(Reuters) – Booking Holdings beat Wall Street targets for second-quarter profit on Thursday as pent-up demand for travel outweighed concerns around high inflation, sending the online travel agency’s shares up 3.88% after hours.
For the past few quarters, the lifting of pandemic curbs has fueled domestic and international travel in a boost to hotel operators such as Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
Room nights booked for the quarter ended June rose 9% from last year, Booking said. Gross travel bookings, which refers to the total dollar value of all the travel services booked by customers, 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.
The company’s revenues rose 27% to $5.46 billion, compared with analysts’ expectations of $5.17 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
The higher revenues more than offset increases in marketing and labor costs.
Booking posted a per-share adjusted profit of $37.62, far above expectations of $28.90 per share,
(Reporting by Priyamvada C and Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
