Booking’s Big Marketing Bucks
Skift Take
Booking Holdings spent approximately $6 billion on marketing in 2022, which accounted for about 35% of its total revenue, while Expedia Group’s marketing spend was around 47% of its revenue.
Only on Skift: What's a key part of Booking Holdings' strategy to attract hotel and short-term rental guests? The company, which owns brands including Booking.com, Kayak and Priceline, spent around $6 billion on marketing in 2022 — and that was about 35% of its total revenue. A BTIG investor report published last week stated that Booking gets around 50% of its traffic direct; around 20 percent from free search engine listings; roughly 15% from social media, email, display ads and referrals, and 15% from paid search engine marketing — “and it spends billions annually to get that last piece.”
That’s worth repeating: Booking Holdings spent around $6 billion on sales and marketing last year to attract just 15% of visitors to its platform. But these huge marketing resources are a major reason why property managers and hosts often need to distribute their listings through Booking, Airbnb, Vrbo and others.
Meanwhile, over at rival Expedia Group, its mar
