BASIS OF PRESENTATION (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Management of Booking Holdings Inc. (the "Company") is responsible for the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements included in this document. The Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") and include all normal and recurring adjustments that management of the Company considers necessary for a fair presentation of its financial position and operating results. The Company prepared the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements following the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission for interim reporting. As permitted under those rules, the Company condensed or omitted certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by GAAP for annual financial statements. These statements should be read in combination with the Consolidated Financial Statements in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018.

The Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, including its primary brands of Booking.com, KAYAK, priceline, agoda, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable. All inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The functional currency of the Company's subsidiaries is generally the respective local currency. For international operations, assets and liabilities are translated into U.S. Dollars at the rate of exchange existing at the balance sheet date. Income statement amounts are translated at monthly average exchange rates applicable for the period. Translation gains and losses are included as a component of "Accumulated other comprehensive loss" in the accompanying Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets. Foreign currency transaction gains and losses are included in "Foreign currency transactions and other" in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities can vary during each quarter of the year. Therefore, the results and trends in these interim financial statements may not be the same as those for any subsequent quarter or the full year.

Accounting Changes and Error Corrections [Text Block]

Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income

Subsequent to the issuance of the Company’s unaudited interim consolidated financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company identified an error in the previously issued Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income associated with the Company’s adoption of a new accounting update during the first quarter of 2018. This new accounting update amended the guidance on the recognition and measurement of financial instruments. The effect of adopting this new accounting update resulted in an increase of $241 million to the Company’s retained earnings for the net unrealized gain, net of tax, related to marketable equity securities, with an offsetting adjustment to accumulated other comprehensive income as of January 1, 2018. However, in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the three months ended March 31, 2018, six months ended June 30, 2018 and nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company incorrectly presented the $241 million as a component of other comprehensive income (referred to as “Reclassification of net unrealized gains on marketable equity securities to retained earnings, net of tax charge”). Accordingly, the Company corrected the foregoing presentation error in the accompanying Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income for the three months ended March 31, 2018. As a result of this correction, total comprehensive income in the Company’s previously reported Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income increased from $427 million to $668 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018. The correction of this error had no effect on the Company’s previously reported Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets, Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations, Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity and Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. The effect of adopting this new accounting update has been presented correctly in the audited Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income included in the Consolidated Financial Statements in the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. The Company will present the correction in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and the nine months ended September 30, 2018 to be included in the Form 10-Qs for the second and third quarters of 2019.

Reclassification, Policy

Reclassifications — Certain amounts from prior periods have been reclassified to conform to the current year presentation.

Cash and Cash Equivalents, Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents, Policy

Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents: Restricted cash and cash equivalents at March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018 principally relates to the minimum cash requirement for Rentalcars.com's insurance business established in 2017. The following table reconciles cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash and cash equivalents reported in the Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets to the total amount shown in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in millions):



	March 31, 2019		December 31, 2018
As included in the Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$	2,334	$	2,624
Restricted cash and cash equivalents included in prepaid expenses and other current assets	20		21
Total cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash and cash equivalents as shown in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	$	2,354	$	2,645

Recent Accounting Pronouncements Adopted

Customer's Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract

In August 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued a new accounting update to address a customer's accounting for implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement that is a service contract and also added certain disclosure requirements related to implementation costs incurred for internal-use software and cloud computing arrangements. The amendment aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software (and hosting arrangements that include an internal-use software license). The Company utilizes various third-party computer systems and third-party service providers, including global distribution systems serving the accommodation, rental car and airline industries. The Company uses both internally-developed systems and third-party systems to operate its services, including transaction processing, order management and financial systems. The Company adopted this update on January 1, 2019 and applied it on a prospective basis. The adoption of this update did not have a material impact to the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements.

Leases

In February 2016, the FASB issued a new accounting standard which requires lessees to recognize an asset and a liability on the balance sheet for the rights and obligations created by entering into lease transactions. The new standard retains the dual-model concept by requiring entities to determine if a lease is an operating or financing lease. The new standard also expands qualitative and quantitative disclosures for lessees.

The Company adopted this new standard on January 1, 2019 on a modified retrospective basis and has elected not to restate comparative periods. The Company elected other options, which allow the Company to use its previous evaluations regarding if an arrangement contains a lease, if a lease is an operating or financing lease and what costs are capitalized as initial direct costs prior to adoption. The Company also elected to combine lease and non-lease components.

Upon the adoption of the new lease standard, on January 1, 2019, the Company recognized operating lease assets of $646 million and total operating lease liabilities of $646 million (including a current liability of $152 million) in the consolidated balance sheet and reclassified certain balances related to existing leases. There was no impact to retained earnings at adoption. See Note 7 for more information on leases.

Other Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment

In January 2017, the FASB issued a new accounting update to simplify the test for goodwill impairment by eliminating Step 2, which measures a goodwill impairment loss by comparing the implied fair value of a reporting unit's goodwill, which requires a hypothetical purchase price allocation, with the carrying amount of that reporting unit's goodwill. Under this update, an entity would perform its quantitative annual or interim goodwill impairment test using the current Step 1 test and recognize an impairment charge for the excess of the carrying value of a reporting unit over its fair value.

For public business entities, this update is effective for their annual or any interim goodwill impairment tests in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted for interim or annual goodwill impairment tests occurring after January 1, 2017. The update will be applied prospectively. The Company plans to adopt this update in the first quarter of 2020.

Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments

In June 2016, the FASB issued a new accounting update on the measurement of credit losses for financial assets measured at amortized cost, which includes accounts receivable and available-for-sale debt securities. For financial assets measured at amortized cost, this update requires an entity to (1) estimate its lifetime expected credit losses upon recognition of the financial assets and establish an allowance to present the net amount expected to be collected, (2) recognize this allowance and changes in the allowance during subsequent periods through net income and (3) consider relevant information about past events, current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts in assessing the lifetime expected credit losses. For available-for-sale debt securities, this update made several targeted amendments to the existing other-than-temporary impairment model, including (1) requiring disclosure of the allowance for credit losses, (2) allowing reversals of the previously recognized credit losses until the entity has the intent to sell, is more-likely-than-not required to sell the securities or the maturity of the securities, (3) limiting impairment to the difference between the amortized cost basis and fair value and (4) not allowing entities to consider the length of time that fair value has been less than amortized cost as a factor in evaluating whether a credit loss exists.

This update is effective for public business entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Entities are required to apply this update on a modified retrospective basis with a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the period of adoption. The Company is currently evaluating the impact to its Consolidated Financial Statements of adopting this update and does not expect it to have a material impact.