As a proof of investors' hopes in a travel industry's better future, the share price of Booking Holdings Inc. updated its all-time high at $4177.. Its rival AirBnb in the segment of longer-term rental and experience business was suffering from lower number of stays in its own forecast estimates in early August, now struggling to recover from a painful price drop that time. Many expect consumer spending revival on lightweight borrowing costs not only in the West but also in China and some other Asian countries, and so competitors contributed to a remarkable Booking.com progress. However, the largest operator of travel aggregators and metasearch engines is always marching one or two steps ahead of them.

Among other bullish drivers, a promising partnership with PolyAI, a pioneer company in voice solutions based on artificial intelligence features for customer service should be noted. OpenTable, which is an online restaurant-reservation app and part of Booking Holdings $140 billion empire for nearly ten years, expanded to cover more than 60,000 eating places in more than 80 countries to fill 1.7 billion seats a year. This allows city residents and travellers to enable and book the perfect restaurant for every possible occasion. And now their life would become even easier or more comfortable, while OpenTable is getting a good opportunity to collect higher gross proceeds because PolyAI and OpenTable just announced their relationships on September 23. Good news unsurprisingly boosted the market value of BKNG literally the next Wall Street morning.

The state-of-the-art technology of a guest-led voice assistant to choose excellent locations for the particular day, time and purpose also helps location owners to answer various questions, gain visibility in customer trends, deliver on-brand experiences and take reservations, of course, saving a lot of staff time and material resources. This integration of OpenTable with PolyAI's will help restaurateurs to face growing cost and tax challenges while also providing their hospitality even off premise.

In the latest survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, 62% of dinner places admitted they did not have enough employees to support existing demand. Restaurant chains also said they might routinely miss between 30% to 60% of phone calls to their front of house, according to PolyAI investigation, including the calls outside of normal operating hours. Now most of them would not miss revenue opportunities. Built-in language technologies are also important. PolyAI said its smart automation solutions provide numerous iterations of voice assistants to cater to the unique needs of multi-location and multi-brand portfolios for large diners' chains.

For Q2 2024, Booking Holdings reported a 7% YoY increase in both room nights and revenue, with its stock value exceeding a 35% increase for the last 12 months. An additional growth segment is unlikely to affect the next earnings, which is scheduled for October 30, but in a year or so, it may well improve the overall financial pattern, which helps to maintain the optimistic mood for three to four reporting periods ahead. The next target price area is supposedly located at $4,500 per share.