HomeToGo SE (HTG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the HomeToGo Q1 2025 Earnings Call. I'm Vicki, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Sebastian Grabert, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Vicki, and good morning, dear analysts and investors, and welcome to HomeToGo's Q1 2025 Earnings Call. My name is Sebastian Grabert, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance at HomeToGo. I'm pleased to be joined today by our Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Patrick Andrae; and our CFO, Steffen Schneider. Together, they will walk you through our financial highlights for the first quarter of 2025. As always, this call is being recorded, and a replay will be available later today on our Investor Relations website. With that, I would like to hand it over to you, Patrick. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Sebastian. Dear analysts and investors, thank you for joining us today and for your continued support. I'm pleased to welcome you as we present the results of our first quarter of 2025, a quarter in which we have maintained strong momentum towards achieving our 2025 goals despite broader challenges impacting the travel industry. Additionally, we made significant progress across all key strategic areas, advancing our AI-driven platform and technology, expanding our software and service solutions throughout the entire value chain and further strengthening our leading market position in Europe. Overall, and despite market and macroeconomic challenges in quarter 1 overall, the first quarter was a successful start to 2025 for HomeToGo, and we remain fully confident in achieving our full-year guidance. So first and foremost, for the full year of 2025, our guidance remains fully intact, looking especially into the promising current momentum, which we will dive into in a few slides. Next, we have reached a new all-time high booking revenues backlog, which stood at EUR 92.3 million at the end of quarter 1, marking a strong 20.4% year-over-year increase. This backlog provides us excellent visibility into the remainder of 2025. And as you know, the start of the year in February marked our largest, most transformative acquisition yet. We signed the agreement to acquire Interhome, Europe's second largest property management company. This acquisition, in terms of revenue potential and capturing the end-to-end value chain is expected to catapult HomeToGo PRO business and overall strengthen our position as a leader in the European vacation rental industry. So, we are currently working towards closing, with everything proceeding according to plan and thus, positioning us well for the next layer of growth in this year. Fifth, our free cash flow improved substantially by 38% year-over-year in quarter 1, fueled by the strong reception of HomeToGo Payments from our partners as part of further improved working capital management. This paves the way for our first priority in 2025, achieving positive free cash flow for the HomeToGo Group. One big contributor to achieve this goal is HomeToGo_PRO Doppelganger, our suite of fast and scalable software, white label and other redistribution solutions that connects trusted brands like TUI or HolidayCheck to our unparalleled selection of vacation rentals and enables them to run vacation rentals as a business on our software. HomeToGo_PRO Doppelganger has developed exceptionally well, continuing its growth trajectory from 2024 by growing its booking revenues in quarter 1 more than plus 170%. One important note overall, and as you may have already read from our peers, the timing of the Easter holidays in 2025 will shift some of the revenue recognition from quarter 1 into quarter 2, impacting this year's quarter 1 IFRS revenues and adjusted EBITDA by approximately EUR 2 million. And lastly, after a strong double-digit growth in January and temporary dip in bookings during February, with recovery in March and April, we are already seeing promising additional growth indications in May with HomeToGo Marketplace showing a notable year-over-year growth of around 15% in booking revenues. These early signals are positive and give us confidence that recovering trends observed towards the end of the first quarter will continue, positioning us well to meet our full-year targets. As mentioned, these positive milestones were achieved in quarter 1 despite several challenges impacting the industry, as well as our peers in the first quarter of 2025. First, macroeconomic pressure has continued across the industry as also confirmed by our peers. This was further emphasized by the German federal elections in February, which impacted HomeToGo's largest market, DACH, which accounts for approximately 60% of group revenues. However, as mentioned earlier, we saw early positive indications of recovery towards the end of quarter 1 and especially see-saw in May, which gives us confidence that the broader market rebound will continue for us as we enter the upcoming high travel season. Second, a significant driver of growth in the industry for peers has been the performance in the LatAm and Asia markets. In quarter 1, these regions saw notable growth where HomeToGo has relatively smaller presence. Despite that, we outpaced more of our peers low-to-mid single digit growth in the European and North American markets, with total booking revenues growing by 6% year-over-year. Third, and as mentioned, the timing of the 2025 Easter holidays has led to some shifting of revenue recognition. This year, Easter falls later in