Booking Holdings’ Reported Revenue Falls 1% to $8.9 Billion in Third Quarter
Key Facts
Booking Holdings reported revenue of $8.9 billion in the third quarter of 2026, down 1% from the same period a year earlier, while adjusted revenue rose 9% to $9.8 billion. The company attributed the gap to a $900 million revenue reduction and a $100 million accrued loss related to a Federal Trade Commission matter. These items were excluded from certain adjusted metrics, according to the earnings release. Meanwhile, gross bookings grew 10% year over year to $54.5 billion, showing continued expansion in business volume during the quarter. Room nights booked totaled 345 million, up 7% from the third quarter of 2025.
The divergence between the measures extended to net income: the company reported $2.7 billion under generally accepted accounting principles, down 1% year over year, while adjusted net income rose 8% to $3.5 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased 17% to $4.66 for the quarter. These figures put reported revenue in a different context from the performance of adjusted metrics, which excluded items related to the Federal Trade Commission matter. Gross bookings, another indicator of the company’s activity, also posted double-digit annual growth, while room nights rose at a slower pace. Chief Executive Glenn Fogel said, "Travel demand remained resilient, and disciplined execution by our teams drove gross bookings growth of more than 10%."
The company, however, pointed to a shift in demand trends near the end of the quarter. It said global travel demand eased somewhat as international travel trends weakened, while domestic travel remained resilient. It added that external factors affected demand in October, including travel disruptions to and from the Middle East and higher airfares. It also cited local disruptions in some European cities among the factors that affected demand during the month. In its comments on the results, the company said weaker international demand accounted for part of the slowdown, while domestic travel remained resilient.
On capital allocation, Booking Holdings repurchased $2.1 billion of shares during the quarter ended September 30, 2026, excluding excise taxes, according to its statement. The remaining share repurchase authorization stood at $12.4 billion on September 30. These figures provide a picture of the scale of the company’s repurchases during the period and the amount still available under the authorization at quarter-end. In the market context ahead of the results announcement, the stock closed at $153.75 on November 2, 2026. That closing price alone does not establish the direction of trading after the results were released.
For the fourth quarter, the company expects room nights to grow between 1% and 3% year over year, and gross bookings to grow between 2% and 4%. It estimated adjusted revenue growth for the same period at between 0% and 2%. These estimates place activity and revenue indicators in separate growth ranges, with bookings and room nights expected to rise faster than adjusted revenue. The ranges represent the company’s guidance for the coming period, following third-quarter growth of 10% in gross bookings and 7% in room nights.