Booking Holdings Sees 59 Pct Hike In Room Nights Driven By US, EU Travelers

Booking Holdings’ second quarter room nights increased 59 percent from the first quarter of 2021, primarily driven by stronger results in Europe and in the U.S. amid the recovery from the pandemic, according to a press release.

Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said during the company’s Q2 conference call that the numbers compare “very favorably to our pre pandemic historical pattern of a slight decline in Q2 room nights versus Q1.”

“The acceleration in the second quarter was primarily driven by domestic and international booking trends in Europe following a ramp up in vaccination rates and the relaxation of many travel restrictions in the region,” Fogel said.

The company’s Q2 gross travel bookings were $22 billion, which was up 852 percent from the prior year quarter amid the early stages of the pandemic. This figure includes the total dollar value, “generally inclusive” of taxes and fees and all travel services reserved by its clients net of cancellations, the release stated.

The company noted in the release that its “results for the three and six months ended June 30 2021 and 2020 have been significantly and negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic conditions and government restrictions.”

“While the rise of the Delta variant demonstrates the volatility and uncertainty of the exact timing and shape of the recovery for travel, we remain confident that we will eventually see a strong recovery [in] travel demand globally,” Fogel said, according to published reports.

All in, Booking Holdings reported $2.2 billion in total revenues for Q2 2021, marking a 243 percent increase from the same time in 2020, according to the release. The firm reported a net loss of $167 million for Q2 2021.

Even though the cadence of recovery domestically has been relatively quick with inoculations of the coronavirus reaching the public in an expedient manner, the global pace of recovery has been much slower, impacted by sluggish vaccine distribution and new strains of the disease surfacing.

Read more: UN Study Shows Int’l Travel Stuck At 1980s Levels; Recovery Forecast Suggests Long Way To Go