Priceline hotel bookings up

Priceline Group topped profit estimates as the number of hotel rooms booked through its websites increased and the impact of terrorism on tourism to Europe was muted. Shares jumped as much as 6.2 percent in extended trading after the results were released.

Revenue increased 12 percent to US$2.56 billion. Gross travel bookings – the total amount of money spent by customers on Priceline’s websites – increased 19 percent to US$17.9 billion, compared with about US$15 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Priceline is working to keep up revenue growth and face down numerous challenges including terrorism fears damping travel to Europe, hotel consolidation making it harder to charge high percentages of booking fees and the possibility of new players like Google stepping up their presence in the market.

“We definitely have seen softer travel demands in markets affected by attacks,” chairman and interim chief executive officer Jeffery Boyd told Bloomberg.

France and Belgium were most directly affected, but consumers are still traveling to other European countries. Travel to Turkey also dropped off after the country’s failed coup, he said.