spring, which means that IFRS revenues and adjusted EBITDA will be recognized in quarter 2 as opposed to quarter 1 2024 when Easter occurred earlier. So, we estimate a EUR 2 million impact on Q1 IFRS revenues, but we expect a corresponding uplift in quarter 2 as the revenues are being realized then. Finally, the softening of the U.S. dollar relative to euro during the first quarter has adversely impacted approximately 20% of HomeToGo's quarter 1 revenues, leading to an adverse low single-digit percentage effect on our top line. Now, taking a closer look at our growth trajectory across both segments. Let's take a moment to compare HomeToGo's performance with that of some of our peers in the industry for quarter 1, taking 3 3 peers. Airbnb reported mid-single digit growth in nights and experiences for EMEA, with a 2% year-over-year increase in the average daily rate. Booking.com saw a high single-digit increase in room nights in Europe, and Expedia experienced a 1% growth in their global B2C business for quarter 1 '25. In contrast, HomeToGo's growth strategy remains strong. First, for the Marketplace segment, we achieved a strong 14% growth in booking revenues for the Rest of Europe, excluding the DACH region, our core market that faced uncertainties in demand due to political pressure, driven by a 70% year-over-year increase in the average daily rate, significantly outperforming our peers in both metrics. Across all regions, in the HomeToGo Marketplace, we recorded strong double-digit growth rates in booking revenues during the high booking season in January. And for the first half of May, we have seen promising growth rates of roughly 15% for the HomeToGo Marketplace core vacation rental business. If we now look at HomeToGo PRO, our B2B segment, which offers software and service solutions for the entire travel market with a focus on SaaS for the supply side of vacation rentals, we saw several outstanding developments. As mentioned earlier, HomeToGo_PRO Doppelganger saw an impressive 170% year-over-year increase in booking revenues for quarter 1. Smoobu, our SaaS solution that seamlessly connects self-service host to our key partners, experienced a strong 30% year-over-year increase in annual recurring revenue, ARR, despite the macroeconomic challenges. This strong performance more than offsets the temporary weakness we faced in our subscription business, primarily due to the ongoing restructuring activities in our Italian subsidiary where we successfully transferred the business fully from a legacy tech platform to the modern HomeToGo tech stack. A temporary interruption on the subscription side was expected due to this, so we assume recovery over the year. And as you know, the strong ARR growth of Smoobu is especially a future revenue indicator. So, we expect that trend to continue and be visible more clearly in the revenue numbers going forward. Lastly, Kraushaar Ferienwohnungen, a smaller company we acquired on the German Baltic Sea in early 2024 to gain valuable experience in professional property management, so a small Interhome, also reported robust growth with more than 25% year-over-year growth in booking revenues. As this is our small role model for the Interhome acquisition, it is great to see that just 1 year after the acquisition that our measures are already working, giving us even more confidence for the upcoming integration of Interhome into the HomeToGo group. In summary, while some of our peers are facing slower growth, HomeToGo's solid performance across both segments and the success of strategic bets within especially the HomeToGo PRO segment position us well to meet our financial targets for 2025. And here is our confirmed guidance again. As a reminder, in 2025, we expect booking revenues to exceed EUR 350 million, reflecting a strong year-over-year growth of more than 35%. Similarly, IFRS revenues are projected to grow by more than 40%, surpassing EUR 300 million. The slower growth of booking revenues compared to IFRS revenues is a reflection of the assumed consolidation of Interhome from June onwards when the majority of the main booking season is already over. At the same time, profitability is set to accelerate significantly. We anticipate adjusted EBITDA of at least EUR 35 million, marking a growth rate of over 170% year-over-year. And particularly exciting milestone is the introduction of free cash flow as a new guidance metric. For the first time, we are targeting positive free cash flow in 2025, a testament to our strong financial discipline and sustainable business model. So with this outlook, we are confident that 2025 will be a breakthrough year, solidifying HomeToGo's position to become European's leading vacation rental powerhouse. Aside from new financial seers, we also continue to deliver substantial progress on strategic priorities since the start of the year. Acquisition of Interhome remains fully on track and is progressing smoothly following the successful capital raise earlier this year. Our HomeToGo Payment solution has contributed significantly to our improved free cash flow in quarter 1, showing a 38% year-over-year increase. A couple of weeks ago, we launched our latest AI-driven product, the AI filter, which significantly enhances our platform search capabilities. And additionally, we made significant strides in brand awareness in Germany with our strategic partnership with FC Union Berlin. So let's go more into detail on each of these strategic initiatives. Building on the successful completion of our EUR 85 million capital raise in February 