Operating and Financial Review
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY - May 5, 2026, trivago N.V. (NASDAQ:TRVG) (the "Company", "we," "us," "our," or "trivago,") announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026.
Highlights:
Total revenue growth of 15% in the first quarter of 2026, primarily driven by double-digit year-over-year Referral Revenue growth in Americas and Developed Europe.
Improved first quarter year-over-year profitability by improving Net Loss and Adjusted EBITDA1 loss by €0.5 million and €2.0 million, respectively, driven by higher revenues at an improved ROAS contribution.
Global ROAS improved 2.9 ppts year-over-year in the first quarter, reflecting the effectiveness of our brand marketing strategy and compounding effects from prior period brand investments.
Adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year 2026 increased to be around €25 million.
Supervisory board authorized up to €20 million share buyback program with details to be finalized and execution planned to start at the end of May.
"We are off to a strong start to 2026, delivering 15% year-over-year total revenue growth and our fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, while improving profitability against the prior year. Branded channel traffic2 revenue once again outpaced our total revenue growth, reflecting the compounding effects of our brand strategy and a more diversified, resilient marketing mix. Our product is converting better, up 58% since the first quarter of 2023, our logged-in member3 base now drives more than 30% of Referral Revenue before intersegment eliminations, and the relevance of trivago Book & Go has increased significantly compared to last year. While we are facing challenging year-over-year revenue comparables across the first half of 2026, the strength of our first quarter performance and the momentum we are carrying into the rest of the year gives us the confidence to raise our profitability guidance. We now expect Adjusted EBITDA of around €25 million for 2026, up from at least €20 million previously, alongside our reaffirmed outlook of double-digit percentage total revenue growth," said Chief Executive Officer Johannes Thomas.
"The first quarter reflects our balanced approach to growth and profitability, with cost discipline and compounding effects of prior brand investments translating into improved profitability year-over-year. Referral Revenue year-over-year growth in Americas of 17% and Developed Europe of 14% both exceeded our expectations, more than offsetting foreign exchange headwinds and geopolitical pressures in Rest of World. Global ROAS improved by three percentage points to 121% year-over-year, reflecting the effectiveness of our marketing strategy and the quality of traffic we delivering to partners. Supported by a cash position of €136.1 million and zero long-term debt, we are announcing an up to €20 million share buyback program with details to be finalized and execution planned to start at the end of May, reflecting our confidence in trivago's long-term value creation potential," said Chief Financial Officer Dr. Wolf Schmuhl.
Financial Summary & Operating Metrics (€ millions, unless otherwise stated)
Three months ended March 31,
2026
2025
Δ Y/Y
Total revenue
142.9
124.1
15%
Referral Revenue (1)
134.9
123.4
9%
Return on Advertising Spend
121.0%
118.1%
2.9 ppts
Net loss
(7.3)
(7.8)
(6)%
Adjusted EBITDA
(4.5)
(6.5)
(31)%
(1) Referral Revenue is presented after intersegment eliminations as presented on the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations as of March 31, 2026.
About trivago N.V.
trivago N.V. (NASDAQ:TRVG) is a leading global hotel search and price comparison platform, and one of the most recognized travel brands in the world. When travelers search for a hotel, we want trivago to be the obvious choice. We help them find the best place to stay and deliver the best deal to book, saving time and money, so every traveler feels smart and confident about their booking. Powered by AI, we personalize and simplify hotel search for millions of travelers, connecting them with more than 7.0 million hotels and other accommodations across more than 190 countries.
Discussion of Results
The discussion of results should be considered together with our unaudited financial information included with this review and the periodic reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. Certain information and disclosures normally included in consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") have been omitted from this review.
Recent Trends
Total revenues grew 15% year-over-year to €142.9 million in the first quarter despite a strong prior year comparative period. The growth was primarily driven by double-digit year-over-year Referral Revenue growth in the Americas and Developed Europe segments. For these segments, we continued to observe increased revenue driven by better quality traffic from higher branded channel traffic levels and higher booking conversion. In the Rest of World segment, Referral Revenue decreased year-over-year, primarily driven by foreign exchange headwinds. We also observed a negative impact on travel behavior from the restraints on airspace and increases in oil prices resulting from the conflict in the Middle East. While these impacts negatively affected the Rest of World segment, we did not observe a significant impact to our total Referral Revenue in the first quarter of 2026.
Advertising Spend continued to increase in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same prior year period, however at a more moderate pace compared to prior year quarters. We have started to observe compounding brand effects from significantly elevated brand investments in prior quarters which contributed to the Global ROAS improvement of 2.9 ppts to 121.0%, compared to the same prior year period. We are encouraged by this development toward our aim of improved profitability while sustaining revenue growth.
