Booking Holdings CEO: We’re on the Road Toward Going Full-Service
Photo Credit: In a Skift interview, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel confirmed the company is headed toward becoming a full-service online travel agency. Booking Holdings
Skift Take
Evolve or be crushed. That's CEO Glenn Fogel's philosophy about business in general and Booking Holdings in particular. But the move toward becoming more of a full-service online travel agency comes with the risk of losing focus on accommodations. No one ever said all this online travel agency stuff is easy.
When the Priceline Group changed its name to Booking Holdings a couple of months ago, the company spun it as better portraying the global nature of its business, and enhancing the alignment of its six major brands, all of which perform bookings.
But behind the scenes, the name change portends a deeper shift that Skift has been pointing to for months. Booking, which became a $102 billion company based largely on its hotel business, is headed toward becoming a full-service online travel agency with some parallels to Expedia Group and Ctrip.
In an interview at Skift headquarters in New York City last week, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel confirmed the company's strategic direction.
"That's what we are driving to, yes," Fogel said. "What I would say, again, is what we are trying to create is a wholistic system that solves all issues of the trip."
He added: "I can't give you a timetable, but I will say, we are on that road."
This is the first of a two-part series featuring a
