Priceline Group changes name to Booking Holdings to reflect ‘defining moment’

Booking.com brand is group’s biggest, making more than one million bookings per day Continue reading →

Booking.com parent Priceline Group has changed its name to Booking Holdings because of the growth of the online travel agent.

The Booking.com brand is Priceline’s biggest, advertising 1.5 million properties and making more than one million bookings per day and described the move as a “defining moment”.

It also owns the Priceline, Kayak, Rentalcars.com, Agoda and OpenTable brands and recently acquired Momondo Group, the parent company of Cheapflights.com.

As well as hotels, Booking.com also sells flights, flights with hotels, car rental and other holiday extras. Its main competitor is fellow online travel giant Expedia.

In a statement, chief executive Glenn Fogel said: “Today, our largest brand is Booking.com, which has more than 1.5 million properties, averages over 1 million bookings per day and produces a significant majority of Booking Holdings’ gross bookings and operating profit.

“We are at a defining moment in our company’s history — making this change to more accurately align our company name with our largest business, connect our collective brands to a name that reflects their shared capability to help customers book amazing experiences, as well as better reflect the truly global operation that we have become today.”

As a result of the name change, the company’s ticker on the Nasdaq stock exchange will change from PCLN to BKNG from February 27.

“Booking.com was a much better name,” Fogel told Fortune, but would not reveal how much revenue the brand brings to the group. He said the name change “gives people a good sense that Booking.com is the biggest in the group.”