by resilience in domestic travel.
- Middle East conflict remains the primary headwind, impacting long-haul flights and capacity, but normalization began in June and is expected to persist.
- AI is a major investment theme, with new AI-powered discovery tools being tested and partnerships with major AI platforms (e.g., OpenAI) for CPC testing, though current LLM referral traffic is below 1% of room nights.
- The company is scaling its consolidated B2B travel supply business, aiming to challenge competitors with a best-in-class platform for large corporate, airline, and TMC clients.
Revenue$7.352B+33% QoQ
EPS$2.54Reported
Operating margin34%Reported
Free cash flow$3.643B+17% QoQ
6 grounded callouts
What matters now
The highest-signal changes from the call.
AI
AI-driven referrals remain below 1% of room nights.
Costs
Transformation program savings target raised to $650 million.
Show 3 more callouts
Demand
US room nights grew high single digits, supported by healthy domestic demand.
AI
Customer service cost per booking decreasing at double-digit rate.
Guidance
Full year guidance expects gross bookings, revenue, EBITDA up high single digits.
Reported period
Actuals
| Metric | Reported | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $7.352B | +33% QoQ |
| EPS | $2.54 | Reported |
| Operating margin | 34% | Reported |
| Free cash flow | $3.643B | +17% QoQ |
| Capex | $0.076B | Reported |
| Net income | $1.95B | Reported |
Forward-looking
Forward guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2026 | 12.5%–14.5% | 13.5% | Maintained |
| Revenue | FY2026 Q3 | 4%–6% | 5% | Guided |
| Revenue | FY2026 | 7.5%–8.5% | 8% | Maintained |
| Units | FY2026 Q3 | 3%–5% | 4% | Guided |
AI, capex & demand read
Management read
Measured
Management acknowledged external uncertainties like the Middle East conflict but expressed confidence in the resilience of travel demand and the company's long-term strategy, reflecting a cautious yet optimistic tone.
Management AI read
Management emphasized that AI-driven referrals remain a small contributor but are seeing encouraging momentum, with the company launching AI-powered discovery experiences and agentic assistants like Penny, while scaling AI in customer service and operations to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Investment and capacity
The transformation program's expected annual run-rate savings increased from approximately $550 million to $650 million, with incremental savings mostly realized in 2027; no specific capex or infrastructure investment details were provided.
all 4 named companies below
Companiesreturns since call
Supply chain
Supply chain
Ewout Steenbergen
Booking is experiencing a modicum of traffic from large language models (LLMs), which is still significantly below 1% of room nights and hasn't changed much recently, but they are part of OpenAI's test group for CPC. — This indicates that the AI-driven booking channel is still nascent and not yet a significant competitive threat or opportunity for OTAs, but Booking's early CPC testing with OpenAI suggests a potential future direct advertising revenue stream for AI platforms.
Evidence
“the traffic we're currently receiving from large language models, so this is not what we are receiving directly in terms of traffic but from large language models both on a paid and an unpaid basis that is still significantly below one”
Supply chain
Ewout Steenbergen
Booking's second-quarter results were hurt by the Middle East conflict, particularly in airline capacity and flight ticket prices. However, they saw a normalization beginning in June that continued into July, with domestic and intra-regional travel remaining healthy. — This suggests that the negative impact of the Middle East conflict on global long-haul travel is diminishing, which could signal a recovery for airlines heavily exposed to international routes, though fuel costs remain a factor.
Evidence
“the impact was actually a bit higher than in the first quarter because we saw the impact continuing in April and in May. But as we said, then in June, actually the situation started to normalize more and that continued in the month of July.”
External signals
Supply-chain alpha · 3returns since call
Booking is experiencing a modicum of traffic from large language models (LLMs), which is still significantly below 1% of room nights and hasn't changed much recently, but they are part of OpenAI's test group for CPC.
Evidence
“the traffic we're currently receiving from large language models, so this is not what we are receiving directly in terms of traffic but from large language models both on a paid and an unpaid basis that is still significantly below one per…”
Booking's second-quarter results were hurt by the Middle East conflict, particularly in airline capacity and flight ticket prices. However, they saw a normalization beginning in June that continued into July, with domestic and intra-regional travel remaining healthy.
Booking's B2B unit, which consolidates the former separate B2B operations of Agoda, Priceline, and Booking.com, is being scaled up under the leadership of Agoda's CEO Omri Morgenshtern to offer a best-in-class inventory platform to large corporate clients like banks, airlines, and TMCs.
Evidence
“So we have three brands, Agoda, Priceline, Booking, that all had separate B2B operations units... let's put it together as one unit. ...we can offer them the very best in class platform.”
Methodology & coverage
Management-only analysis. All 4 validated company mentions are shown. Reported actuals and forward guidance are kept separate. Public evidence is limited to eight short attributed quotes. AI-generated analysis can be incomplete or wrong; verify important claims against the original source.