Expedia Group tips

Expedia Group announced late Monday that it began notifying 1,500 employees that they would be laid off “in light of the Company’s organizational and technological transformation.”

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, April 25. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

It wasn’t too long ago that if you booked a flight through an online travel agency, you couldn’t pick your seat assignment in advance.

Corporate travel could get complicated: Expedia Group has a big stake in Amex Global Business Travel. Booking.com is partners with CWT. What happens to those relationships if the merger between Amex GBT and CWT goes through? Amex GBT CEO Paul Abbott specifically noted CWT’s ties to Booking.com for Business as an upside to the deal as it tries to reach more small businesses customers.

The period after the Great Financial Crisis in 2008-2009 until 2019 was a golden decade for online travel agencies. Booking and Expedia benefitted from the shift to online bookings, a consolidation of the online distribution landscape, and share gains from hotels. They become the most powerful duopoly in online travel. 

Following the succession from Peter Kern to Ariane Gorin, Expedia Group taps two long-time Expedia veterans to lead newly formed operating divisions.

The online travel company, which also owns brands such as VRBO and Hotels.com, said that it was committed to “restructuring actions” that resulted in the layoffs.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, February 16. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel.

Expedia Group has pulled a Vrbo ad in Canada because its use of a traditional Newfoundland and Labrador folksong triggered a backlash.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, February 13. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Expedia Group frequently talks up the benefits of its sale of corporate travel agency Egencia to American Express Global Business Travel. Benefits include: A 10-year pact to supply Amex GBT with lodging inventory, and Expedia’s equity stake in it, initially valued in 2021 at $815 million.

In a letter to employees — obtained by Skift — after the news broke that he’d be stepping down in May, Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern said there were times when he wasn’t sure whether the multiyear reorganization of the company was going deep or fast enough.

In a stunner that few observers saw coming, Expedia Group announced CEO Peter Kern will step down from his post and Ariane Gorin will succeed him, effective May 13.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, February 9. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Expedia CEO Peter Kern pled his case to hotel owners Monday: Take seriously the billion-dollar issue of wholesale rates being misused online.

If you are bearish about Airbnb because its room night growth has slowed considerably and rivals such as Booking.com have narrowed the gap, then your downbeat assessment of Airbnb would be wrong.

Travelers are continuing to plan trips further out, as they look toward mid-year getaways.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, November 3. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Expedia Group has been consumed with, and weighed down by, launching a new loyalty program and transitioning its three core brands — Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo — to a common tech platform. But now those tasks are behind it.

Expedia Group laid off around 100 employees in a round of cuts that impacted its product and tech organization, Skift has learned.

Hopper, the fast-growing online travel and fintech company, cut 30% of its full-time staff — around 250 employees — in a bid to get profitable, according to a published report.