Booking Holdings Is Holding Its Own Amidst the Wreckage But Then There's Google

While Airbnb's proposed initial public offering has garnered so much press and the power of Google always looms large, Booking Holdings stands out as perhaps the leading pure-play public company in travel. In fact, Booking ranked as the top company among 100 publicly traded companies in the August update to the proprietary Skift Health Score, the same leading position the Connecticut-headquartered online travel company commanded a month earlier. So while much of the hype these days may be about Airbnb's potential trading debut, Booking Holdings, which has been public for more than two decades, is operating very respectably within the context of the overall travel downturn. For More, Read Skift's Oral History of Booking.com Booking's relatively healthy position, however, is not the whole story, as it faces some challenges, as well. In August, Booking Holdings led the pack of 100 stock-trading travel companies across all sectors with an overall score of 72, a nominal gain from the 71 it notched in July. None of the other 99 publicly traded travel companies, whether airlines, hotels, tour operators, or other online travel peers, gave Booking a run for its money. Looking at just the top 10 companies in the Skift Health Score, which compares companies based on survivability, current performance, and future prospects scores, the only other online travel company in the group after Booking Holdings is Amadeus at 8th with a 60 score. It's a possibility that Trip.com Group could make it into the top 10, but it hasn't yet reported second quarter earnings, as have most of the other companies. Exped