Priceline Group CEO: 'We Are Investing In Things We Really Believe In That Are Going To Drive The Long-Term Growth'

Shares of Priceline Group Inc PCLN fell more than 4 percent during trade on Thursday as the company gave a weaker guidance for second-quarter due to currency impact and declared mixed first-quarter results. EPS for the first-quarter came at $6.36, a marginal 1 percent increase from the same quarter last year.

Darren Huston, Priceline Group President  & CEO, was on CNBC recently to discuss the results and the company’s new app for the Apple Watch.

Fundamental Health Strong

“We are actually quite happy with where the business is,” Huston said. “We actually accelerated our room rate growth in Q1, the business is healthy globally. It’s a great travel environment right now. We are investing, that’s one area, we are investing in things we really believe in that are going to drive the long-term growth of the company.”

He continued, “But also…we are pretty heavily impacted by currencies. Most of our money is mad overseas. This isn’t a real effect, it’s a translation effect of when you [translate] Euros and Rouble and Riyal into dollars, but the fundamental health of the business is very strong."

Apple Watch App

On Priceline’s new app for the Apple Watch, Huston said, “Well yeah all of our brands are on the Apple Watch. We have one specifically, our booking now app from the Apple Watch. You can literally book a hotel from your watch, which is a first in travel.”

“It’s exciting for us, obviously the Apple Watch is just getting going. We don’t really know if this is a big volume play, but it feels good to have the capacity and the talent to innovate against a brand new platform. So, we are excited about it, let’s see how it goes,” Huston concluded.