BKNG · 10-Q · 2026Q3 · Full report

Distribution Channels

Booking Holdings Inc. · 2026-11-03 · Importance 32 · Surprise 24 · In source text

Direct bookings accounted for a mid-fifties percentage of total room nights in both trailing-twelve-month periods ended September 30, 2026 and 2025, despite declines in unpaid organic search traffic. Booking Holdings expects SEO traffic to decline in the short to medium term, potentially increasing its spending on paid marketing channels. Performance marketing uses search engines, affiliate marketing, metasearch, and social media, while the company says direct channels excluding SEO partly offset faster affiliate marketing expense growth as a share of gross bookings. The majority of room nights booked on mobile apps are direct, giving the company additional opportunities to engage travelers directly.

Key facts

• Booking Holdings expects SEO traffic to decline in the short to medium term, potentially leading to increased spending in paid marketing channels. source
• Mobile apps accounted for a high-fifties percentage of room nights booked over the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2026, up from a mid-fifties percentage in the comparable period ended September 30, 2025. source
• The mobile-app room-night mix was high-fifties percent in the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2026; the significant majority of those room nights were direct bookings. source
• Direct bookings accounted for a mid-fifties percentage of total room nights in the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2026 and September 30, 2025. source

Impact estimates