2025, we continue to be well on track with our transformative acquisition of Interhome, which we signed in February of this year. This acquisition marks a major step forward in our strategy to position HomeToGo as the leading European player in the vacation rental industry. As a reminder, Interhome is Europe's second largest vacation rental management company with over 60 years of experience and a strong brand presence. In 2024, Interhome generated EUR 400 million in gross booking value, EUR 125 million in IFRS revenues and more than EUR 20 million in adjusted EBITDA. Looking at our progress, we are on schedule to meet all closing conditions. With final regulatory approvals pending, we anticipate consolidating Interhome into HomeToGo as of June 1, 2025. Our focus now is on ensuring day 1 readiness so that Interhome can seamlessly continue its operations from day 1 after closing. At the same time, we are executing a carve-out plan to transition Interhome away from the systems and services of Migros. This acquisition will not only accelerate the growth of our HomeToGo PRO business, but also position us even more strongly within the European vacation rental market. Next, let's talk about the significant progress we've made with our HomeToGo Payment solution, which continues to play a key role in unlocking growth and improving our working capital. HomeToGo Payments provides several advantages for both our partners and travelers by offering trustworthy payment methods and mobile payment options. The product offers key advantages to both partners and travelers. This helps our partners to attract more customers while reducing cancellation rates and payment processing fees, contributing to a more efficient and seamless booking experience for the travelers. From a user experience perspective, HomeToGo Payments has improved the guest booking journey, enabling travelers to directly book and pay through our platform. This direct booking functionality not only improves customer satisfaction, but also enhances our overall platform engagement. Looking at the SaaS adoption of HomeToGo Payments on our Marketplace, we have seen a significant increase in the gross booking value processed through this solution. In quarter 1 '25, GBV processed through HomeToGo Payments has tripled compared to last year's period, showing strong traction and acceptance among both travelers and partners. Additionally, we are seeing a 12.5% higher average basket size for booking processed via HomeToGo Payments, underlying the additional growth potential to drive additional revenue while improving our cash flow. We are also excited that we have introduced a major innovation on our journey towards building a fully AI-powered marketplace, the HomeToGo AI filter, our fifth AI product that we built in-house. This new feature now available in beta on web and the HomeToGo app marks an important step in enhancing the personalized travel experience for our users. With AI filters, travelers can now use natural language to describe exactly what they are looking for in a vacation, whether it's a hardwood floors, outdoor shower or pits are open. The AI powered filters instantly surfaces the best matches based on these unique preferences. So, this powerful new tool not only enhances the user experience by making searches faster and more intuitive, but also adds value for our partners by driving greater visibility for listings with highly sought-after features. Early data from our beta users in Germany and the U.S. shows fascinating insight into the specific features, searching for such as game rooms, saunas, golf cards or pools with a sea view. AI filter is just one of many AI-driven innovations we are rolling out as part of our mission to transform the vacation rental market. By combining this tool with existing features like AI Sunny, our travel assistant and AI Mode, our travel planner, we are continually evolving the way travelers find their perfect home. And this is just the beginning. As we continue to expand our AI offerings, we are setting the stage for HomeToGo to offer the first fully integrated AI-powered travel companion in the industry. Another key milestone in growing HomeToGo's brand awareness in Germany in 2025 is our partnership with renowned Bundesliga club FC Union Berlin. Since February 2025, we are proud to have become Union's main sponsor with our logo prominently displayed on the team's jerseys and HomeToGo's branding receiving significant visibility during every televised match. We will be the main sponsor for the remainder of the 2024-'25 season and also a top sponsor, and the official travel partner throughout the next season. This partnership is a perfect match, not only because HomeToGo was founded in its headquarters in Berlin, but also because we share Union's strong sense of community. Just as Union fans feel at home at the stadium under Alten Forsterei, travelers find their HomeToGo away from home with HomeToGo. And we witnessed what -- with our offering of the first ever sleepover in the Union Stadium under Alten Forsterei a few weeks ago, an offering that drove massive awareness in German media as well as on social media, where thousands of people applied with very emotional stories to be the first to sleep in the stadium. This is a wonderful testament of HomeToGo innovating also something like a sports sponsorship and emotionally connecting it to our brand experience. And with that, I would like to hand over to Steffen, our CFO, to take you through the financial highlights of the first quarter. Thank you.

