• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
TechPriceline

Why Priceline Group Is Changing Its Name to Booking Holdings

By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 21, 2018, 8:30 AM ET

Say goodbye to The Priceline Group and hello to Booking Holdings.

The online travel giant said Wednesday that it has changed its name to better reflect its businesses as as well as acknowledge the significance of its Booking.com service, its biggest unit. As a result of the name change, the company’s Nasdaq stock ticker will switch to BKNG from PCLN on Feb. 27.

The name change is notable considering that most Americans probably recognize Priceline.com (PCLN) as one of the top online travel sites—along with rivals like Expedia—for buying airplane tickets and hotel reservations.

But while the Priceline brand is well-known in the U.S. (and will live on as Priceline.com), it’s not the case around the world, explained Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel. Outside the U.S. in cities like Shanghai or Tokyo, people are generally unaware of Priceline.com and instead are more familiar with the Booking.com brand, Fogel said.

“We do a lot more business outside the U.S. than we do inside the U.S.,” Fogel said.

He said Booking.com is the company’s biggest business unit, larger than other services the company owns like KAYAK, agoda.com, Rentalcars.com, OpenTable, and Priceline.

Fogel declined to comment on how much revenue Booking.com brings in for the company, but a spokesperson said of the company’s 22,000 employees, 17,000 work in the Booking.com unit.

The name change “gives people a good sense that Booking.com is the biggest in the group,” Fogel said.

The Booking.com that people interact with today is actually a combination of two companies that Priceline Group bought over a decade ago. In 2004, it bought the United Kingdom-based hotel reservation service Active Hotels for $161 million, which was followed by the 2005 acquisition of Amsterdam-based online hotel service, Bookings B.V, for $133 million.

Priceline then merged the two acquired businesses and abandoned the Active Hotels brand because “Booking.com was a much better name,” Fogel said.

The Booking.com and Active Hotels purchase ended up being a smart move by the Priceline Group, and has helped it rebound after the 2001 dot-com bust.

“It was one of those things where it seemed like an overnight success,” Fogel said. “Yeah, I’ll tell you it took 13 years.”

While the idea of changing The Priceline Group’s name to Booking Holdings has been gestating for some time, Fogel said that fellow executives didn’t want to do it when he first became CEO in Dec. 2016. He had taken over as CEO from Jeffrey Boyd, the company’s chairman, who was filling in as interim CEO after Darren Huston stepped down following revelations of an inappropriate relationship with an employee.

The change to Booking Holdings is intended to emphasize the growth of Booking.com and the idea that all of the company’s business units involve some sort of online booking component.

Although Fogel and his company still face plenty of competition from online giants like Expedia, the newly named Booking Holdings also faces new players like the fast-rising Airbnb and even Google (GOOG), which has been debuting its own online travel services.

Fogel called both Airbnb and Google “great” companies, but he downplayed any concern about increased competition with them, and instead bragged about his own company’s services.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Still, it’s likely that Fogel has these companies in mind, as he also emphasized how travel companies like his must continually grow and stay relevant in the fast-changing industry.

“If you don’t innovate and keep up with the changes, you will not survive,” Fogel said.

One way Booking Holdings is innovating, he said, is by targeting China, which he said is “by far the locomotive of the travel industry.”

“If you’re not playing in China, you play at a disadvantage,” Fogel said.

About the Author
By Jonathan Vanian
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jonathan Vanian is a former Fortune reporter. He covered business technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data privacy, and other topics.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

allbirds
AILayoffs
Allbirds’ 600% stock surge says a lot about how ‘AI washing’ became the new ‘greenwashing’
By Suvrat Dhanorkar and The ConversationMay 21, 2026
6 minutes ago
musk
InvestingIPOs
‘We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs’: SpaceX IPO reads like Hollywood fantasy version of the future
By Bernard Condon and The Associated PressMay 21, 2026
42 minutes ago
murdoch
Big TechMedia
James Murdoch vows ‘ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations’ as he takes over New York, Vox brands
By Jocelyn Noveck and The Associated PressMay 21, 2026
54 minutes ago
Traders work after a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.
InvestingMarkets
Wall Street thinks there’s a chance the S&P 500 could push 20% higher by 2027
By Eleanor PringleMay 21, 2026
2 hours ago
Elon Musk sits with his fists together, looking up.
NewslettersTerm Sheet
SpaceX’s IPO filing is full of surprises
By Allie GarfinkleMay 21, 2026
3 hours ago
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiling the company's new manned spacecraft in Hawthorne, Calif. on May 29, 2014. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
Rollout complete: SpaceX files IPO prospectus
By Andrew NuscaMay 21, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
2 days ago
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
22 hours ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
4 days ago
Dr. Bernice King on why companies that walked back DEI were never truly committed: 'If you retreat that quick…that reveals who you really are'
Workplace Culture
Dr. Bernice King on why companies that walked back DEI were never truly committed: 'If you retreat that quick…that reveals who you really are'
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 20, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 20, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 20, 2026
24 hours ago
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
Workplace Culture
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
By Sydney LakeMay 20, 2026
18 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.