A：The forward-looking statements in the speech indicate that Booking Holdings expects to face risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. These statements are made regarding future performance and indicate that actual results might differ materially from those expressed or forecasted. The company refers to their previous SEC filings and the Earnings press release for a list of factors that could cause these differences.

A：Booking Holdings plans to disclose material information in the future through the Investor Relations page of its website, which can be found at IR.dot.bookingholingup.com. The company encourages investors to monitor this website, along with other public announcements and SEC filings, for any material information that may be posted.

A：The key achievements highlighted for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 include strong execution despite global market volatility, solid underlying business fundamentals, resilient travel demand, and the company's global platform positioned to serve various traveler needs. Additionally, the company has developed innovative AI-powered capabilities to enhance service to both travelers and partners.

A：Glenn Fogel views the current time in the travel industry as an extraordinary period, especially with the advent of generative AI that is accelerating innovation and changing how the company delivers on its mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. He emphasizes his optimism about the company's opportunities ahead due to the application of AI and deep understanding of traveler intent.

A：The financial highlights for the fourth quarter included an 85% to 9% year-over-year increase in revenue, exceeding the high end of expectations, with a 16% growth in both gross bookings and revenue. Adjusted EBITDA reached $2.2 billion, up 19%, and adjusted earnings per share grew 17% year over year. For the full year, strong top-line growth metrics were achieved with over 1.2 billion room nights, an 8% increase year over year, and gross bookings and revenue growth up 12% and 13%, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA grew to over $9.9 billion, a 20% year-over-year increase, with a margin expansion thanks to the company's transformation program.

A：For 2026, the company's strategic priorities include consistently delivering greater value for travelers and partners, and enabling it through differentiated technology and savings from the transformation program. The company is strategically investing further to support sustained growth and long-term value creation. The target is to achieve full-year constant currency top-line growth of approximately 100 basis points ahead of the long-term growth algorithm while maintaining bottom-line performance in line with that framework.

A：The connected trip strategy is making progress with the goal of personalizing, seamlessly, and enhancing the travel experience. Full-year connected trip transactions grew in the high 20% range, representing a double-digit percentage of total transactions. The strategy also includes focusing on new customers and enabling connected trip scale through improvements in payments and customer service. The Genius loyalty program is another initiative that is expanding to include more partners and offering relevant benefits to loyal travelers, which is contributing to the company's goal of improving the overall customer experience.

A：Booking Holdings sees structurally strong travel demand in the Asia region supported by rising incomes and increasing cross-border travel. The company's position in Asia is bolstered by the complementary strengths of Agoda and Booking.com, which allows it to serve both local and inbound travelers. Full-year 2025 saw low double-digit room night growth in Asia, and the company continues to invest in product improvements and work with partners to enhance payments and service capabilities. The ambition in Asia is to grow faster than the market over time.

A：Independent partners choose to work with booking.com not just for the demand they deliver, but also for the broader set of technological capabilities provided by booking.com, such as global brand and performance marketing expertise, guided and driven insights, and integrated technology solutions across payments, advertising, and multilingual 24/7 customer service.

A：Besides technology, booking.com offers local expertise and works with dedicated partner services teams around the world, including the ability to process over 100 payment methods and over 50 currencies to support local payments.

A：Since inception, booking.com has been an early adopter of technology, deploying AI at scale for over a decade. They have been rolling out generative AI capabilities across their brands to enhance the full traveler journey, including natural language search, smart filters, support from interactive AI agents, and have extended these capabilities into other verticals and added voice functionality.

A：The performance highlights for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 include steady improvement with room night growth accelerating each quarter, exceeding expectations in the fourth quarter. The revenue growth was higher than the guidance due to stronger performance across various aspects such as bookings, revenue, and expenses. The company achieved year-over-year growth, with increased gross bookings, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA. The adjusted EPS grew by 17% year over year. The full year results showed growth in all regions with the US and rest of Asia recording significant growth. The mobile app mix of room nights increased, and the company saw a strong direct channel B2C mix.

A：Revenue as a percentage of gross bookings was 14.5% in 2025, up slightly from 14.4% in the prior year, primarily due to a benefit from higher payment revenues.

A：The ending cash and investments balance in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $1.7 billion, there was $1.4 billion in free cash flow generated in the quarter, and the company returned a total of $8.2 billion to shareholders in 2025.

