Booking's Big Marketing Bucks

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 marketing spend was even more top-heavy — around 47% of revenue last year. Airbnb is an outlier in the online travel agency space because around 90% of its customers come directly to its website or app, as well as from free listings in search engine