Booking revenue soars on travel demand boost
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Online travel agency Booking Holdings Inc said on Wednesday its revenue tripled and trounced estimates as more people used its services to plan their long-awaited getaways encouraged by vaccine rollouts and easing travel restrictions.
Shares of the company, which were down 6% for the year, rose 3% in aftermarket trading on a smaller adjusted quarterly loss.
"We are encouraged by another quarter of meaningful sequential improvement in booking trends with second quarter room nights increasing 59% versus the first quarter of 2021, primarily driven by stronger results in Europe and in the U.S.," Chief Executive Officer Glenn Fogel said.
The travel industry has been witnessing a quicker-than-expected return in demand, with economies rebounding from a pandemic-led slowdown and people feeling more encouraged to spend their money on non essentials.
However, the recovery could be thwarted by the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant that has led to a rise in cases in several countries. The United States has decided to keep existing travel restrictions despite months of lobbying by the airlines.
Bookings' gross travel bookings surged 852% to $22 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier, helping adjusted net loss to shrink to $105 million from $443 million a year earlier.
However, the company posted a bigger-than-expected loss of 2.55 per share, compared with estimates of $2.04 per share, as operating expenses nearly doubled in the quarter.
Revenue soared to $2.16 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $1.90 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. (Reporting by Shreyasee Raj in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
