Booking Holdings on Thursday raised its forecast for third-quarter gross bookings as pent-up demand for travel outweighed rising costs and concerns around an uncertain economy, sending its shares up 10.25% in extended trading.
It now expects gross bookings, which refers to the total dollar value of all travel services booked by customers, to grow slightly more than 20%, up from previous expectations of low-teens growth.
Booking, whose biggest market is Europe, beat Wall Street targets for second-quarter profit. Net income was USD 1.3 billion, an increase of 51% from the prior-year quarter, which was twice of Airbnb's net income for the same period.
Room nights booked for the quarter ended June rose 9% from last year, while gross travel bookings jumped 15%.
"We have seen these strong trends continue into July, and we are currently preparing for what we expect to be a record summer travel season in the third quarter," said CEO Glenn Fogel in a statement.
In July, bookings in Asia were up 45% year-on-year, driving most of the growth, whereas the U.S. was up by mid-single digits.
Booking's revenue rose 27% to USD 5.46 billion, compared with analysts' expectations of USD 5.17 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Read original article
