Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

May 4, 2023 4:30 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome to Booking Holdings First Quarter 2023 Conference Call.

Booking Holdings would like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are not subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those expressed, implied or forecasted in any such forward-looking statements. Expressions of future goals or expectations and similar expressions reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a list of factors that could cause Booking Holdings' actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the safe harbor statements at the end of Booking Holdings' earnings press release as well as Booking Holdings' most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unless required by law, Booking Holdings undertakes no obligation to undertake publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. A copy of Booking Holdings' earnings press release, together with an accompanying financial and statistical supplement, is available in the For Investors section of Booking Holdings' website, www.bookingholdings.com.

And now, I'd like to introduce Booking Holdings speakers for this afternoon, Glenn Fogel and David Goulden. Go ahead, gentlemen.

Glenn Fogel - CEO

Thank you and welcome to Booking Holdings' first quarter conference call. I'm joined this afternoon by our CFO, David Goulden. I am pleased to report that in the first quarter, we reached all-time quarterly highs for both room nights of $274 million and gross bookings of $39.4 billion and achieved year-over-year growth rates of 38% and 44%, respectively.

On a constant currency basis, first quarter gross bookings growth was even stronger at 52% year-over-year. Both room night and gross bookings came in ahead of our previous expectations as a result of the continued strength in leisure travel demand and from a lengthening booking window, particularly in Europe and the U.S. The room night and gross bookings outperformance versus our expectations was driven by bookings that will stay in future periods which is when the revenue will be recognized. As a result of this timing difference, revenue was approximately in line with our expectations, while adjusted EBITDA was a bit below given the additional marketing expenses associated with the future states.