Platform Scale and Profitability Across Global Online Travel Firms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65310/5945a449Keywords:
financial performance, online travel platforms, platform economics, profitability, revenue conversionAbstract
Online travel platforms differ in their ability to transform transaction scale into financial performance. Between 2023 and 2025, Booking Holdings, Airbnb, and Expedia Group all expanded gross bookings and revenue, but their monetization efficiency and profitability followed different patterns. Booking Holdings maintained the largest transaction base and the highest revenue-to-bookings ratio, while Airbnb achieved a comparable 2025 net margin from a substantially smaller booking base. Expedia Group recorded booking and revenue growth but lower profitability, indicating that ecosystem scale alone does not determine earnings outcomes.This study used comparative secondary financial analysis of audited annual reports and investor-relations data from 2023–2025. Gross bookings, revenue growth, revenue-to-bookings ratios, and net income margins were examined to assess scale, monetization, and profitability. The findings show that revenue conversion remained relatively stable across firms, whereas profit margins differed considerably because of business architecture, cost structure, taxation, and operating leverage. The results confirm that platform evaluation should combine ecosystem throughput, monetization efficiency, and normalized profitability rather than rely on transaction volume alone. These findings provide managerial evidence for assessing travel platforms across distinct business models.
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