Priceline.com’s Q4 profit more than doubles

Online travel company Priceline.com’s fourth-quarter profit more than doubled as the company earned $78.5 million, up from a profit of $34.1 million in the same period a year earlier.

Gross travel bookings for the fourth quarter were $2.26 billion, an increase of 52.9 percent over a year ago.

The company had revenues in the fourth quarter of $541.8 million, a 33.4 percent increase over a year ago. Priceline.com’s international operations contributed revenues of $222.9 million, a 74.9 percent increase versus a year ago.

priceline.com’s president and CEO Jeffery H. Boyd shared that hotel room nights booked grew 59.9 percent on a global basis, representing share gains for Booking.com, priceline.com and Agoda.com. 

“Our international business grew gross travel bookings at 81 percent (69.5 percent in local currency) as it continued to benefit from geographic expansion, increased hotel supply and consumer shift to online bookings,” he said.  

Domestic gross bookings grew 20.6 percent in the quarter. 

Boyd said, “Throughout 2010, we intend to maintain our focus on building our global hotel platform and strengthening our brands by adding hotel supply, expanding in attractive geographic markets, pursuing integration opportunities and adding content and innovative functionality. The business continues to perform well as economic conditions have stabilised; however, we do expect growth rates to decelerate going forward, particularly in the second half, as we begin to compare against periods of relatively stronger business performance.”