Thanks, Patrick, and good morning, the analysts and investors, and thank you for joining us today. Let's start with a recap of our key financial highlights for the first quarter. First, following strong double-digit growth in January, we delivered solid top line growth with booking revenues increasing by 5.7% year-over-year, reaching a new all-time high of EUR 88.1 million. Despite a temporary dip in demand in February, the booking revenues backlog reached a record EUR 92.3 million, marking a 20.4% year-over-year increase. This strong backlog provides excellent visibility for the remainder of '25. Second, following a strong start in January, IFRS revenues were impacted by the late timing of Easter, resulting in a 5.4% year-over-year decline to EUR 34.4 million. Due to the shift in Easter timing, part of the revenue recognition was deferred into Q2 '25. As a result, we expect a stronger corresponding performance in Q2. Adjusting for the Easter effect of about EUR 2 million, IFRS revenues would have been flat year-over-year despite the February dip in demand in DACH. Third, during Q1, we saw the typical seasonal EBITDA decline, reflecting our upfront marketing investments aimed at driving future growth, particularly in preparation for the summer high season. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to minus EUR 28 million, down 31.8% year-over-year driven by the delayed Easter effect. Fourth, we ended the quarter with a solid cash position of EUR 143.4 million as of March '25, primarily supported by proceeds from the EUR 85 million capital increase in February. Free cash flow improved by significantly 38.3% year-over-year, amounting to negative EUR 13.9 million. This improvement was largely due to better working capital management, as well as the higher adoption of HomeToGo Payments with an upfront loaded cash flow profile. Let's take a closer look at our key financials for Q1 '25. We saw moderate growth in booking revenues, which increased by 6% year-over-year, reaching a new record high of EUR 88.1 million despite temporary dip in bookings in February. IFRS revenues were slightly down, showing a 5% year-over-year decrease to EUR 34.2 million. As mentioned before, this decrease was primarily caused by the late timing of Easter 2025, which delayed about EUR 2 million IFRS revenues recognition to Q2. When we look at adjusted EBITDA, we saw a seasonal decline with a loss of EUR 28 million for the quarter, reflecting the same delayed recognition of Easter-related revenues in addition to our typical upfront marketing investments to build up the record booking revenues backlog ahead of summer high season. Lastly, we saw a significant improvement in free cash flow, which increased by 38% year-over-year to minus EUR 13.9 million. And this strong improvement is a positive sign as we move towards stronger cash flow generation in the remainder of '25 to reach free cash flow breakeven for the full year. Taking a closer look at the composition of our booking revenues, IFRS revenues and adjusted EBITDA by segment. Starting with the booking revenues, we saw moderate growth across the board. Booking onsite within the Marketplace segment grew by 4% year-over-year, reaching EUR 40.2 million. This growth reflects the continued strength of direct bookings and a higher onsite take rate, despite the temporary decline we experienced in February. Advertising revenues within the Marketplace segment increased by 8%, reaching EUR 27.5 million. In HomeToGo Pro, volume-based booking revenues grew by 9% year-over-year, reaching EUR 18.7 million. Turning to IFRS revenues. Booking onsite in the Marketplace segment contributed EUR 12.1 million, reflecting a 3% decrease due to the late Easter. Meanwhile, advertising IFRS revenues grew modestly by 3% year-over-year. Within HomeToGo PRO subscriptions, IFRS revenues remained stable, reaching EUR 5.6 million, while volume-based revenues saw a decline of 32% year-over-year, totaling EUR 4.1 million, again, largely due to the Easter-related timing effect. Looking at profitability, we observed a seasonal decline with adjusted EBITDA amounting to minus EUR 28 million. The Marketplace segment remained nearly flat in terms of profitability, with adjusted EBITDA reaching minus EUR 22.8 million, which is fully in line with our seasonal business model. On the other hand, HomeToGo PRO experienced a minus EUR 6.8 million swing to minus EUR 5.2 million, reflecting upfront marketing investments in the