Booking Holdings Teams Up With Visa to Aid Diners

Booking Holdings Inc.'s BKNG subsidiary OpenTable partnered with Visa V to launch The OpenTable & Visa Dining Collection.

The collection provides Visa cardholders with exclusive access to restaurant reservations and events at numerous local restaurants in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Diners who make their reservations with OpenTable will receive rewards for paying with their Visa cards. Eligible cardholders will also have access to exclusive culinary events featuring rising star chefs.

Booking Holdings is expected to gain solid popularity among Visa cardholders on the back of its latest partnership.

Moreover, it will enable BKNG to capitalize on the solid growth opportunity present in the restaurant reservations software market, which, per a Market Research Intellect report, is expected to hit $24.5 billion by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 10.13% between 2024 and 2031.

Competitive Advantage

This OpenTable-Visa partnership will also place this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company at a competitive advantage against players like TripAdvisor TRIP and Yelp YELP, which are also making concerted efforts to strengthen their foothold in the restaurant reservations software market.

TripAdvisor is gaining solid momentum across its restaurant booking platform, TheFork. TheFork offers a revenue management tool for restaurant businesses, leveraging its expertise in yield management to optimize reservation management and occupancy rate, increase bookings and visibility, fight no-shows, manage payments and streamline operations while connecting to the broadest community of loyal diners.

Yelp, on the other hand, is benefiting from Yelp Guest Manager, which allows restaurants to communicate and share updates with new and existing customers. It also enables business owners to access their restaurant's online table management from any device, allowing them to edit reservations and assignments remotely.

Expanding Partnerships Aid Customer Momentum

The latest move is in sync with BKNG's growing efforts to boost its clientele on the back of expanding partnerships, which remains a key growth driver for the company. Its shares have gained 16.7% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's 13.2% growth.

Booking Holdings' subsidiary, Agoda, partnered with the Taipei City Government Department of Information and Tourism to serve as the Official Accommodation Partner for the World Masters Games (WMG).

Per the terms of the deal, Agoda now offers a dedicated booking page for the WMG, simplifying accommodation searches for competitors and visitors. This partnership will aid Booking Holdings in gaining solid customer momentum in Asia.

Agoda also partnered with DBS to introduce a reward points redemption system for Hong Kong customers, enhancing their access to value travel deals. The deal allows Agoda's Hong Kong customers holding DBS$ and COMPASS Dollar credit cards to experience a seamless redemption while making hotel payments at the site, allowing insufficient point holders to reduce their booking costs.

This partnership will aid Booking Holdings to gain solid momentum across DBS customers in Hong Kong, further expanding its customer base in Asia.

Conclusion

BKNG's expanding clientele on the back of a growing partner base and its strong competitive position bode well for its near-term growth prospects.

Moreover, its robust product portfolio, strong momentum across the merchant, advertising and other businesses, growing alternative accommodation business and flight capabilities remain positives.

These factors are expected to continue driving the overall financial performance of the company in the near term.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 revenues is pegged at $23.09 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 8.05%.

The consensus mark for 2024 earnings is pegged at $178.54 per share, indicating a 17.3% rise from the year-ago figure. The figure has been revised upward by 0.01% in the past seven days.

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