Key Notes
- Booking Holdings recorded $8.89 billion in quarterly revenue after a $900 million reduction tied to an FTC matter.
- Gross bookings rose to $54.5 billion and room nights climbed to 345 million.
- Adjusted earnings per share rose 17% to $4.66 from a split-adjusted $3.98 a year earlier.
Booking Holdings (Nasdaq: BKNG) reported $8.89 billion in third-quarter revenue, down 1.3% after a $900 million reduction tied to a Federal Trade Commission matter. Gross bookings rose nearly 10% to $54.5 billion, and room nights climbed nearly 7% to 345 million.
Reported revenue came in below the analysts’ $9.54 billion estimate. Excluding the FTC-related reduction, adjusted revenue rose 8.7% to $9.79 billion. Booking also recorded a separate $100 million loss tied to the matter and excluded it from adjusted profit measures where applicable.
Adjusted Profit Rises as Room Nights Grow
Adjusted earnings per share rose 17% to $4.66 from $3.98 a year earlier, using the figures Booking restated for its April 25-for-1 stock split. GAAP earnings rose 7% to $3.61 per share even as net income fell 1% to about $2.7 billion. Share repurchases helped reduce the number of shares over which earnings were spread.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 9% to $4.61 billion, above the $4.49 billion estimate. The adjusted EBITDA margin held at 47%. Free cash flow fell 22% to $1.1 billion in the quarter, though it was up 2% for the first nine months of 2026. Booking repurchased $2.1 billion of stock during the quarter and declared a 42-cent quarterly dividend.
Gross bookings and room nights came in above estimates of $52.69 billion and 339.24 million, respectively. Gross bookings measure the value of travel services customers reserve after cancellations, generally including taxes and fees. The company records its own revenue separately. Alternative accommodation nights on Booking.com increased 7%, while flight tickets across the group rose 19.4%.
Booking Expects Slower Growth in the Fourth Quarter
Management projects fourth-quarter room-night growth of 1% to 3% and gross bookings growth of 2% to 4%. It expects adjusted revenue to increase 0% to 2% and adjusted EBITDA to be about flat from a year earlier. Booking said international travel softened late in the third quarter while domestic demand held up.
The outlook assumes travel disruption linked to the Middle East conflict lasts through year-end. Booking pointed to higher airfares and localized unrest in some European cities as additional pressures in October. The weaker cross-border outlook follows a quarter in which Hilton reported a rebound in business travel, as we previously reported.
