Booking Holdings faces a valid long-term bear case as AI agents could take a share of the 13-18% online travel take rate. Testing Meta's Muse and Instinct for a hotel search showed them drawing on Booking and Expedia inventory for now, but agents could eventually build direct ties with long-tail hotels, better reviews and pre- and post-booking service at lower fees. OTAs' own agents look mediocre and lack users' context. At 13x 2027 EPS it tempts as a contrarian long, but looks too tough. x.com  … Show more

Booking Holdings and Expedia look like a secular short with capped upside as their take rates come under pressure, though probably not within the next 60 days. As with Salesforce, the argument that they could simply run headless will be raised, and the market knows it from SaaS. Take rates should compress first where barriers to bringing inventory online are lowest; the platforms would then respond with aggressive marketing and margin dilution, extending their growth runway somewhat. x.com 

Booking Holdings looks ridiculously cheap against its own history, and its business and moat inspire much more confidence than Uber's even with AI risk. Its P/FCF is 11.94, versus a ten-year median of 18.85. x.com 

AI agents threaten Booking Holdings' margins. That view could change if the company adapts, pivots and proves otherwise. x.com 

Navan's post-Q2 selloff looked unwarranted against its growing corporate travel business. Gross booking value rose 45% to over $3 billion on new customers and expansion, while US business travel demand has surged. Rising operating costs and losses disappointed investors, but enterprises may increasingly seek AI-native travel tools that save time and money. x.com 

AI price-comparison risk to Booking Holdings is a big nothing burger, since Google and Google Maps have offered comparisons for ages. Personal checks find Google showing no better price than Booking about two-thirds of the time, and saving a few euros is not worth another spam account or the lost time. Having all bookings in one app is also far more convenient than digging through a messy Gmail inbox. x.com  x.com 

Booking Holdings' stock split is a topping sign, as stock splits generally are. A split attracts retail flow that minimizes damage on down days, such as one that would otherwise have been about a $300 drop. x.com  x.com 

Booking Holdings sits squarely in the middle of a European summer travel nightmare and large language models' attack on online travel agencies. Its business model, exposure to the LLM threat and European exposure, given recession chances in Europe, make it the preferred travel short. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Booking Holdings' valuation is quite clearly attractive, though AI agents may roam around and book hotels directly for people. Google I/O raised concerns about most internet names, leaving it unclear whether agentic AI will really hurt Booking. x.com  x.com 

Expedia is unattractive from both an investment and a user perspective, with offerings less proprietary than Booking Holdings'. x.com