WEBVTT - Booking Holdings President & CEO Glenn Fogel Talks AI Competition, Global Travel

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.

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<v Speaker 2>Wall Street, weighing in on a strong quarter for Bookings.

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<v Speaker 2>Holdings City says that results show the outlook with a

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<v Speaker 2>broad strength. Evercore ISI says core trends remain solid despite

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<v Speaker 2>slightly softer profit guidance. The company also announcing eight twenty

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<v Speaker 2>five for one stock split. Let's get more details now

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<v Speaker 2>from the company CEO Glenn Fogel, who joins the program. Glenn,

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<v Speaker 2>great to see you, and look, the analysts said it there.

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<v Speaker 2>It was a strong earning, So maybe we need to

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<v Speaker 2>talk about the elephant in the room. Shares are down

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<v Speaker 2>eight percent. I can only imagine it's AI anxiety that

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<v Speaker 2>seems to continue to be souring a lot of companies

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<v Speaker 2>so far in the market these past couple of weeks.

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<v Speaker 1>What is your.

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<v Speaker 2>Response to concerns that AI is going to disrupt booking?

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<v Speaker 3>Well, first, thanks for having me, and I got to echo.

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<v Speaker 1>What you said. I mean last night coming out with

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<v Speaker 1>the numbers that we put out were just stellar.

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<v Speaker 3>The whole year has been even though the world's been

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<v Speaker 3>volatile and we've had all these economic issues, we still

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<v Speaker 3>power through accelerating each quarter and being able to come

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<v Speaker 3>in almost adjusted, if it's up almost ten billion dollars,

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<v Speaker 3>returning over eight of it to a billion to the shareholders.

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<v Speaker 3>This is just fantastic going well. And it's interesting too.

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<v Speaker 3>It's not like the world changed anything from what we

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<v Speaker 3>said last night that would cause people to be more

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<v Speaker 3>concerned about AI affecting our business.

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<v Speaker 1>Effect.

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<v Speaker 3>AI is a positive for our business. That's what's so interesting.

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<v Speaker 3>And I'm not sure anything I said that would have

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<v Speaker 3>caused anybody to think anything different, But clearly it's going

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<v Speaker 3>to take some time for this all to shake out

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<v Speaker 3>and people see the benefits that we are producing through AI.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, let's get to it, because the criticism maybe goes.

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<v Speaker 2>I can open up my Gemini or chat Ept or

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<v Speaker 2>whatever and have it booked for me at some point.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, my entire trip a hotel, of flight and cars.

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<v Speaker 2>So why would I need booking holdings in any of

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<v Speaker 2>the companies under your umbrella? Glenn? What would be your

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<v Speaker 2>rep to that?

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<v Speaker 3>Well, we don't have the time to go through all

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<v Speaker 3>the reasons, and there are a lot why that is

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<v Speaker 3>not the way the world is going to be. But

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<v Speaker 3>I will say that here's an example of a path

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<v Speaker 3>in the past where people have tried that. Look at Google,

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<v Speaker 3>enormous company, very big, at the top of the travel funnel,

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<v Speaker 3>peole going to Google first trying to figure out what

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<v Speaker 3>they wanted, and Google try.

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<v Speaker 1>They actually did do this thing called book on Google, and.

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<v Speaker 3>Then they pulled back from that want because this is

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<v Speaker 3>a lot more complex than one would think. I mean,

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<v Speaker 3>the supplier proposition that we deal with. We deal with

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<v Speaker 3>over four million properties globally, and it's not all they

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<v Speaker 3>just put in the prices and the availability of This

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<v Speaker 3>is some of the connectivity you got to work with

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<v Speaker 3>day by day, and it's working with these managers of

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<v Speaker 3>these properties in terms of what should they be putting

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<v Speaker 3>out in terms of sales, in terms of geo prices,

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<v Speaker 3>mobile prices.

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<v Speaker 1>We have our loyalty program genius.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, we talked last night about about mid sixty

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<v Speaker 3>percent of the people are coming to us direct and

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<v Speaker 3>when we have those AI tools, we're making even better

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<v Speaker 3>so you can do your entire trip. It's not just

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<v Speaker 3>the hotel, it's the flight, it's the ground, transport data,

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<v Speaker 3>and it's attractions. What you do putting that all together,

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<v Speaker 3>stitching together with AI produces a much better thing.

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<v Speaker 1>And then the customer service and the trust that will

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<v Speaker 1>acts be done right. And that's really complicated stuff that

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<v Speaker 1>we do so well.

