Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, third quarter results from Booking Holdings as investors saying
Speaker 2: Booking Dot Yeah. Shares of the online travel booking service
Speaker 2: jumping today after the company beat estimates on growth. Bookings
Speaker 2: Booking also a boosted its financial outlook for the year
Speaker 2: as travel demand remains strong across markets. Joining US now
Speaker 2: for more is Glenn Fogel, who is CEO of Bookings Holdings. Glenn,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining. You spoke a lot
Speaker 2: about international travel demand. I'm curious as to US travel demand.
Speaker 2: Is it moderating slightly?
Speaker 3: Well, thanks for having me, and we're very pleased with
Speaker 3: our positioning in the US. It's one of those things
Speaker 3: where we can't control demand, we can't control supply. What
Speaker 3: we control is trying to make sure we get more share,
Speaker 3: and we believe in the previous quarter, we believe that
Speaker 3: we increased our share of the business, and that's the
Speaker 3: thing we really are trying to focus on. I can't
Speaker 3: make people travel more or less. We have seen growth. Obviously,
Speaker 3: some of our supplier friends have reported different thoughts on
Speaker 3: how things went and how things are going to go
Speaker 3: in the near term. But from my point, of view.
Speaker 3: I don't worry about the near term so much. We're
Speaker 3: trying to build through the long term.
Speaker 2: Sure, what are you seeing though in the details data?
Speaker 2: Our consumer is trading down on properties? Are they shortening stays?
Speaker 3: No, we haven't seen that at all, and we haven't
Speaker 3: really seen that at all globally. In fact, we're very
Speaker 3: pleased with our growth rate in the US and other
Speaker 3: parts of the world. And it's been something that we
Speaker 3: have seen coming out of pandemic, a moderation after the
Speaker 3: initial incredible burst of people want to travel. Now we're
Speaker 3: in a more normalized situation. But we're still very pleased.
Speaker 3: Like we came in with global numbers eight percent of
Speaker 3: our room nights up a year of a year. That's
Speaker 3: a really good number and it's something that we are
Speaker 3: looking forward to continue. We gave a projection of six
Speaker 3: to eight percent was the guidance for the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4: I'm pleased with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in terms of outlook, how far in advance are
Speaker 1: people planning their trips away, because, as you say, things
Speaker 1: are starting to normalize, but it's been so long that
Speaker 1: I have a hard time remembering how we used to
Speaker 1: travel pre pandemic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's one of those things you always asking about.
Speaker 4: This thing. It's called the booking window, and essentially it
Speaker 4: is how far.
Speaker 3: In advance so you go on book and right now
Speaker 3: we've been talking a little about expanding right now.
Speaker 4: And there was a time right after the pandemic king
Speaker 4: when we're done with.
Speaker 3: It and inflation was very high, and we saw a
Speaker 3: real increase in that booking window, and I was wondering,
Speaker 3: hard to prove where people trying to lock up the
Speaker 3: price today because they're a concern that was going to
Speaker 3: be much higher further down the road. That of course
Speaker 3: not nearly the problem at all nowadays, but again not
Speaker 3: something I worry too much about. Sometimes can be longer,
Speaker 3: sometimes it can be shorter. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: it's all going to even out.
Speaker 1: Speaking of locking in prices, I wonder to what extent
Speaker 1: your competition is airline loyalty programs or credit card points,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people will try to use those
Speaker 1: points up before they get devalued, rather than going to
Speaker 1: sites like priceline dot com or booking dot com.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's an interesting point on that is where people
Speaker 3: in place you can be in dollars or it could
Speaker 3: be in points, I suppose, again, not a thing I
Speaker 3: worry too much about. And for us, you know, we
Speaker 3: don't participate those. We have our own loyalty program we
Speaker 3: call Genius, which we think is really superior in the
Speaker 3: sense that people are getting those discounts right away and it's.
Speaker 4: Something that we believe is a different way to do it.
Speaker 3: We don't give out points, but we definitely see it
Speaker 3: our level two and three at booking dot Com. You
Speaker 3: just level of two and three. They produce a tremendous
Speaker 3: amount of our business. In fact, over fifty percent of
Speaker 3: the room nights come from those people.
Speaker 2: You have an AI trip planner right now, and I'm
Speaker 2: curious as to how that's impacting how people are booking.
