The company saw nearby and domestic bookings offset weakness in long-haul travel and expects the same pattern to continue in the third quarter.
Booking Holdings delivered better-than-expected results in the second quarter of 2026, at a time when long-haul international travel was affected by the conflict in the Middle East. Rather than canceling their travel plans, consumers adjusted them toward shorter, domestic or regional trips, with this demand flowing through to the company’s platforms.
According to figures presented during the company’s earnings call, room nights increased by 5% year on year, gross bookings rose by 9%, and revenue increased by 8%. Adjusted EBITDA reached approximately $2.6 billion, up 9%.
Domestic and regional demand filled the gap
The company’s key message was that travel demand did not disappear but shifted. As Chief Financial Officer Ewout Steenbergen explained, higher airfares and reduced flight availability prompted travelers to look for alternatives, resulting in more domestic and regional travel.
In regional terms, Europe posted mid-single-digit growth overall, with domestic room nights increasing at a high-single-digit rate. Asia also recorded mid-single-digit growth, while domestic room nights increased at a low-double-digit rate despite greater pressure on flight availability. In the US, growth was at a high-single-digit rate, driven by domestic demand.
The company also noted that bookings were being made closer to departure dates and that trip duration declined slightly, a pattern consistent with last-minute and shorter-distance travel. Both trends returned to more normal levels in June.
Slower growth in alternative accommodations
In alternative accommodations, including vacation rentals, apartments, villas, guesthouses, B&Bs and aparthotels, room nights increased by 4%. This was below the overall growth rate in room nights across the platform, while the category’s share remained at around 37% of Booking.com’s room nights, unchanged from a year earlier.
Booking attributed this performance to the mix of demand, as growth was driven more strongly by Agoda, Priceline and the US—areas and channels that have a greater weighting toward hotels. At the same time, the company acknowledged that the impact of the conflict in the Middle East also affected this category, as vacation rentals rely heavily on longer-distance travel from Europe.
CEO Glenn Fogel made clear that he would like to see significantly stronger growth in this category, particularly in the US, where Booking has been working for years to expand both its supply and brand awareness. Improving the performance of alternative accommodations remains a firm priority for the company.
What this means for Q3
For the third quarter of 2026, Booking expects room nights to increase by 3% to 5%, while gross bookings, revenue and earnings are all expected to grow within a 4% to 6% range. For the full year, the company continues to expect high-single-digit growth.
The outlook is based on the assumption that high airfares, limited capacity on certain routes and weaker long-haul international demand will persist. In other words, Booking expects the substitution of long-haul travel with shorter-distance trips to remain the dominant pattern in the next quarter.
For hospitality businesses, the message is clear: when air travel comes under pressure, demand does not necessarily disappear—it changes form. Businesses serving domestic, drive-to or regional travelers appear to be capturing a larger share of this demand, while destinations that depend heavily on cross-border and long-haul travel are facing greater pressure.
