Priceline 2015 Annual Report Download - page 6

approximately 390,000 vacation rental properties (updated property counts are available on the Booking.com website). Further, we endeavor to
provide excellent customer service in a variety of ways, including through our call centers and websites, so that consumers can be confident that
booking reservations through us will lead to a positive experience. We are constantly innovating in order to provide a best-in-class user experience
with intuitive, easy-to-use websites and mobile apps to ensure that we are meeting the needs of online consumers while aiming to exceed their
expectations.
•Partnering with travel service providers and restaurants. We aim to establish mutually beneficial relationships with travel service providers and
restaurants around the world. We believe that travel service providers and restaurants can benefit from participating in our services by increasing
their distribution channels, demand and inventory utilization in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Travel service providers and restaurants
benefit from our well-known brands and online marketing efforts, expertise in offering an excellent consumer experience through our websites and
mobile apps and ability to offer their inventory in markets and to consumers that the travel service provider or restaurant may be unable or unlikely to
reach. For example, an independent hotel may not have the means or expertise to market itself to international travelers, including in other languages,
to build and operate effective desktop and mobile websites and online reservation services, or to engage in sophisticated online marketing techniques.
Further, we are increasingly providing services, other than reservations booked through our websites and mobile apps, designed to help our partners
grow their business. For example, Booking.com's BookingSuite services are designed to offer accommodation providers with affordable and effective
marketing and business analytics tools to help them attract guests and increase their profitability. Similarly, OpenTable is continuously working to
improve its reservation management software services to help restaurants more effectively manage their reservations and more efficiently market
their available tables to diners.
•Maintaining multiple, independently managed brands. We employ a strategy of operating multiple, independently managed brands, which we
believe allows us the opportunity to offer our reservation services in ways that appeal to different consumers while maintaining an entrepreneurial,
competitive spirit among our brands. We intend to invest resources to support organic growth by all of our brands, whether through increased
advertising, geographic expansion, technology innovation or increased access to accommodations, rental cars, restaurants or other services. We also
believe that by operating independently managed brands, we encourage innovation and experimentation by our brands, which allows us to more
quickly discern and adapt to changing consumer behaviors and market dynamics. Although our brands are independently operated, we intend to
continue to share best practices, access to services and customers across our brands. We believe that by promoting our brands worldwide, sharing
accommodation reservation availability and customer flow, and applying our industry experiences across brands and markets, we can more
effectively expand our reservation services globally and maintain and grow our position as a leading provider of worldwide online travel and
restaurant reservation and related services.
• Investing in profitable and sustainable growth. Our strategy is to ensure that we offer online services that meet the needs and expectations of both
consumers and travel service providers and restaurants and that we believe are or will be likely to result in long-term profitability and growth. We
intend to accomplish this through continuous investment and innovation in growing our businesses in new and current markets, expanding our
services and ensuring that we provide an appealing, intuitive and easy-to-use consumer experience through our websites and mobile applications. We
also may pursue strategic transactions. For example, in 2013 we entered the meta-search business when we acquired KAYAK and in 2014 we entered
the online restaurant reservation market when we acquired OpenTable. We regularly evaluate, and may pursue and consummate, other potential
strategic acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures or investments, whether to expand our businesses into complementary areas, expand our current
businesses, acquire innovative technology or for other reasons. For example, in 2014 and 2015 we strengthened our commercial partnership with, and
made significant financial investments in, Ctrip, a leading OTC operating primarily in China.
Service Offerings
Through our online travel reservation services, we connect consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services around the
world. We offer consumers a broad array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other
properties) through our Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands. Our priceline.com brand also offers consumers reservations for rental cars, airline
tickets, vacation packages and cruises. We offer rental car reservations worldwide through rentalcars.com. We also allow consumers to easily compare airline
ticket, hotel reservation and rental car reservation information from hundreds of travel websites at once through
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