Serko Reports Strong Recovery in Australasia and Growth through Booking.com Partnership

Serko’s online bookings increased 93 percent year over year to 4.1 million for the fiscal year ending March 31 as the company reported strong growth in unmanaged bookings and continued business travel recovery.

Business travel bookings in Australia and New Zealand increased 77 percent year over year, with average online bookings in the Australasia region at 89 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Serko chief executive and co-founder Darrin Grafton. Volumes in New Zealand were 36 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, while booking in Australia were still 18 percent below them, he said.

In North America, Serko has “continued to make progress and build our strategic position,” he added.

For unmanaged bookings, the Booking.com For Business platform, for which Serko is the technology partner, saw completed room nights increase 381 percent year over year to 1.5 million, according to Serko. As of the end of the fiscal year, the platform had 157,000 active customers, up 144 percent year over year. Booking.com earlier this month announced it was partnering with CWT on the platform to add travel agent support.

Serko reported a post-tax net loss of NZ$30.5 million (US$19.1 million) for the fiscal year, an improvement of 15 percent year over year.

Michael B. Baker www.businesstravelnews.com