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<v Speaker 3>And by the way, you tell me Gemini or Chat

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<v Speaker 3>TVT you're going to do this will have fun with

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<v Speaker 3>the merchant of record issues and regulations. I mean, if

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<v Speaker 3>you go to Europe, all the issues you have to

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<v Speaker 3>deal with in terms of making sure.

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<v Speaker 1>You're doing this within the regulatory framework.

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<v Speaker 4>I do not believe that the tech companies, and this

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<v Speaker 4>is proved by Google when they see how difficult is

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<v Speaker 4>how much you need boots on the ground to say,

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<v Speaker 4>you know, we can make a lot more money on advertising,

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<v Speaker 4>which is what Google does.

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<v Speaker 1>And together we need a lot of money.

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<v Speaker 3>Now we're doing it with CHATGBT where we are one

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<v Speaker 3>of the first people in we're putting in advertisements at

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<v Speaker 3>the bottom of the results that come out of JIGBT.

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<v Speaker 1>Perhaps they will move into.

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<v Speaker 3>More a Google way in terms of using an auction

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<v Speaker 3>method for advertising, which go to be wonderful for us

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<v Speaker 3>and good for them.

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<v Speaker 1>We'll see what happens.

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<v Speaker 3>By the idea that people are going to be going

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<v Speaker 3>to a large language model and doing their booking and

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<v Speaker 3>it's all going to work fine and no problems.

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<v Speaker 1>I do not believe that's the way the world's going

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<v Speaker 1>to work.

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<v Speaker 2>Glenn. I got to say, I really do feel for you.

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<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's a lot of CEOs in your position

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<v Speaker 2>that are having to deal with this that a market

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<v Speaker 2>that's just like throwing everything out with the bathwater because

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<v Speaker 2>they don't know how things are going to look. I'm

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<v Speaker 2>curious from your end, what has it been like to onboard,

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<v Speaker 2>to hire to find AI talent that can guide booking

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<v Speaker 2>into this next era? Because all of this feels relatively new.

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<v Speaker 2>How difficult or maybe easy is it to get a

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<v Speaker 2>handle of how you reshape booking to incorporate some of

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<v Speaker 2>these AI tools.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>So I'm in the company now twenty six years. This

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<v Speaker 3>is my tenth year is CEO. And yet look, take

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<v Speaker 3>knowledge has been changing over these core cour of a

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<v Speaker 3>centry and trying to get the right people, the good

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<v Speaker 3>talent to be able to do that.

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<v Speaker 1>That's been done for a quarter of a century, been

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<v Speaker 1>doing that.

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<v Speaker 3>It's no different now than it was in the past.

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<v Speaker 3>And by the way, we started with AI more than

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<v Speaker 3>a dozen years ago. Man machine learning models that were

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<v Speaker 3>being used to make sure you saw the best properties.

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<v Speaker 3>That's AI and now generative sure, it's you know, you

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<v Speaker 3>got to find the right people. But I'll tell you

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<v Speaker 3>we're not. We're not researchers doing the top end, and

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<v Speaker 3>we're certainly not spending hundreds of billions of dollars to

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<v Speaker 3>build how new models like some of the frontier players are.

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<v Speaker 3>We're using those models that doesn't require quite the same talent.

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<v Speaker 1>That are using and trying to come out with these

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<v Speaker 1>new one full models.

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<v Speaker 2>And if I can just jump in because we're running

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<v Speaker 2>out of time and I don't want to only ask

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<v Speaker 2>you about AI, I want to ask you about other

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<v Speaker 2>things too. How is your customer right now? What is

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<v Speaker 2>the strength? What is the willingness of people not just

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<v Speaker 2>to book vacations and book all the things that go

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<v Speaker 2>with it, but also spend on those.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, no people want to spend is certainly the higher

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<v Speaker 3>ends of the economic strata. People are definitely spending usets

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<v Speaker 3>in our numbers. So we came out with what the

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<v Speaker 3>guides that looks good and we definitely see assuming there

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<v Speaker 3>are no macro events that happen, we assume that people

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<v Speaker 3>are going to continue to do what they did in

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<v Speaker 3>twenty twenty five, which is help explore the world. That's

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<v Speaker 3>our mission making it easier for everybody experience the world.

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<v Speaker 3>And I'll tell you it's a wonderful time right now

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<v Speaker 3>for travel because it's not the excitement and going out

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<v Speaker 3>by using AI and all these new technologies.

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<v Speaker 2>Glenn, thank you so much for joining this morning. We

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<v Speaker 2>appreciate your time. Glenn Foegel, the CEO of Booking Holdings,