Booking.com takes one million bookings in one day
This week, Booking.com added its one millionth property, a hotel in Nantucket. The platform now has more than 23 million bookable rooms worldwide and has doubled the number of properties available in just two years.
Now, despite competition from major hotel chains who have been increasingly offering their own direct booking incentives, Booking.com recorded a “remarkable accomplishment”, says Priceline, with more than one million reservations made in just one day on its website.
Booking.com’s success has contributed to a gross profit of $US2.4bn for parent company Priceline Group in the second quarter – up 16% over last year.
“Globally, our accommodation business booked 141 million room nights in the second quarter, up 24% over the same period last year,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer.
“We believe this consistent growth demonstrates the strength of our brands, the value of a diversified global footprint and solid execution by our brand management teams.”
Estimates from Morgan Stanley Research show the global hotel industry saw revenues of $570 billion last year. However, of that, brands took home about $11 billion for branding fees. OTAs, on the other hand, collected $16 billion in commissions. Fighting back, big brands such as Hilton with their ‘Stop Clicking Around‘ campaign have tried to build loyalty and attract direct bookings with discounted rates to rival OTAs.
