Booking Gets in Expedia's Face With Billboards Near Las Vegas Conference
Photo Credit: Although not shown here in this Las Vegas street scene, many taxi cabs this week carried Booking.com advertisements geared toward recruiting new short-term rental hosts. Flickr Commons / Abi Skipp
Skift Take
The vacation rental industry often touts the esprit de corps among industry lifers. Greeted with Booking.com ads for hosts at an Expedia partner conference in Sin City this week, Expedia officials weren't feeling that vibe.
Expedia Group officials and undoubtably many of the roughly 3,000 arriving attendees at the company's partner conference Tuesday and Wednesday were confronted with huge digital signage at McCarren Airport, as well as billboards on the Strip and taxi tops transporting visitors to hotels, touting the wonders of rival Booking.com.
"We've delivered over 1 billion vacation rental guest arrivals. That's a lot of super happy hosts. Think Bigger. Think Booking.com," reads the marketing campaign, one of the few the Booking Holdings brand has run targeting hosts of what the company still calls "alternative accommodations."
Although Booking.com claims the marketing blitz, which included print ads in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, is aimed at wooing Airbnb superhosts — who allegedly may not be as happy as Booking's "super happy hosts," Expedia Group CEO Pete
