Expedia News

Airbnb will spend tens of millions of dollars, if not more, on its global advertising and referral campaigns to recruit more hosts, and that's probably a smart move. On the face of it, though, this proves that the company's host sign-up efforts are hardly organic, as one analyst alleged.

At a time when a travel operator like Expedia Group is shedding brands to become more focused, private equity firm Certares is investing in a broad array of travel assets. Divergent strategies for two very different companies. Certares' goal is likely to wrangle synergies while making a ton of money.

New data from AirDNA show that corporate hosts wield huge power on Airbnb's platform despite the fact that individual hosts make up more than 90 percent of hosting's ranks. Airbnb is empowering the growth of these property managers, but the result could be disenchanted hosts and guests.

Will Airbnb continue on its magic carpet ride after it reports its first earnings as a public company? Does the Airbnb brand beat Booking Holdings' real-world businesses, including hotels, flights and metasearch? Or has the market already decided that question?

Hoteliers sent about $50 billion of rooms a year through wholesalers in normal times. Expedia Group and WebBeds want to take larger shares of that market. But private equity-backed companies like Hotelbeds and Fastpayhotels see an opportunity, too.

Profit, revenue and trends became less relevant during the pandemic so many travel businesses with deeper pockets used the standstill to rethink their strategies. Plenty of the new efforts will fail, but on the other side of the crisis, some of these businesses will look significantly different.

Expedia has no plans to spin off whole-home site Vrbo following Airbnb's blockbuster IPO. Instead, the company is doubling down on expanding the site through its various channels amid a strong pandemic vacation rental market.

Arne Sorenson was a maverick in his own way. He quietly visited Airbnb headquarters in 2014 to get a better understanding of short-term rentals, which culminated in Marriott's Homes & Villas. And he found a way to have a mutually beneficial relationship with those "evil" online travel agencies.

Expedia Group will restart its marketing machine in phases. First, it will tout its vacation rental brands like Vrbo. By around April, it will roll out a campaign touting Expedia as a place for booking "the complete trip." It makes sense to pay for those efforts partly by cutting some of its Google investment.

Expedia Group's mission statement updated from "The World's Travel Platform" to a more modest blurb may be sending a message to its employees. If any were complacent under the old regime, they'd better be full of hustle to tackle a changing competitive landscape.