BKNG Q4 2022 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: Booking Holdings Inc. Q4 2022 Earnings Call
• Date: February 23, 2023 at 9:30 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Glenn Fogel (Chief Executive Officer)
  • David Goulden (Chief Financial Officer)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• Fourth quarter revenue was approximately $4.0B and adjusted EBITDA was approximately $1.2B, and both results were ahead of prior expectations.
• Q4 adjusted EBITDA was about 3% below Q4 2019 and would have been about 16% above Q4 2019 on a constant currency basis.
• Non-GAAP net income was $957M resulting in non-GAAP EPS of about $25, which was up 6% versus Q4 2019, while GAAP net income exceeded $1.2B and included a $240M pre-tax sale-leaseback gain and a $179M unrealized equity gain.
• Full-year 2022 revenue was slightly more than $17.0B, which was 56% higher than 2021 and 13% higher than 2019, or up about 71% and 24% on a constant currency basis respectively.
• Full-year adjusted EBITDA was about $5.3B, which was 82% higher versus 2021, with adjusted EBITDA margin improving by four percentage points versus 2021, while full-year adjusted EBITDA was about 10% below 2019 but about 6% higher on a constant currency basis.
• Full-year gross bookings were $121.0B, which exceeded $100B for the first time and represented strong recovery versus prior years.

Bookings Growth & Mix

• Room nights in Q4 were up 10% versus 2019, improving from 8% growth in Q3, and January 2023 room nights were up 26% versus 2019 and up about 60% year over year.
• Customers booked nearly 900 million room nights on the platforms in 2022, which was up 52% versus 2021 and 6% versus 2019.
• Booking.com alternative accommodations for the full year grew about 56% versus 2021 and about 11% versus 2019 and represented about 30% of Booking.com's total room nights, while Q4 alternative accommodation room nights were up about 15% versus 2019 and the Q4 AA mix was about 29%.
• Q4 gross bookings increased 32% versus 2019 (47% on a constant currency basis), which outpaced the 10% room-night increase due to a ~29% higher accommodation constant currency ADR and roughly five points from flight bookings, partially offset by ~15 percentage points of FX headwind.
• January 2023 gross bookings were up 74% year over year (83% on a constant currency basis), and January growth bookings were up 55% versus 2019 (72% CC).
• International mix of total room nights in Q4 was about 48%, which was higher than Q3 but remained a few percentage points below Q4 2019.