Booking Holdings Inc.
Company History
Booking Holdings History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 1997 in Stamford, Connecticut, United States
When was Booking Holdings founded?
Booking Holdings was founded in 1997 in Stamford, Connecticut, United States by Jay S. Walker, making it 29 years old.
- Founded
- 1997
- Founding place
- Stamford, Connecticut, United States
- Founders
- Jay S. Walker
- Headquarters today
- Norwalk, Connecticut, United States
- Milestones documented
- 15 (1997–2026)
- Current CEO
- Glenn Fogel
- Acquisitions
- 8
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1997 | Priceline.com founded |
| 1999 | Nasdaq IPO |
| 2000 | Dot-com crash and restructuring |
| 2004 | Active Hotels acquired |
| 2005 | Bookings BV acquired |
| 2007 | Agoda acquired |
| 2013 | KAYAK acquired |
| 2014 | OpenTable deal and Darren Huston as CEO |
| 2017 | Glenn Fogel becomes CEO |
| 2018 | Renamed Booking Holdings |
| 2020 | Pandemic collapse |
| 2023 | 1 billion room nights and the Etraveli veto |
| 2024 | First dividend and DMA gatekeeper status |
| 2025 | Record $26.9 billion revenue |
| 2026 | Stock split, Etraveli ruling and Lola launch |
- Where was Booking Holdings founded?
- Booking Holdings was founded in Stamford, Connecticut, United States in 1997. en.wikipedia.org
- Who founded Booking Holdings?
- Booking Holdings was founded by Jay S. Walker.
- When did Booking Holdings start?
- Booking Holdings was founded in 1997.
- How old is Booking Holdings?
- Booking Holdings is 29 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Jay Walker founded Priceline.com in 1997 on a patented idea, 'Name Your Own Price'. Airlines had empty seats they could not discount openly without undercutting their published fares, so Priceline let shoppers bid for a flight without knowing the airline or exact times, and airlines could quietly accept. The service launched in April 1998 and the company went public in 1999. Its lasting business came later, when Priceline looked to Europe and bought Active Hotels in 2004 and the Dutch start-up Bookings BV in 2005, betting that thousands of small independent hotels would pay commission for guests they could not reach on their own.
Founders
Jay S. Walker
Jay S. Walker founded Priceline.com and launched it in April 1998 with the patented 'Name Your Own Price' system for airline tickets, later adding hotels, rental cars and mortgages. Priceline went public on Nasdaq in March 1999 and briefly made Walker a paper billionaire. A sister venture he backed, WebHouse Club, tried to apply the same bidding model to groceries and petrol and shut down in October 2000. Walker stepped back from Priceline as its shares collapsed in the dot-com bust, and Jeffery Boyd's management team rebuilt the business around hotels. He later returned to Walker Digital and bought the TEDMED health conference in 2008. Jay S. Walker was born in 1955. Education: Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Key Milestones
Priceline.com founded
Jay S. Walker set up Priceline.com in Norwalk, Connecticut, out of his Walker Digital lab; the 'Name Your Own Price' airline ticket service launched in April 1998.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgNasdaq IPO
Priceline listed on Nasdaq in March 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom; its first-day market value was close to $10 billion.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDot-com crash and restructuring
Priceline's shares lost more than 95% of their value, the WebHouse Club grocery and petrol bidding venture shut down, and the company cut staff and narrowed its focus to travel.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgActive Hotels acquired
Priceline bought UK-based Active Hotels for about $161 million, its first major move into European hotel bookings.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBookings BV acquired
Priceline bought Amsterdam-based Bookings BV for about $133 million and merged it with Active Hotels under the Booking.com name.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAgoda acquired
Priceline added Asian hotel booking site Agoda for about $16 million plus earn-outs.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKAYAK acquired
The company bought metasearch site KAYAK for about $1.8 billion in cash and stock.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgOpenTable deal and Darren Huston as CEO
Darren Huston became CEO in January 2014, and the company, by then called The Priceline Group, bought OpenTable for $2.6 billion.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgGlenn Fogel becomes CEO
Glenn Fogel, who joined in 2000 and led the group's acquisitions, became CEO on 1 January 2017 after Jeffery Boyd's interim spell.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgRenamed Booking Holdings
The Priceline Group became Booking Holdings in February 2018 and changed its ticker to BKNG, reflecting that Booking.com earned most of the group's revenue.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPandemic collapse
Revenue fell 55% to $6.8 billion as COVID-19 halted travel, and net income dropped to $59 million.
Source: sec.gov1 billion room nights and the Etraveli veto
Room nights passed 1 billion for the first time (1.049 billion), and in September the European Commission blocked Booking's ~$1.84 billion (€1.63 billion) purchase of flight seller Etraveli.
