Marketing Wars: Booking vs. Expedia – Who Spends Smarter?
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Skift Take
In 2023, Booking and Expedia spent a combined $13 billion on marketing, with Booking demonstrating better efficiency and global reach. While both still invest heavily in Google, they're shifting towards alternative marketing strategies like price discounting and B2B channels.
Booking and Expedia spend a ton on marketing: Nearly $13 billion combined in 2023, up from $10 billion in 2019. And it’s the largest expense for both companies, accounting for roughly half of their total operating expenses.
But from there, some key differences emerge, according to the latest analysis from Skift Research.
1. Who Spends More on Marketing?For one thing, marketing is gaining in prominence for Expedia (up to 52% of operating expenses in 2023, from 45% in 2019) and declining for Booking (44% vs. 51%.)
2. Who Spends Smarter?Another important difference is “marketing efficiency” – how much they need to spend to drive bookings. Expedia was less efficient: It spent nearly 6% of its gross bookings on marketing in 2023, versus only 4.5% at Booking.
Some of this can be attributed to the recent growth of Expedia’s B2B segment because Expedia treats the commissions it pays to its partners as a direct
