The CEO of Priceline reveals why post-pandemic 'revenge travel' is here to stay

• Brett Keller joined Priceline in 1999 just as the dot-com boom was getting in gear.
• He rose through the ranks to become CEO of the online-travel services company in 2016.

In a tourism industry dominated by flashy marketing campaigns touting tropical beach getaways, nonstop flights, and off-the-grid adventures, it's easy to overlook that much of the work that makes those vacations possible is performed by companies that operate behind the scenes.

One of those companies is Priceline.

Founded in 1997, the online-travel agency, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, helps customers score deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars. Brett Keller joined Priceline in 1999 and rose through the ranks to become CEO in 2016.

Keller, 55, who grew up in small-town Idaho, didn't travel much as a kid. Family vacations for him and his seven siblings centered around fishing and camping excursions. It wasn't until his college years at Brigham Young University, when he spent two years as a missionary in Japan, that he realized the eye-opening thrill of exploring new places.

And yet, Keller didn't set out to forge a career in the travel industry. Rather, it was a fortuitous combination of time and place. He received his MBA from Cornell in the late '90s, just as the dot-com economy was getting in gear. A former colleague who worked at Priceline invited him to tour the office.

"There were about 40 people there and it looked like a complete circus," Keller recalled with a chuckle. "After a while, he said to me, 'You should come to work here!' I was so young, I had no idea what I was getting myself into."

The ride has been worthwhile. Keller has led the company through periods of immense growth. Priceline, which today has roughly 1,500 employees, is part of Booking Holdings, the travel juggernaut that also owns Kayak and OpenTable, among others, and last year earned more than $17 billion in revenue. Keller has also helped steer the company through many challenges, including the dot-com bust, the Great Recession, and most recently, the pandemic.

Insider spoke with Keller recently via video where he talked about the leadership lessons he learned during Priceline's startup days, the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and why he thinks the era of pandemic-fueled revenge travel will never go away.

This interview was condensed and edited for clarity.

What were your early impressions of Priceline?

The founder of Priceline, Jay Walker, wanted to create a business that represented the future of commerce. In the early days, we had a bizarre product lineup. We sold flights, car rentals, and hotel rooms, and also insurance, gasoline, and used goods.

Obviously, we migrated from that original vision to something very different. But the roots have stayed, and the things I learned in those first few years shaped how I lead. I look back on that time fondly, even though it was a frenetic pace.

What was it like at Priceline after the terrorist attacks of 9/11?

I became the chief marketing officer in early 2002. We were a few days away from going bankrupt because all the funding dried up for the business. The CEO who took over, my then-boss, was tasked with saving the company.

We went through four rounds of layoffs that year and shut down all our non-travel businesses. We said travel is where our model works, and where we can generate profit. That was the start of what Priceline became: a very large, scaled travel-services business.

That sounds like it was a painful process, but one that ultimately had a positive outcome for the company.

Scaling and growing a business year after year takes focus, discipline, and complete transparency. I didn't get those things in other jobs early in my career and I saw how that impacted employees. You didn't know what leaders were thinking or what was happening. One day you'd show up to work and they'd say, "Pack a box, you're out of here."

What do you do differently?

I want our people to know literally everything about our business. We share information about sales and profitability so employees can see how those things tie directly to their compensation.

I also hold a lot of skip-level sessions with teams. They can ask me anything they want. And I'll genuinely give them answers to help them understand the course of the business.

But sometimes you don't always know the answers yourself, right? When the pandemic first hit, for example, there was so much uncertainty.

When COVID hit, I held daily all-hands updates. I talked about what was happening within the organization, what I knew, and what I didn't know. I said, "I've been in the industry a long time. I've seen other very big shocks to the system — 9/11, the financial crisis, and volcanoes in Europe — and every time travel rebounds." My first message was, "We're going to be OK, but it may take a while."

My second message was that we're going to take advantage of every opportunity to grow the business in a very challenging period. Many of our competitors pulled out of all of the marketing channels in the early months of COVID. We pushed in, which put us in a position where we could be more aggressive

What are some other leadership lessons you learned early on?

For the first few years of my career, I used to look at the whole idea of having a mission and a purpose with an air of, "Whatever. We're here to work." But I have come to learn how important that is. When I took over as CEO, the first thing we did as a leadership team was to construct our mission, which is to be the world's best travel dealmakers.

Every two weeks, I get up in front of our employees, and talk about how the mission ties into what different folks in the company are doing.

How do you describe the culture of your company?

When I ask our people, "Why do you work here" there are a couple of answers that come through. One, they say, "I believe that the company is trying to do the right thing at all times." We have a high bar of ethics.

Two, we don't tolerate jerk behavior. If you're a jerk, we'll show the door.

When it comes to ethics, your business and industry are in a tough spot. For as much as travel broadens horizons and can help cultivate empathy, it also does a lot of harm to our environment. How do you wrestle with these challenges?

It's something we think about every day. Travel creates consumption that's harmful to the world. But if we didn't do it, what does the world look like? During COVID, we saw that it's not a very nice place when people never leave their homes or towns, and are so focused on themselves that they become less compassionate toward others.

We have to keep pushing the travel world in the right direction while continuing to promote travel as much as we can.

How are you doing that?

We've created a travel-sustainability rating system. We have tiers of accommodations that providers can apply for and reach, which we then promote on our website with a sustainability badge. We think providing information to consumers allows them to make choices.

How do you view the rise of AI? Do you think it could lead to a reduction in your workforce?

I've been through years where you look to cut people and cut expenses and guess what happens to your company? It shrinks. If you want to grow, which is what every public company tries to do, you've got to be innovative. You have to deploy new products, new features, and better consumer experiences.

What's super exciting to me is that AI should empower and drive more innovation within the company, as opposed to cutting it back. We want every person in the company to find a way to deploy AI within their respective roles. The way we look at it is: "Wow, if our coders were to use these new AI tools that help them code more effectively and efficiently, we could do three times the productivity with our product releases."

Spending on trips shows no sign of slowing. What's your take on future demand amid this uncertain economy?

We've all reminded ourselves how amazing it is to travel. When you finally take that trip, you want to immediately do it again the following week.

And yes, the economy's very uncertain. But I promise you, travel will continue to grow for the next 10 years. It just will: It always outpaces the GDP of every country because travel is what people want to do.

So the era of revenge travel is not going away?

A lot of people think that travel is just about taking a great vacation. But most of travel is about life: You're going to your kids' sports game and you got to travel across the state, so you need a hotel. You need to book flights to visit family that you haven't seen in five years. You're traveling to your friend's bachelorette party or wedding.

These types of travel are intricate in our lives. It's what people are prioritizing now.