Outlook
We have observed total revenue and profitability results through the first weeks of April that are in line with management's expectation. Looking ahead toward the summer travel season, we expect the momentum from this quarter to continue and to report double-digit year-over-year total revenue growth and improved profitability in the second quarter of 2026. While there continues to be uncertainty regarding the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the global macroeconomic environment which could have negative impacts, we continue to expect that the impact to total Referral Revenue from such factors will not be material for the next quarter. We remain confident in our strong global brand which, as a result of increased investments in prior quarters, is well-positioned to remain resilient in such periods of uncertainty. For the full year 2026, we are maintaining our expectation of double-digit year-over-year total revenue growth and are raising our Adjusted EBITDA guidance to be around €25 million.
Revenue, Advertising Spend, and Return on Advertising Spend
Referral Revenue & Other Revenue
We match our users' searches with large numbers of hotel and other accommodation offers through our auction platform, which we call our marketplace. With our marketplace, we provide advertisers a competitive forum to access user traffic by facilitating a vast quantity of auctions on any particular day. Advertisers submit hotel room and other accommodation rates and participate in our marketplace primarily by making bids for each user click on an advertised rate for a hotel or other accommodation on a cost-per-click, or CPC, basis. We also offer the option for our advertisers to participate in our marketplace on a cost-per-acquisition, or CPA, basis.
We earn substantially all of our revenue when users of our websites and apps click on hotel and accommodation offers or advertisements in our search results and are referred to one of our advertisers, or when a user makes a booking on the advertiser's website ultimately from a referral from our platform. We call this our Referral Revenue.
Management has identified three reportable segments: Americas, Developed Europe and Rest of World (RoW), collectively referred to as the trivago Core segments. Our Americas segment is comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Uruguay. Our Developed Europe segment is comprised of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Our RoW segment is comprised of all other countries. In the first quarter of 2026, the most significant countries by revenue in that segment were Japan, Australia, Turkey, New Zealand and Poland. We have also determined that our trivago DEALS operating segment does not meet the quantitative thresholds of a separate reportable segment.
We also earn revenue by providing travelers with online platforms for direct hotel booking services and offering our advertisers business-to-business (B2B) solutions including subscription fees for trivago Business Studio, which provides hotels with advanced data analytics and tools to enhance the accuracy, visibility, and performance of their listings on trivago. Additionally, we have agreements with certain hotel service providers and affiliates to receive consideration based on achievement of sales volume targets or gross transaction volume of affiliate services, respectively. These revenue streams, which include existing other revenue streams and revenue streams resulting from the acquisition of trivago DEALS, do not represent a significant portion of our total revenue.
(in € millions)
Three months ended March 31,
2026
2025
Δ €
Δ %
Americas
€ 52.4
€ 44.9
€ 7.5
17%
Developed Europe
59.4
52.3
7.1
14%
Rest of World
23.0
26.2
(3.2)
(12)%
Total Referral Revenue (1)
€ 134.9
€ 123.4
€ 11.5
9%
Other revenue
8.0
0.7
7.3
n.m.
Total revenue
€ 142.9
€ 124.1
€ 18.8
15%
n.m. not meaningful
Note: Some figures may not add up due to rounding.
(1) Referral Revenue is presented after intersegment eliminations as presented on the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations as of March 31, 2026.
Referral Revenue
Referral Revenue increased by €11.5 million during the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to the same period in 2025. The increase was primarily driven by higher Referral Revenue in the Americas and Developed Europe segments due to growth in branded channel traffic in response to our continuous brand marketing investments and improved booking conversion, partly offset by the weakening of local currencies in the Americas segment against the Euro. The increase was partly offset by lower Referral Revenue in the Rest of World segment primarily due to the weakening of local currencies against the Euro and negative impacts of the conflict in the Middle East region on travel behavior.
Other Revenue
Other revenue increased by €7.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to the same period in 2025, primarily driven by revenues resulting from providing online hotel booking services in 2026 through trivago DEALS following our acquisition of the business in the third quarter of 2025.
Advertiser Concentration
We generate the majority of our Referral Revenue from online travel agencies, or OTAs. For brands affiliated with Expedia Group, including brands such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Wotif, and Vrbo, the share of our Referral Revenue before intersegment eliminations was 26% during the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to 35% in the same period in 2025. For brands affiliated with Booking Holdings, including Booking.com, Agoda and priceline.com, the share of our Referral Revenue before intersegment eliminations was 39% during the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to 40% in the same period in 2025.
Advertising Spend
Advertising Spend is used in the calculation of our primary operating metrics for trivago Core segments as further described in the "Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)" section below. It is included in selling and marketing expense and consists of fees that we pay for our various marketing channels including TV, search engine marketing, display and affiliate marketing, email marketing, online video, app marketing, content marketing, and sponsorship and endorsement for our trivago Core segments. Other expenses not related to trivago Core segments' Advertising Spend are included in the "Selling and Marketing" section below.
(in € millions)
Three months ended March 31,
2026
2025
Δ €
