Trading and Booking.com for Business Migration update

1
Serko Limited, Saatchi Building, Unit 14D 125 The Strand, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand
PO Box 47-638, Ponsonby, T: +64 9 309 4754, F: +64 9 377 0545, investor.relations@serko.com
Incorporated in New Zealand ARBN 611 613 980

Market Release
4 August 2021

TRADING AND BOOKING.COM FOR BUSINESS MIGRATION UPDATE

Serko Limited (NZX/ASX:SKO), a leader in online travel booking and expense management technology, today
provided an update to keep the market informed of current trading conditions and the ‘Booking.com for
Business’ platform migration.
Trading Conditions Update
Trading conditions remain volatile due to the global impacts of Covid-19 and ongoing travel restrictions,
particularly in the Australian market.
New Zealand domestic travel bookings have remained strong at 166% of 2019 volumes
1
for the month of June
and 137% of 2019 volumes for the month of July
2
. However, Australian domestic travel bookings dropped from
56% of 2019 volumes in June to 35% of 2019 volumes in July due to the further tightening of inter-State travel
restrictions within Australia in response to the increase in Covid-19 cases in some States.
Serko’s CEO, Mr Grafton said: “We planned for further lock-downs to occur in our core markets during the
current financial year as vaccination programmes progressively roll out and we have factored these disruptions
into our capital management plans. As such, we continue to target an average monthly cash burn of between
$2 million and $4 million despite the persistent Australian lock-downs. We remain optimistic that Australasian
travel bookings will revert to the levels seen at their peak in April 2021 once the travel restrictions in Australia lift,
based on previous recovery trends.”
Booking.com For Business Migration
The migration of companies to the new Zeno powered, ‘Booking.com for Business’ platform is progressing well,
and we currently have over 150,000 activated existing businesses on the new platform.
3

Booking.com and Serko have agreed the migration phase will be extended two months, beyond the original
expected end-date of 31 July 2021, to transfer the remaining business customers onto the new platform.
Mr Grafton said: “Actively migrating a customer base that is experiencing disrupted travel activity due to the
pandemic was always going to be challenging. We are pleased to see this volume of businesses activate their

1
As of March 2021, Serko has been benchmarking current transaction volumes against 2019 volumes as we believe this provides a more
meaningful indication of the resumption of travel by business travellers. This is because Covid-19-related travel restrictions began to
materially impact Serko’s transaction volumes from mid-March 2020.
2
July is traditionally seasonally affected by the school holidays in both New Zealand and Australia.
3
As previously noted to the market, SME business booking behaviours will be different from our enterprise customers and it is uncertain
when, and how often, migrated customers will transact, particularly during Covid-affected periods, and activations will not necessarily
translate immediately into bookings.

2
Serko Limited, Saatchi Building, Unit 14D 125 The Strand, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand
PO Box 47-638, Ponsonby, T: +64 9 309 4754, F: +64 9 377 0545, investor.relations@serko.com
Incorporated in New Zealand ARBN 611 613 980

account notwithstanding the pandemic and related travel restrictions that have been and, to varying degrees,
remain in place.”
“We’re incredibly proud of how the Serko and Booking.com teams have come together to plan for and execute
the migration phase. Following completion of the migration we will move into an engagement phase, which will
be timed with an expected return to travel by businesses following the European summer break and supported
by the widespread global vaccination programmes.”
“In line with expectations, the majority of revenue to be generated in FY22 from the new Zeno powered
Booking.com for Business platform will be back-ended to the second half of the financial year.”
“We will provide a further update on the migration process at Serko’s Annual Meeting, to be held on 18 August
2021”, Mr Grafton said.
Ends


For and on behalf of Serko Limited by Sarah Miller, General Counsel & Company Secretary

For investor relations queries please contact:
Sarah Miller
General Counsel & Company Secretary
Serko +64 27 245 0267
investor.relations@serko.com

For media relations queries please contact:
Nick Whitehead
Head of Marketing
Serko +64 21 892 996
nick.whitehead@serko.com