Booking Holdings Says Gen AI Tools Increase Conversions and Reduce Cancellations

Booking Holdings is seeing early results from the generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) solutions it offers across its travel and related platforms.

The company, which owns the Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable brands, offers several gen AI tools and added more during the third quarter, executives said Tuesday (Oct. 28) during an earnings call.

“What are we measuring in terms of impact? Ultimately, faster search, better conversion, lower cancellation rates, and higher customer satisfaction,” Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer Ewout Steenbergen said during the call. “Very early signals we’re having around it, but overall very encouraged we are with what we are seeing at this moment.”

Later during the call, Steenbergen said the new gen AI tools boost conversion levels by helping people find what they are looking for and complete the booking more quickly; lower cancellation rates by helping people get exactly what they want so that they don’t cancel one booking and start another later; and improve customer satisfaction by enabling faster handling of any problems that arise.

Steenbergen also said that while the number of leads coming to the company from large language models is increasing, the number coming through traditional search also continues to grow.

Booking Holdings continued to roll out new gen AI solutions during the third quarter.

“We are at a moment where advances in AI are just beginning to create new ways that people plan and experience travel,” Bookings Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said during the earnings call.

The company’s latest gen AI-powered offerings for customers include Agoda’s chatbot that provides travelers with hotel-specific answers to help them make booking decisions; Kayak’s AI mode natural-language search experience that delivers better results from the home page; and Booking.com’s new features in its app that include natural-language search capabilities that provide destination highlights, Fogel said.

“As we further develop our agentic capabilities, combine them with our data-driven insights on when to offer relevant suggestions, and advance our Connected Trip vision, we believe travelers will increasingly recognize the value proposition of our platform,” Fogel said.

Booking Holdings also added more gen AI-powered tools for its partners during the third quarter. Two recent additions at Booking.com include a Smart Messenger that helps the company’s accommodation partners in their communications with guests, and an Auto-Reply that delivers instant, personalized responses to guest questions.

“A core strength of our business has always been the unique value we bring to our supply partners, and AI is enhancing these capabilities,” Fogel said.

Fogel also highlighted Booking Holdings’ relationships with AI organizations, such as the company being one of the first wave of apps available in OpenAI’s ChatGPT app store.

“We recognize that gen AI is transforming how travelers research and find inspiration for their trips, and we are committed to continuing to expand, evolve, and meet them wherever they choose to search,” Fogel said.