Booking Holdings (BKNG) laid out its artificial intelligence ambitions and loyalty program growth at Citi’s 2026 Global TMT Conference on Tuesday.
CEO Glenn Fogel described the company’s AI approach as focused on predictive technology. "Prediction machine," Fogel said. "I want it predicting the problems before the customer even knows it may probably happen and be ready and able to fix it before it happens."
The company is testing conversational interfaces and AI-native products across its Booking, Priceline, and Agoda brands. It is also backing two startup-style ventures led by outside entrepreneurs, including former Kayak CEO Steve Hafner. Fogel reported that AI customer service tools are cutting costs by double-digit percentages while maintaining service quality.
Booking processed more than 1.3 billion room nights annually across gross bookings exceeding $200 billion in travel categories, according to Fogel. Alternative accommodations now account for roughly 36% of room nights. The company’s Genius loyalty program has penetrated more than 30% of active customers, with Level 2 and 3 users—making up over 30% of the active base—generating about half of room night share.
"The more you use it, the better it is," Fogel said of the loyalty flywheel.
On the business-to-business side, Booking consolidated its separate B2B operations under one leader effective January 1. The move was designed to prevent duplicate client outreach, eliminate internal competition across brands, and streamline service requests.
In the U.S., Booking is targeting high-value alternative accommodation markets such as the Hamptons and Southampton, seeking to fill supply gaps left by recent setbacks at Vacasa and Sonder. Fogel acknowledged the effort would take time: "Rome not built in a day."
Fogel also noted the company has limited proprietary data assets. "There's almost no proprietary data of any kind," he said.
Connected trip features showed low double-digit penetration of total transactions. Direct repeat traffic represents a mid-60s percentage of Booking’s B2C traffic. The company posted 87% gross profit margins over the trailing twelve months.
Booking shares closed at $180.30 on Tuesday, down 6.72% from the previous close of $193.29, and were unchanged in after-hours trading. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.9 and a PEG ratio of 0.36.
