During the online travel agency’s (OTA) first-quarter earnings, Fogel was “incredibly excited” about the thought of AI players moving towards a similar model, citing Booking’s experience earned over the years with Google.
Time will tell—the dynamics of current performance marketing such as keyword auctions aren’t a feature of the AI models but having volumes of structured data is definitely a plus.
While those shifts play out, Booking Holdings continues, alongside its online travel counterparts, to vie for consumers by increasing marketing spend year over year. In Q1 2026, the online giant invested $2.1 billion in marketing, up 16% year over year and representing about 38% of revenue.
Simultaneously the OTA continues to build up its direct business, with Fogel sharing on the Q1 earnings call that Booking.com saw double-digit growth for the direct channel in the U.S.market.
Ewout Steenbergen, the company’s CFO also pointed to the resilience of the U.S. direct mix for the past four quarters “holding steady in the mid-60% range.”
“We continue to see a higher direct-booking rate in room nights received through our mobile apps as well as from travelers in our higher Genius tiers,” Steenbergen said. “The mobile app mix of our total room nights was in the high 50% range and the mix of Booking.com room nights booked by travelers in the Genius tiers of Levels 2 and 3 was in the high 50% range.”
He added that the mobile app and website increases compared to the mid-50% range in Q1 2025.
Direct sales and marketing spend over at Expedia Group hit $1.9 billion in Q1, an increase of 6% year over year and representing 54% of the company’s revenue.
Driving operating efficiency and margin expansion is one of Expedia Group’s strategic priorities. CEO Ariane Gorin made several references to AI’s use to help drive marketing efficiency, acquire new traffic and improve margins during its Q1 earnings call. She provided specific examples around conversion increases for vacation rental brand Vrbo and improved attach rates for Expedia.
Gorin also said two thirds of bookings come from direct channels and AI platforms are seen as an opportunity to grow bookings from indirect channels.
“We moved early here, leveraging our technical strengths built up over many years. Answer Engine Optimization is now our fastest-growing channel,” she said. “And in February, we went live with ChatGPT ads. Traffic and bookings from AI-driven channels remain small but we're encouraged by the mix of new users, conversion and average purchase size.”
And she stressed the long-term opportunity to diversify the company’s marketing investment.
“Overall, AI-enabled tools are driving hundreds of millions of dollars in realized marketing value through greater productivity and workflow automation,” Gorin said.
While Expedia’s 6% increase in sales and marketing in Q1 was in line with the same period in 2025, Airbnb’s increase was more marked. The company invested $751 million in sales and marketing in Q1 2026, up 33% year over year and representing 28% of revenue.
Airbnb has been investing in expansion markets including India and Brazil, with hopes that travelers in these markets will, in time, shift to the direct channel.
“A couple of years ago, before we had targeted Brazil as an expansion market, it was barely in our top 10 markets,” said Ellie Mertz, CFO of Airbnb. “Now it is consistently number three, four or five and compounding at over 20%.”
She said the growth gives the company confidence that tailoring its marketing messages according to country is the right strategy.
“Q1 alone, we had 16 local marketing campaigns capturing the local zeitgeist of cultural moments to drive awareness and consideration,” Mertz said.
It will also be interesting to watch the evolution of Airbnb’s marketing strategy as it adds hotels and expands its Services and Experiences business lines.
Tags: Ewout Steenbergen Ellie Mertz, Airbnb Expedia Group Ariane Gorin Glenn Fogel Booking Holdings Google artificial intelligence
