The company highlights improving and expanding its flight offerings at Booking.com and Agoda, and growing its alternative accommodations offering as key growth initiatives. Airline tickets reserved through services increased 38.1% YoY.

The 10K emphasizes the company's long-term strategy to build the Connected Trip, requiring increased investments that could have an adverse impact on our results of operations until we achieve the expected return on these investments.

The company announced a Transformation Program intended to modernize processes, reduce workforce, optimize procurement, and seek real estate savings. This program is expected to deliver $400-$450 million in annual run rate savings, indicating a focus on efficiency and cost management.

The mix of room nights booked on a mobile app in 2024 was a low-fifties percentage, up from a high-forties percentage in 2023. The significant majority of room nights booked on our mobile apps are direct, and we continue to see favorable repeat direct booking behavior from consumers in our mobile apps, which allow us more opportunities to engage directly with consumers.

Marketing expenses as a percentage of total gross bookings in 2024 were lower than in 2023 due to an increase in the share of room nights booked by consumers coming directly to our platforms, lower brand marketing expenses, and higher performance marketing ROIs, partially offset by increased spend in social media channels.

The Transformation Program, announced in November 2024, is in its early stages. There are no assurances that the estimated cost savings goals will be achieved, the expected benefits from the Transformation Program will be realized, or the Transformation Program will be managed effectively.

The 10K highlights intense competition from online and traditional travel services, including large technology companies with greater resources. Google's online travel offerings and companies developing GenAI-powered platforms are specifically mentioned as potential competitive threats.

The company acknowledges the evolving nature of cyberattacks and the potential for unauthorized access to personal and confidential data. The report emphasizes the need to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches and maintain system security.

The 10K discusses the impact of various regulations, including the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), and the EU Package Travel Directive. The company is subject to additional rules and regulations that may not be applicable to our competitors.

Booking.com had approximately 4.0 million total properties on its website at December 31, 2024, representing an increase from approximately 3.4 million total properties at December 31, 2023. At December 31, 2024, the total properties on Booking.com's website consisted of approximately 3.5 million alternative accommodation properties and approximately 500,000 hotels, motels, and resorts.

The mix of Booking.com's room nights booked for alternative accommodation properties in 2024 was approximately 35%, up versus approximately 33% in 2023. We have observed a longer-term trend of an increasing mix of room nights booked for alternative accommodation properties as consumer demand for these types of properties has grown, and as we have increased the number and variety of these properties on Booking.com.

Discounting and couponing (i.e., merchandising) occurs across the major regions in which we operate, particularly in Asia. In some cases, our competitors are willing to make little or no profit on a transaction or offer travel services at a loss in order to gain market share. As a result, it is important to offer travel services at a competitive price, whether through discounts, coupons, closed-user group rates or loyalty programs, increased flexibility in cancellation policies, or otherwise.

Booking.com increasingly processes transactions on a merchant basis, where it facilitates payments from travelers for the services provided. However, this results in additional expenses for personnel, payment processing, chargebacks, and other expenses related to these transactions.

To the extent more of our business is generated on a merchant basis, we incur a greater level of these merchant-related expenses, which negatively impacts our operating margins despite increases in associated incremental revenues.

In 2024, the incremental revenues from facilitating payments were greater than the associated incremental variable expenses. This suggests that while the merchant model increases expenses, it also generates sufficient additional revenue to offset those costs.

The company focuses on relentless innovation and execution and a commitment to serve both consumers and partners with unmatched service and best-in-class technology.

In 2024, we continued our investments in Gen Al to benefit internal productivity and improve the consumer and partner experience.

Our evolving efforts to utilize Gen Al may increase risks related to harmful content, inaccuracies, bias or discrimination, intellectual property infringement or misappropriation, data privacy, cybersecurity, or other issues.

In 2024, we issued senior notes with varying maturities for aggregate cash proceeds of $4.8 billion. The proceeds from the issuance of these senior notes are available for general corporate purposes, including to repurchase shares of our common stock and to redeem or repay outstanding indebtedness.

During the year ended December 31, 2024, we repurchased shares of our common stock for an aggregate cost of $6.5 billion, including $345 million to repurchase shares of our common stock withheld to satisfy employee withholding tax obligations related to stock-based compensation.

During the year ended December 31, 2024, we paid cash dividends of $1.2 billion. In February 2025, the Board declared a cash dividend of $9.60 per share of common stock, payable on March 31, 2025 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 7, 2025.

In response to focus by our investors and other stakeholders, we made climate-related commitments and issued a Climate Action Plan. We continue to evaluate these commitments, including those related to offering more sustainable trip options as well as ESG disclosures that may be required in certain jurisdictions.

If our ESG practices and disclosures do not meet evolving investor or other stakeholder expectations or regulatory requirements, then our reputation, ability to attract or retain employees, and our attractiveness as an investment or business partner could be negatively impacted.

The Board and Audit Committee are responsible for oversight related to cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection and security.

Our global room nights in 2024 increased 9% year-over-year driven primarily by healthy travel demand in Europe and Asia. We saw the booking window expand in 2024 compared to 2023, which benefited year-over-year room night growth.

Macroeconomic uncertainties have led to significant volatility in currency exchange rates, stock markets, and oil prices, which can impact consumer travel behavior. The uncertainty of macroeconomic factors and their impact on consumer behavior makes it difficult to forecast industry and consumer trends and their potential impact on our business, which could adversely affect our ability to effectively manage our business and adversely affect our results of operations.

Other events beyond our control such as pandemics, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, wars and regional hostilities, travel-related accidents, or increased focus on the environmental impact of travel may disrupt or limit the ability or willingness of travelers to visit certain locations, or result in declines in demand for our travel offerings.