Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Merchant revenues as a percentage of total revenues showed a steady uptrend, increasing from 28.8% in March 2020 to over 61% by March 2025. This indicates a growing reliance on merchant revenues within the company’s business model.

Concurrently, agency revenues declined from 62.24% in March 2020 to 32.84% by March 2025, showing a marked decrease and reflecting a shift away from agency-based revenue sources over the period.

Advertising and other revenues fluctuated throughout the timeline but generally remained below 7%, showing less consistency and contribution relative to the other two segments.

Marketing expenses exhibited considerable volatility as a percentage of revenues, with notable peaks such as -45.74% in June 2021 and troughs near -26.91% in September 2024. Although fluctuating, marketing costs consistently represented a significant negative portion of revenues, indicating heavy investment or variability in marketing spend.

Sales and other expenses also varied, notably peaking at -20.79% in June 2020 and generally trending between -4.89% and -16.99%, suggesting some operational cost controls but with inconsistency.

Personnel expenses, including stock-based compensation, displayed significant variability, with extraordinarily high negative values like -71.75% in June 2020, likely indicative of exceptional charges or accounting adjustments during that period. More typical values ranged between roughly -10% to -20% later, showing normalization.

General and administrative costs generally remained subdued, mostly fluctuating between -1.91% and -10.43%, suggesting controlled overhead spending.

Information technology and depreciation/amortization expenses both stayed relatively low, mostly ranging from -1.8% to about -7.6%, indicating moderate expenditures on technology and asset depreciation.

Transformation costs appeared only very late in the period, showing small negative percentages, hinting at new strategic initiatives or restructuring efforts.

Restructuring, disposal, and exit activities were sporadically present, with fluctuations around zero and some higher positive values, implying non-recurring gains and losses affecting the reported expenses.

Impairment of goodwill impacted the early periods with large negative values indicating significant write-downs during 2020.

Total operating expenses as a percentage of revenues were consistently negative and quite large in magnitude, ranging mostly from around -57% to as much as -176%, reflecting the substantial cost base relative to revenues.

Operating income showed a recovery and improvement pattern after large early losses. The figures improved from substantial negative percentages in early 2020 to strong positive operating income in several subsequent quarters, peaking at over 43% in September 2021. This improvement underscores enhanced operational efficiency or revenue growth offsetting expenses.

Interest expense as a percentage of revenues tended to remain below -10%, with an unusual spike to -15.24% in June 2020 and notable increases in late 2024 and early 2025. This suggests periods of higher financing costs or debt levels.

Interest and dividend income started to contribute from late 2022, with percentages around 3.94% to 6.03%, offering some offset to interest expenses.

Other income (expense), net, was volatile, with both large positive and negative outliers, indicating irregular or non-operating items significantly influencing net results in some quarters.

Income before tax mirrored operating income trends, with initial losses transitioning to consistent profitability following 2020, although a few quarters in 2022 and 2025 again showed negative results.

Income tax expense fluctuated significantly, sometimes producing negative tax rates (tax benefits) and other times showing substantial expenses, contributing to the variability in net income results.

Net income followed the overall patterns of profitability, showing early losses with a recovery phase resulting in positive earnings in many periods, particularly strengthening post-2020, but also with periods of weakened profitability evidenced in early 2022 and 2025.

The data reveals a strategic shift toward higher merchant revenue dependency coupled with a decline in agency revenues over time. Despite volatile expense ratios, operating income and net income demonstrated marked recovery and growth after the initial pandemic-affected quarters in 2020.

Marketing and personnel expenses were major cost drivers with fluctuations likely influenced by operational and strategic initiatives. Though interest expenses have increased at times, rising interest and dividend income partially mitigated these costs in latter periods.

The presence of impairment balances and restructuring charges early in the timeline points to transformational adjustments, with more stable operational performance apparent in subsequent years, albeit with some fluctuations in profitability and expenses.