Speaker 2: Are they booking different kinds of trips than they might normally,
Speaker 2: or are they, you know, making decisions faster than they
Speaker 2: normally would.
Speaker 3: Well, a couple of things on that first. I'm really
Speaker 3: happy We've had it out for quite a while now.
Speaker 3: I'm continuing to iterate and improve it and the idea
Speaker 3: again is to try and make it easier for people
Speaker 3: to get what they want. Now in terms of the data,
Speaker 3: are people doing it faster or not it's really small
Speaker 3: numbers compared to the overall size of our business.
Speaker 4: We talked last night a bit about it.
Speaker 3: I mean, we have what someone they say, a lot
Speaker 3: of people are looking at it if you look at
Speaker 3: an absolute number, but there's a share of our total
Speaker 3: number of customers.
Speaker 4: It's relatively low, and it's something that's still early.
Speaker 3: I believe that this, though, is going to be something
Speaker 3: that's really going to be transformational over time and in
Speaker 3: the future, people will be using different types of generate
Speaker 3: AI trip planners to put together their entire trip.
Speaker 4: We're glad we think we're going to lead in this area.
Speaker 2: Jan I have to ask you about the election. Are
Speaker 2: you planning out different scenarios in terms of corporate tax
Speaker 2: rates and so on, and what you should be preparing
Speaker 2: for depending on who wins.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's interesting you say the elections, so immediately,
Speaker 3: you know, I'll assume you mean the US elections.
Speaker 4: We're a very global company.
Speaker 3: They are elections happening all over the world, different times
Speaker 3: and stuff. We don't particularly choose how we're going to
Speaker 3: try and change our business based on one particular political
Speaker 3: event or not. We're always looking at all the elements
Speaker 3: that could influence our business.
Speaker 4: Always to have a good planning.
Speaker 3: I mean, now, preparation is a great play in terms
Speaker 3: of anything that can happen, but in terms of actually
Speaker 3: coming out and saying what we're going to do differently
Speaker 3: or et cetera, we'll wait until we actually see a
Speaker 3: closer in of what law changes may or may not happen.
Speaker 1: You know, Vonnie started by asking about the strength in
Speaker 1: Europe and Asia and kind of asking you to contrast
Speaker 1: that with what you're seeing in North America. I'd like
Speaker 1: you to talk a little bit more about what you
Speaker 1: are seeing in Europe in Asia, given that China has
Speaker 1: been trying to stimulate its economy, but so far consumers
Speaker 1: still seem unconvinced that now is the time to spend,
Speaker 1: and of course that resonates throughout the rest of the
Speaker 1: region as well. In addition, you know, we're seeing Europe
Speaker 1: slow down. They're not in recession, they're not heading into
Speaker 1: recession necessarily, but inflation has definitely taken a bite out
Speaker 1: of the consumer.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting because we talked last night about
Speaker 3: the different reason how we did in the third quarter,
Speaker 3: and we were very pleased with Asia. It was our
Speaker 3: leader with a low double digit growth rate, and Europe
Speaker 3: was a high single digit growth rate.
Speaker 4: So Europe still doing okay, even though we do see
Speaker 4: some of the GDP numbers a little lower than you
Speaker 4: would want them to be.
Speaker 3: That being said, we believe again different parts of the
Speaker 3: world are going to perform at different times. It's great
Speaker 3: to be so global that one area that does slower
Speaker 3: not going to affect so much in other areas are
Speaker 3: able to pick up the slack. In terms of China, yeah,
Speaker 3: it certainly have been some issues there, and in terms
Speaker 3: of international outbound business, which is the area where we're
Speaker 3: more where we do more business there, it's still not
Speaker 3: up to where it was in terms of for the industry.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about specifically, I'm saying for the industry
Speaker 3: in terms of outbound Chinese business, not quite where it
Speaker 3: was pre pandemic yet, but it is still coming back,
Speaker 3: and obviously the government there is working to try and
Speaker 3: figure out how they're going to stimulate the demand there
Speaker 3: for their total economy. We'll see what happens again, one
Speaker 3: small part of our overall business.
Speaker 1: All right, good stuff, Glenn, really appreciate your joining us today.
Speaker 1: Glenn follow a CEO of Booking Holdings,