As for the metrics you’re asking about, yes, absolutely. I mean it was the understanding and knowing that app members, in particular, our highest producing customers have the highest return rates, the highest CLV et cetera, was the reason we lean so heavily into app. It may not be that surprising that’s the case. Obviously, they have a propensity to come direct more, which saves us money is remarketing them. So there’s lots of elements that make those members better for us. We have invested both directly and acquiring them through marketing as well as doing much, much more in the product. to move customers into the app for all of those reasons. And we’re still seeing that those cohorts still perform better even as we pushed more and more people they still perform better than a guest or a member who’s not in the app, et cetera.
So those statistics have held up. We keep pushing it. You’re going to see us keep pushing it. We are going to be app first in terms of product, in terms of where you see the most innovation coming and coming fastest. So we are fully leaned into getting customers into our best product, making our app our best product and experience and making sure all of that innovation I talked about is happening first and foremost in the app, so we get more people in it. More people into the state we like and then, of course, hopefully, working between our apps as they enjoy the benefits of our loyalty program. So that’s, yes, to all of that. The numbers hold up. We’ve seen the benefit, and that’s why we keep pushing it.
Operator: Our next question comes from Tom Champion from Piper Sandler. Tom, please go ahead.
Tom Champion: Peter, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the growth you’re seeing out of China. Maybe it was on the B2B side. It sounded quite strong. And then, Julie, question for you, going back to the buyback, the size is kind of eye-popping. How did you arrive at that amount being appropriate? And what’s the total in the plan as of today, including the existing plus new?
Peter Kern: Yes. I’ll knock off the first. Yes. I mean our B2B business, we have a nice business in China. China, as you know, is a tough place to compete on a B2C basis and really none of the Western companies do anymore. So we don’t have that benefit. On the B2B side, we’re seeing a nice pickup. But I’ll remind you that airlift out of China is still well below pre-Covid levels. There were some recent announcements in the last week increasing flights between China and the U.S., which is a good story, but it’s still not a massive story. So you still have substantially less airlift out of China into most of the west. So it’s not going to be again, it’s not going to be a snap your finger and it’s back to 2019 levels, but I think it’s going to be a nice tailwind for a long time as hopefully, relations improve and more travel opens up, there’s visa issues in China and other things.
So we’re seeing some good progress there. We power some of the local players in our B2B business, off-line travel agents and online. And there’s definitely a pickup of travel. Some of that is intra-Asia. Some is even intra China, but for the big pick up, there is a piece that we really haven’t gotten to yet, which is getting China back to real international travel at pre-COVID levels, which will take some time. But it’s a nice tailwind, obviously, mainly for our B2B business, and that business has a lot of tailwinds. So it’s just another one for us.
Julie Whalen: As far as the $5 billion buyback, I mean, if you look at how much we’ve bought back just year-to-date, it’s what, a little over 2x that. So this is meant to be a multiyear, but we feel definitely very comfortable with this level and with the fact that we know we’re going to be having growing free cash flow. And so we thought this was the right amount to go out with. So we’re not doing an annual review, if you will, but not also making it so far out. So we thought it was a good healthy balance. As far as what’s left in the plan today, there’s very, very, very little. So this is really I would see this as sort of a new and existing launch.
Operator: Our next question comes from Deepak Mathivanan from Wolfe Research. Deepak, please go ahead.
Zachary Morrissey: This is Zach on for Deepak. I just wanted to ask about how Hotels.com, like consumer behavior has been performing given the change in incentives from the 1Q launch? Thanks.
Peter Kern: Yes. Thanks, Zach. As I mentioned in my comments, we were prepared for some dislocation and some people being upset. Obviously, there have been a few, but actually, it’s been considerably less than we expected and the behavior of the customer base has been frankly better than we anticipated. Hardly, we had a number of ways we were going to make that right with our customers and continue to do. But in general, we’ve seen less unhappiness and generally behavior that’s consistent with their prior buying behaviors by and large. There are some exceptions, and we’ve had some programs to help with our most valued customers there. But again, we think we’re moving into a really good state with being a gold or even platinum member of One Key and ton of benefits that come with that.
And as I alluded to, we’re starting to see them use their One Key cash on Expedia to buy other things. So it’s the beginnings of what we are trying to ferment, which is this idea that while it may not be quite as rich, it’s much more flexible. You can use it for many more things and with the improved member discounts and other added benefits we’ve added to the program. you can get just as much benefit out of the program, just built slightly different way and now way more flexible. So in general, we were pleased. I’d say if we took the over-under, it was definitely better than we had hoped and knock wood it remains that way, and we feel pretty good about how it’s trending.
Operator: Our next question comes from Richard Clarke from Bernstein. Richard, please go ahead.
Richard Clarke: Just the first one, thinking about your growth into 2024 and beyond and the ability to keep B2B revenues growing in the double-digit level. What visibility do you have of future deals or upside within your current deals to keep delivering that level of growth?