A：The company plans to continue returning capital to shareholders and maintaining an attractive capital structure, supported by a foundation of investment-grade credit ratings and focusing on growth leverage through the cycle. It has also announced a quarterly cash dividend increase to $10.50 per share and a stock split to take effect on April 6.

A：The company expects the aggregate transformation costs to be less than $500 million in 2026 and aims to deliver in-year savings of $50 to $55 million in 2026. It also plans to drive additional efficiencies in ongoing operations, targeting approximately $400 million in incremental revenue, resulting in a net impact of about $300 million to Adjusted EBITDA for the year.

A：The expected constant currency adjusted EPS growth trajectory is in line with the company's long-term growth ambition of Ed, and the guidance for Xi assumes recent FX rates for the remainder of the year.

A：First quarter revenue growth is expected to be between 14 and 16%, and first quarter adjusted EBITDA growth is expected to be between Ed and Ed, with a high end of the range at 20%.

A：Changes in foreign exchange are expected to positively impact the company's reported growth rates by about 2 percentage points for gross bookings and revenue, and by about 8 percentage points for adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter.

A：Constant currency accommodation ad is expected to be about in line with the prior year's figures.

A：The company aims to continue being tactical and taking advantage of opportunities that arise. They are investing in growth opportunities, particularly focusing on leveraging the potential of generative AI-enabled capabilities to enhance their offerings. The vision is to unlock increasing value for travelers and partners, drive durable growth, and attractive returns for shareholders.

A：The marketing spend deleverage in the December quarter was due to the company taking advantage of opportunities with attractive return on investment (ROI) in performance marketing and leaning into greater social media investments. The investments in social media marketing grew by 13%, and there was also higher B marketing spend in the fourth quarter related to events like the UEFA European Soccer Championship. These factors helped accelerate room growth to 9% in the fourth quarter.

A：The company intends to create a personal travel agent digitally using technology to personalize experiences and provide better solutions for travelers and partners. They aim to utilize all available data to come up with better solutions and are building for this purpose in various ways across the business. Connected trip growth is mentioned as an area of focus, and there is a strategy to incorporate agentic capabilities throughout the system, although specific areas and rollout times are not disclosed.

A：The specific metrics being used to assess the impact of the agentic tools include more engagement from traveler customers, faster search speeds, better conversion rates, lower cancellation rates, and positive customer satisfaction.

A：Customer service costs are down, and bookings are up approximately 10%, resulting in a 10% decline in customer service cost per booking. This has a positive impact on the SN O and sales and other line items, providing leverage and contributing to the company's financial results.

A：The signals received as the Genius program scales include the value produced by level 2 and 3 members who are returning, and the program is expanding beyond accommodations to other verticals. The company is working hard to make the program more attractive and is planning to make it even more appealing for customers to book directly with them.

A：The overall room nights for Genius levels 2 and 3 customers have increased year over year and currently stand at a high 50% level, which is highly correlated with travelers who book directly with the company.

A：The company plans to build a lot of 'agentic' tools at the top of the funnel to make it attractive for customers to come directly to their platform. These tools will allow customers to trust the company's commitment to fixing any issues that arise, and they will be able to connect with other parts of the company's services.

A：Early AI/ML business partners have been working with the company in various ways, but it is very early to share substantial information or to discuss their future plans or strategies in detail. The company does not have visibility into the strategies shared by these partners. However, the topic of being a merchant of record is complex and requires handling various challenges such as supplier relationships, property management, and payment complexities. It is noted that the large language model players may not necessarily undertake these responsibilities.

A：The speaker views Google as a top-of-the-funnel player in the advertising market, where they have successfully competed with a large entity for a long time, and acknowledges the profitability for both companies involved in the advertising auction system.

A：The company is focusing on reinvestment in areas such as advertising in social media, loyalty programs, connected trips, generative AI, new verticals like attractions, expanding the OpenTable dining network, and Fintech localization. These investments are expected to impact expenses, offset by revenues, resulting in a net impact on EBITDA line of about $300 million.

A：After reinvestment, the company expects to maintain or improve EBITDA margins, grow the top line faster than their overall algorithm, and achieve an additional $250 million in savings from their transformation program, which is largely self-funded. Consequently, EBITDA margins are expected to grow by approximately 100 basis points.

A：While the company is not providing specific guidance for future numbers, they believe alternative accommodation is an important area for the future and intend to continue investing in it. They have seen healthy growth in the supply of alternative accommodations and expect this to contribute to faster top-line growth metrics for the remainder of the year.