Source: goodwinlaw.comFirst dividend and DMA gatekeeper status
Booking paid its first quarterly dividend, $8.75 a share, and in May the European Commission designated Booking.com a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act.
Source: sec.govRecord $26.9 billion revenue
Revenue rose 13% to $26.9 billion, gross bookings reached $186.1 billion and room nights 1.235 billion.
Source: tradingview.comStock split, Etraveli ruling and Lola launch
A 25-for-1 stock split took effect in April, the EU General Court upheld the Etraveli veto on 9 September, and KAYAK's co-founders launched the Booking-owned AI travel assistant Lola on 29 September.
Source: skift.comMajor Acquisitions
Active Hotels
2004Priceline bought Cambridge, UK hotel site Active Hotels to gain European hotel supply and a business model where independent hotels paid commission after a guest stayed.
Booking.com (Bookings BV)
2005Priceline paid about €110 million (roughly $133 million) for Amsterdam-based Bookings BV to add more European independent hotels on the pay-at-hotel agency model.
Agoda
2007Priceline bought Agoda, a hotel booking site with operations in Bangkok and Singapore, for about $16 million plus earn-outs to gain hotel supply and local know-how in Southeast Asia.
KAYAK Software
2013Priceline bought the travel metasearch site KAYAK for about $1.8 billion in cash and stock to capture shoppers who compare prices before choosing where to book.
OpenTable
2014The Priceline Group paid $2.6 billion, or $103 a share in cash, for the restaurant reservation network OpenTable to move into dining.
Momondo Group
2017Booking bought Momondo Group, owner of the Momondo and Cheapflights metasearch sites, for $550 million in cash to add European search traffic.
Getaroom
2021Booking agreed in November 2021 to buy Getaroom, a US distributor that supplies hotel rooms to other businesses, for about $1.2 billion.
Etraveli Group (pending/pursued)
2022Booking Holdings primarily focused on its ongoing pursuit of Etraveli Group throughout 2022, securing regulatory clearances such as UK CMA approval in September 2022, but made no other major acquisitions that year.
Keep researching Booking Holdings
Booking Holdings Company History FAQ
What are the major historical milestones of Booking Holdings Inc.?
Priceline.com was founded in 1997 and listed on Nasdaq in 1999. It survived the 2000 dot-com crash, bought Active Hotels (2004), Booking.com (2005), Agoda (2007), KAYAK (2013) and OpenTable (2014), renamed itself Booking Holdings in 2018, passed 1 billion room nights in 2023, paid its first dividend in 2024 and split its stock 25-for-1 in 2026.
How did William Shatner become the 'Priceline Negotiator'?
Priceline hired William Shatner as its pitchman in 1998, the year the service launched, and he took shares instead of a cash fee. The ads made Priceline a US household name; the 'Negotiator' character came in a later campaign that ran from 2007.
How did Priceline recover after the 2000 dot-com crash?
Its shares lost more than 95% of their value and the WebHouse Club grocery venture shut down in October 2000. Jeffery Boyd, CEO from November 2002, cut non-travel categories, and Glenn Fogel's corporate development team bought European hotel sites Active Hotels (2004) and Bookings BV (2005), which became Booking.com.
When did Booking.com overtake Priceline's US business?
Within a few years of the 2005 deal, international bookings, mostly through Booking.com, made up the majority of the group's business. The parent took Booking.com's name in February 2018.
When did Booking.com start listing holiday homes and apartments?
Booking.com has listed apartments and homes alongside hotels for years and expanded the category heavily after 2015 to compete with Airbnb. It had about 8.8 million alternative accommodation listings by March 2026, and these stays made up about 38% of its room nights.
How did Booking Holdings handle the COVID-19 pandemic?
Revenue fell 55% to $6.8 billion in 2020 and net income dropped to $59 million. The company raised $4 billion in bonds in April 2020, cut costs and staff, and returned to $11.0 billion of revenue in 2021 and a record $17.1 billion in 2022.
How much travel does Booking Holdings book each year?
Gross bookings were $121 billion in 2022, $150.6 billion in 2023, $165.6 billion in 2024 and $186.1 billion in 2025, when the group booked 1.235 billion room nights.
What has happened at Booking Holdings in 2026?
A 25-for-1 stock split took effect in April 2026, Peer Bueller replaced co-founder Steve Hafner as KAYAK CEO in February, the EU General Court upheld the Etraveli veto on 9 September, and the Booking-owned AI assistant Lola launched on 29 September.
Was Booking Holdings originally Priceline?
Yes, the company was originally the US-based Priceline Group (famous for the "Name Your Own Price" tool). They changed their name to Booking Holdings after their massive European acquisition, Booking.com, became their primary profit engine.
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