Booking is one of the oldest online travel agencies still active today, originally launched in 1996 by Geert-Jan Bruinsma as Bookings.nl, which was then merged with Booking.com at the tail end of the dotcom bubble in 2000. At the same time, Priceline.com was falling headfirst into bankruptcy, after declaring a $1.1 billion loss in 1999 and seeing its stock tank from $974 to $7 a share. Somehow, it survived while many other .com websites failed, and in 2006 acquired Booking.com. When the acqui...
