Booking Holdings Inc at Nasdaq London Investor Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>We're all good. We're all covered there. So let's start with a reflection of your time at the company and what has changed. So next, we're coming up about two years, about about 1.5 years right now, call it, two years in about next year. I want to start with what, in your mind, the biggest misperception or misunderstanding about Booking Holdings is now that you've had 1.5 years under the tent having a lot of meetings with investors, analysts, like what part is most misunderstood in your view?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : Great. Okay. That's a good starting point. I think one of the things that you've done a really good job at the last 1.5 years has been laying out the company's multiyear growth framework. How you think about driving 8% growth, the 8% growth leading really healthy double-digit bottom line growth? Maybe just sort of remind everyone sort of what that framework is numerically? And as you kind of think about puts and takes of sources of upside to growth or potential risks to those growth frameworks? How do you think about both of those?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : You know all our Gen AI questions. Maybe let me start with the $170 million because I think it's interesting to lay out these multiyear frameworks for consumer cyclically exposed companies, but 8%, 8%, 15% is pretty formulaic and actually helpful for investors. So maybe walk us through over the course of the year. How does the budgeting work? Do you start the year saying we're going to spend more on Asia? We're going to spend this amount of alternatives? We're going to invest in this type of growth? How does the actual like blocking attack of the annual budgeting process work just to ensure you're meeting or exceeding your targets?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : And what are the areas you sort of talked about the $170 million investment fund, what are some of the areas that we should think that make up the biggest chunks of that $170 million, how are you allocating the capital?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : I don't think you mentioned alternatives in that at all. Can you walk us through the areas you're investing on in alternatives? And how do you think about growing more supply and alternatives in the US?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : Is the US getting even more growth out of the US and Alternatives? Is that really important to sort of maintain that outsized growth in the portfolio? How important is the US driving that growth from here?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : Okay. It's been 15 minutes. Now we can talk about Gen AI. So about 20 to 25 years ago, the hotels had their online businesses and online travel agencies came to them and said, we're going to drive incremental growth. We're going to make your online business better. It will all be incremental. It's going to drive faster, you got better unit economics, et cetera. And you and your competitors build incredible businesses. And I think to some extent the hotels need you more than ever, my view. Now we have these new players, these agents sort of trying to build new places in the ecosystem, OpenAI is building out an agenetic product, I think you're a partner with them. Gemini is going to try to build new products. My worry is, is there a risk that this is -- there's an analogy to what went on with the OTAs years ago where these agents could wedge themselves in between the consumer and the OTA? You still have a lot of value with your supply, but the extent to which you become more reliant on this new paid channel and the agent impacts the unit economics. What is your response to that? And how do you think about preventing that disruption risk?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : That third part I think is probably the most important part of the defense and the counter argument to the disruption concern because the extent to which you could make a better on-platform experience in-app experience, you can actually drive even more direct traffic, higher conversion rates, bigger recurring user base. What are one or two products you've sort of tested on that front so far? Anything you can share on sort of signal you're getting and how do we think about the pipeline there?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : That's really helpful. That will be important signal.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : Yeah, it matters. I mean I think -- well, maybe let's talk about that. Let's sort of talk about some of the cost savings or the sources of efficiency you sort of see looking ahead to kind of maybe bend the cost curve using Gen AI or any types of tools. What are you doing now? And how do you think about potential savings on that?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : Got it. Okay. I want to talk you about marketing efficiency and kind of marketing channels. You mentioned before how there historically has been one big channel, Google, I'll call it again, respent a lot. But then I think in the last, let's call it, three to four quarters, you talked more about Social and sort of Social being a pretty rapidly channel with heavy -- pretty healthy ROIs. Talk to us about what's changed in social? And how do you think about social being a bigger part of the overall marketing mix as you go into '26?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : I think that stands out on the characteristics of the incremental users, your incremental travelers are capturing social. Is there a different demographic? Is it younger? Is it older? Is it a certain geo? Anything you share on what the -- what those incremental users look like that may be different than your current users?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : All right. And we have time for one more question. Just -- I want you to remind everybody on the philosophy around capital allocation and share count shrink and like stock-based comp is going to know this is sort of a debate in the sector. Just how important is sort of delivering durable share count shrink to shareholders for Booking Holdings?

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley & Co Ltd - Analyst : All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time as always. Thank you. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 9:30AM, BKNG.OQ - Booking Holdings Inc at Nasdaq London Investor Conference