Booking shifted from hotel search toward a connected trip platform

Booking entered the travel rebound with a hotel-search advantage, but management wanted a larger role in the trip. Its Connected Trip strategy aimed to link lodging with payments, ground transport, attractions, itinerary tools and mobile use.

The operating model moved with the product idea. Booking.com expanded homes and apartments, increased app usage, and shifted more business onto the merchant model where Booking handles the payment flow.

In 2023, room nights increased 17%, total revenue rose 25% to $21.4 billion, and merchant gross bookings reached 54% of total gross bookings, up from 44% in 2022.

The model added payments and platform complexity, and performance marketing remained a major source of demand.

Payments removed friction and gave Booking more control over the customer transaction.

Alternative accommodations widened supply beyond traditional hotels.

Mobile app growth made repeat direct use more valuable than one-off search traffic.

A marketplace can deepen its position by owning more trip components, but the operating model has to absorb payments, mobile, and non-hotel inventory at scale.

Booking continued to describe Connected Trip as a long-term product and platform direction. The 2023 numbers showed that the company could use the travel rebound to deepen control of the transaction, not only harvest demand.