Booking.com seamlessly connects millions of travelers to memorable experiences

The Business Issue

Booking.com is one of the world’s largest digital travel companies. They cater to millions of travelers worldwide by offering a variety of services, including accommodations, flights, car rentals, and attraction bookings. As a company, they are committed to investing in technology that “takes the friction out of travel.”

Historically, Booking.com focused on building their own products in-house and improving capabilities like customer service over time. These systems ultimately grew to include features like agent desktops and chat. However, as Booking.com broadened and diversified their product and service portfolio, it became increasingly challenging to maintain these homegrown systems while evolving them at speed.

In light of this, they decided to focus on their strengths and outsource non-differentiating capabilities. They chose Pega to transform customer support with Pega Customer Service™ on Pega Cloud®. This transition centered on the agent desktop, encompassing integrated knowledge management and BPM workflows across all customer processes. This made it easier for agents to support customers and partners by way of an integrated, intuitive platform that enabled seamless support.

But due to the massive scale of their operations, challenges came to light as they implemented their solution:

• Legacy constraints: Booking.com’s legacy CRM, built on an outdated monolithic architecture, was unable to support the organization’s expanding service offerings or the rapid scaling needed to maintain competitive growth. Adapting the system to meet new market demands and align with internal goals would have been costly, time-consuming, and technically prohibitive.
• System complexity: As Booking.com began migrating customer service functions from its legacy CRM to Pega, agents faced the dual complexity of handling cases across both systems. This fragmented environment led to productivity slowdowns and hindered customer support quality, as agents toggled between two systems and manually synchronized case histories.
• Diverse customer needs and high service volumes: Booking.com's customer base includes travelers and suppliers worldwide. Supporting the different needs of these groups required a unified platform capable of high adaptability, handling 24/7 support in 45 languages, and efficiently managing varied customer service inquiries from a global user base.

The Solution

To tackle these challenges, Booking.com deployed Pega Customer Service™ on Pega Cloud®. This transition centered on the agent desktop, encompassing integrated knowledge management and BPM workflows across all customer processes – with a tailored strategy that emphasized scalability, flexibility, and seamless integration.

The company’s goal was to make it easier for agents to support customers and partners by way of an integrated, intuitive platform that enables them to provide seamless support. In addition, Pega’s out-of-the-box capabilities allow Booking.com to stay agile in the face of changing customer behavior.

• Strategic platform selection: Transitioning from a custom-built CRM, Booking.com chose Pega for its proven ability to handle complex, large-scale customer service needs. By leveraging Pega’s modular and scalable architecture, Booking.com was able to migrate away from the legacy system while aligning with the company’s broader, connected trip vision, which prioritizes a single access point for all travel-related bookings and support.
• Lift-and-shift approach: Rather than a complete overhaul, Booking.com opted for a pragmatic lift-and-shift strategy. This approach involved migrating critical processes to Pega while maintaining existing UX and workflows where possible. By limiting redesign to high-impact areas, Booking.com reduced disruption and implemented changes within six months, achieving rapid transition while minimizing agent training requirements.
• Cross-functional governance: Recognizing the challenges of scaling with numerous internal stakeholders, Booking.com restructured its teams into cross-functional units that integrated product, UX, testing, and customer support functions. This setup allowed Booking.com to foster end-to-end ownership, reduce bottlenecks, and streamline decision-making. Additionally, early involvement of the governance team ensured that architectural standards and compliance were upheld from the outset, enhancing scalability and long-term platform performance.

The Results

With the Pega transformation, Booking.com achieved substantial improvements in operational efficiency and set a robust foundation for future innovation:

• Higher agent satisfaction: The lift-and-shift approach significantly reduced friction for their 10,000 agents, who can now handle all customer interactions within a unified interface. By eliminating the need to navigate between multiple systems, Booking.com’s customer support team improved resolution times – boosting productivity and elevating the overall quality of customer interactions.
• Scalable, connected trip experience: With Pega Customer Service™, Booking.com is now equipped to offer a cohesive, connected experience that seamlessly integrates accommodations, flights, rentals, and attractions under a single interface. Customers can address all aspects of their journey with one point of contact, a critical advantage when it comes to serving millions of travelers annually.
• Increased agility: Booking.com is now poised to leverage emerging AI capabilities more effectively. With their new scalable platform in place, the company plans to integrate gen AI features that will enable predictive insights, personalized travel suggestions, and enhanced customer interactions. Booking.com is already working on next-generation applications that integrate AI-driven customer support, marking a significant leap toward an autonomous and proactive customer service model.

Watch their full journey in their PegaWorld session.