volume-based business as well as the delayed recognition of Easter-related IFRS revenues. Turning again to the group level and examining the trend in booking revenues over the years. As mentioned in our previous earnings calls, '24 was characterized by highly competitive conditions, particularly in the paid marketing landscape, a trend that has continued into 2025. Taking a closer look at the demand trends, 2025 started with a strong momentum in booking revenues with solid consumer demand across key markets, particularly in January. In February, however, we experienced a temporary softening in demand, especially in the German market, largely due to the federal elections and related consumer uncertainty. Nevertheless, demand rebounded towards the end of Q1, with positive trends continuing into April and in particular, May, as highlighted earlier by Patrick, providing a solid foundation for the upcoming summer travel season. Looking at our booking revenue backlog on the right side, we achieved a new record of EUR 92.3 million as of March 31, reflecting a 20.4% year-over-year increase. This significant growth provides us with strong visibility for the remainder of the year and beyond, ensuring a solid pipeline of IFRS revenues as we move into the peak travel season. Turning to the evolution of our onsite take rate. Our Marketplace continues to provide high-quality attractive demand that drives strong performance for our trusted partners as reflected in their willingness to pay higher take rates. We've seen stable growth in our onsite take rate, which increased from 12.8% in Q1 to 13.1% in Q1 2025, marking a 0.2 percentage points increase year-over-year, although it looks like 0.3%, but that's due to the rounding. Let's take a closer look at how Q1 performance translates to our retention. One of the cornerstones of our profitability improvement has been the cultivation of a loyal and engaged customer base, which drives strong repeat demand. As shown, when travelers try HomeToGo once, they are more likely to return. Over the past year, we have seen a 10% increase in booking revenues from repeat customers, reflecting, on the one hand, the continued effectiveness of our AI-powered marketplace. On the other hand, given the high share of the DACH region in the repeat customers, in particular, the Germans, we also see the impact of the German February election in February. This sustained growth from repeat customers speaks to the strength of our platform and the loyalty we've built with travelers over the years, contributing to a solid foundation for future growth. Let's provide some additional context on the development of our average basket size. 13% year-over-year increase in basket size across the group is mainly driven by the strong growth in the average daily rate in Rest of Europe, which increased by 17%. In DACH and North America, average daily rates rose by more than 12% in both regions, while the length of stay remained stable across all regions. In terms of basket size, DACH saw an increase of 11%, while North America experienced a 12% decrease. Excluding the impact of the short trip GetAway Group business and focusing purely on our core HomeToGo Marketplace for vacation rentals, the increase in the group's average daily rate is even more significant at 16%. Let's have a closer look at the development of our cost ratios and their role in driving group-level profitability relative to IFRS revenues for Q1 '25. Our gross profit margin decreased slightly by 0.2 percentage points to 96.8%, which is primarily due to the shift in revenue recognition related to the Easter holiday check-ins. Our marketing and sales cost ratio for Q1 '25 increased to 131.5%, a rise of 17.5 percentage points compared to Q1 '24. This increase is largely attributed to higher performance marketing expenses aimed at further building the record booking revenues backlog. Additionally, the timing of the Easter holiday in April '25 led to the corresponding IFRS revenue recognition for these check-ins in Q2 '25. On the product development side, costs increased slightly to 23.2%, mainly as a result of the lower revenue base for Q1 '25 compared to '24. Administrative expenses also rose from 18.9% to 26%, mainly due to an increase in consulting expenses associated with M&A and integration activities, as well as other external services required to support the group's ongoing growth and transformation. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA margin for Q1 '25 stood at minus 81.3%, reflecting the anticipated seasonal decline due to the upfront investments in marketing and other growth initiatives. We expect to see improvements as we move further into the year. Turning to our cash position. We maintain a strong balance sheet as of the end of March '25, with a gross cash balance of EUR 143.4 million, which includes a EUR 40 million investment in a money market fund. The sequential increase of EUR 60.6 million in gross cash compared to the end of '24 is primarily due to the proceeds from the capital increase in February 2025. In Q1 '25, our operating activities resulted in a net cash outflow of minus EUR 11.6 million, reflecting a substantial year-over-year improvement of EUR 8.7 million. This improvement was mainly driven by a lower build-up of receivables during the reporting period, as well as an increase in traveler advance payment that remain untransferred to our vacation rental suppliers in Q1 '24. Cash flow from investing activities amounted to minus EUR 3.1 million, primarily reflecting investments in internally generated intangible assets of EUR 2.7 million, aimed at enhancing the booking experience for our customers. Finally, cash flow from financing activities was EUR 75.3 million, which includes the net proceeds from the February '25 capital increase after transaction costs totaling EUR 82.6 million. This was partially offset by a EUR 7 million repayment for a deferred consideration in the form of a vendor loan resulting from the GetAway transaction. After accounting for interest-bearing debt of EUR 0.1 million and restricted cash of EUR 3.6 million held for collection services on behalf of hosts, our net cash position as of March stood at EUR 143.4 million. As already mentioned by Patrick, we are confirming our financial guidance for '25, which marks another major step forward on our journey of profitable growth and cash flow. In '25, we continue to expect booking revenues to exceed EUR 350 million, reflecting a year-over-year growth of more than 35%. Similarly, IFRS revenues continue to grow by more than 40%, surpassing EUR 300 million. We continue to anticipate adjusted EBITDA of at least EUR 35 million, marking a growth rate of over 170% year-over-year. And lastly, we continue to target positive free cash flow in '25. These numbers continue to assume Interhome consolidation as of June 1, 2025. One last piece of news, which you may have seen in our release yesterday, we've announced HomeToGo's next milestone, welcoming a new Chief Financial Officer. I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of you, investors, analysts, bankers, advisers for the trust over the last 4 years as a public company. It has been quite a ride over the last 15 earnings calls. In our first earnings call, it was the Q3 '21 earnings call as a public company, we had IFRS revenues of EUR 44 million. Q3, as you all know by now, is always our best quarter. Today, we announced EUR 34 million IFRS revenues in the first quarter, which is typically our weakest quarter and now represents a bit more than 10% of the full-year guidance of more than EUR 300 million. With Patrick having recently extended his contract for 4 years and Sebastian Bielski taking over as HomeToGo's new CFO from July 1, I see HomeToGo, including the full HomeToGo team and after the closing, the Interhome team in very solid shape for the future. Rest assured, I will still be around in Q3 for a good transition.

Thank you, Steffen. And for sure, on behalf of me, but also the rest of the Management Board and the entire team at HomeToGo, thank you very much, Steffen. We are deeply grateful for not only your extraordinary dedication to the company, but also for the integral role you have played in so many significant milestones in HomeToGo's history. From joining in 2022 and being a significant contributor to get us ready for our IPO in 2021, helping to steer us through many acquisitions and life as a public company overall, as you just mentioned. Our success, continued growth and advances in profitability is a huge testament to your hard work and leadership. So, thank you very much again. And obviously, we are looking ahead and forward to welcoming our new CFO, Sebastian, in July and having you hear from him in our Q2 earnings in August. With that, I thank you for your attention today. We will now open the floor for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Bharath Nagaraj, Cantor Fitzgerald.

