Booking Holdings Says Half Its Customers Now Come Direct: Will It Be a Game Changer?
Skift Take
Some hotel groups will be jealous of Booking Holdings' ability to have one out of every two of its customers booking travel on its brand sites and apps without having to buy online ads to acquire them.
Executives at Booking Holdings said on Thursday that "approximately 50 percent" of paying customers now come directly to its brands.
The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company had not previously drawn attention to this direct booking figure.
In comments during a second-quarter earnings call, chief financial officer David Goulden defined "direct" bookings as any customer who books without having clicked on paid advertising on huge platforms like Google and Facebook, and through online travel companies like Ctrip, TripAdvisor, and Trivago.
Goulden qualified that the customer may have found Booking Holdings brands thanks to the company's use of search engine optimization or brand advertising.
The travel conglomerate's success at wooing customers to directly visit the sites and apps of its brands — which include Booking.com, Priceline, and Kayak — helps to explain why the company has chosen to dial back its marketing expenditure. It is becoming less urgent to spend money to acquire new customers.
Goulden partly credited Booking.com's Genius loyalty program, which offers a 10 percent discount off selected properties that they can only see if they sign in, for helping encourage customers to return.
Management said in its remarks Thursday that it expects growth in brand advertising expenses to more than offset performance advertising reductions from a margin perspective.
But that has yet to
