What an Amex GBT-CWT Merger Means For Expedia and Booking.com

28.03.2024 - 09:21 / skift.com / Henry Harteveldt / Dennis Schaal / Richard Clarke / Paul Abbott

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.

“As you know, SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) is an important strategic focus area for us,” Abbott said in a conference call Monday to explain the proposed merger. “And it also represents an important strategic focus for CWT, who have been focused on expanding further in this area including a relationship with Booking.com for Business….”

Expedia Group, one of Booking.com’s largest rivals, had a 16% stake in Amex GBT at the end of 2023. Expedia also has a 10-year lodging supply agreement with Amex GBT that gives its clients access to Expedia hotel inventory.

Skift reached out to several analysts about the potential rivalry in hotel supply between Expedia and Booking.com.

“There’s room for only one winner at the top of the podium,” said Atmosphere Research Group’s Henry Harteveldt. “Unless there is something in the contracts with either Booking or Expedia that guarantees one of them the place as the surviving provider, I would expect that Amex GBT will have Expedia and Booking participate in a type of bake off where the two make their case for being retained. It would, of course, be easier for Amex GBT to retain Expedia, since they are the incumbent, but Amex GBT may view this as an opportunity for a fresh look — and, perhaps, the opportunity to negotiate more favorable economic terms.”

On the other hand, Richard Clarke, managing director at AB Bernstein, didn’t see the mashup as an issue.

“Why not have both?” Clarke said. “My understanding is there is no cost of connection (for businesses) and this way you can pick the cheapest price of a hotel from each. I believe Trip.com has a similar relationship with both.”

Asked whether China’s Trip.com Group indeed has a supply relationship with both Expedia and Booking.com, a Trip.com executive wouldn’t get into specifics but said, “We are a platform so we do multi-sourcing.”

Indeed, Amex GBT already has a supply relationship with Booking.com, as it does with the three major global distribution systems, but they seem small when compared with the strategic relationship between Amex GBT and Expedia Group.

For its part, Expedia Group expects its supply partnership with Amex GBT to continue.

Asked about the implications of the Booking-CWT relationship and its own with Amex GBT, an Expedia Group statement said: “At Expedia Group, we power thousands of partners around the world with