I'll start with 2 questions, and then I'll ask 2 more after that. Could you help us quantify the effect of the weak Feb bookings due to the German elections on both the booking and IFRS revenue? I note that you quantified it for the Easter timing shift, but it would be helpful if you could quantify this as well. And the second question is on the Europe. Excluding DACH, that you mentioned, ADR growth of around 17%, how are the volume trends here? And are they showing improvements as well in April and May?

Bharath, it's Steffen. So the February booking effect is, as you know, it's always a little bit difficult to quantify. But when you saw the, let's say, additional EUR 4 million we had in ad spend and if you assume that they would come in at a neutral profitability, then if you assume that EUR 4 million, that gives you a good idea for the order of magnitude. With regards to the Rest of Europe growth, could you please specify the question?

So, you talked about 14% bookings growth for Europe, excluding the DACH region and then 17% ADR growth. I was just wondering, this shows that maybe the volumes were not that strong, if I'm not wrong. And then how are they improving the volumes in April and May or mostly May?

Yes. So, what we have seen is that similar to our public market peers that the, let's say, the higher end of our customer base continued to book. And that was one of the reasons why the ADR has increased while the lower end of the bookings of the customers have booked less. And that you can see also in the smaller amount of bookings despite the growth in booking revenues. And when we looked at it, we had a lot of internal discussions about it. So it was quite comforting to hear that our peers have seen the similar experience. And our read is that consumers who have to -- are more price sensitive are maybe waiting a little bit. And so we expect some strong momentum to come from them because now with the stock exchanges across the world, again, a positive territory now that we have a new government in place in Germany, there should come some positive confidence into consumer spending.

Sure, sure. Just a quick couple of follow-ups. In terms of the portion of bookings that are currently choosing to pay via HomeToGo's Payment methods that you mentioned today, what portion of the bookings are coming from your Payment methods? And how should we think about modeling the improvement in working capital going forward as well? And the other question -- last question is for Patrick. Could you please help us understand how you're adapting your SEO and other marketing efforts in an era of AI summaries? How are you planning to diversify your customer acquisition efforts in this kind of environment?

So on Payments, you can clearly see when you look at our bookings onsite business, that's the main driver for HomeToGo Payments. And more and more partners are adopting to use HomeToGo Payment. And as Patrick has shown, it's also working out for them because the basket sizes are increasing. When you ask about how to model it, I would just use a percentage of the booking onsite business and then increase that percentage over time. It will not get to 100%. So, there will always be some partners who prefer to keep payment to the shelf. But if you, moderately, let it increase over the time, it should give you a good idea on cash flow profile.

Okay. Yes. And to your question around SEO, right? Like -- so obviously, what we have seen where Google has introduced AI summaries, you obviously witnessed a lower click-through rate for organic traffic in general, like everyone. Most of these, like, actually things where Google currently or questions or queries where Google currently introduces the AI summaries are not the ones that are mostly like transaction-wise, right? It is more on the research side around destinations and these types of things. So the influence is not that big because if you're looking transactional, you will still be shown, and we are anyway also active with SEM. In general, we see what we have done in the past, so where we basically pioneered the way we did SEO with bringing HomeToGo and what we call inbound or like press and communications together with SEO and like really focusing on like SEO metrics in terms of visibility, but also like domain authority from outlets where we put our press releases in and basically like positioning HomeToGo as the expert for vacation rentals that is now, as you have seen in our prior earnings call, pays out because like also the LLMs in general, but including for sure, also Google are recognizing this information and seeing HomeToGo most of the time despite like our maybe lower brand equity than a company like Airbnb as one of the most like referred to destination for vacation rentals. And I think this is, for us, therefore, actually a great opportunity to go even further into this, especially also thinking about what we have compared to others with HomeToGo PRO, right, where we can, like, not only profit from the way that people come to our Marketplace. But on the other side, also like how they might use our solutions that we have on HomeToGo PRO where people might be directly pointed to.

[Operator Instructions] Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. So, I would like to turn the conference back over to you. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Vicki. And dear analysts and investors, thank you also very much for your attention and questions. Should there be additional questions, please feel free to contact us. We wish you a great day, and hope to see you soon. Many thanks.

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