Booking's Subtle Message to Airbnb: We're Coming to the U.S. and We Like Our Position
Skift Take
Is there one little thing that Wall Street is forgetting about the Booking Holdings-Airbnb face-off? Booking Holdings has a huge hotel business and Airbnb doesn't. Booking is certainly lagging in short-term rentals, but CEO Glenn Fogel is probably justified in liking his cards.
There was a relative absence of explicit discussion about Airbnb during Booking Holdings' fourth quarter earnings call on Wednesday, but CEO Glenn Fogel emphasized that upping the company's U.S. market share, including piling on single-home alternative accommodations, would be a key priority for 2021.
Fogel said he didn't know what the mix of short-term rentals versus hotels would be in the future, but added that Booking has a competitive advantage in that it can offer whatever accommodation type the customer prefers. Airbnb, of course, only has a fledgling hotel business, much of it powered by its HotelTonight unit, and Fogel characterized Booking.com as the largest hotel accommodations business in the world.
Of course, the push into the United States, where Europe-oriented Booking.com has been "under-indexed," according to Fogel, has been discussed for several years, and in addition to Airbnb it would involve taking market share away from Expedia, if success
