Expedia News

Expedia is content to work with Google on hotel bookings while stiff-arming TripAdvisor. There is likely more to the warming and cooling relationships than just the relative economics.

Officials at Booking.com and Expedia know their hotel businesses are so far ahead of Amazon's nascent moves that they aren't cowering in fear at the might of Amazon. But you can bet they will be taking a hard look at the expanded Amazon Destinations today, as will the folks at Google and TripAdvisor.

The emergence of TripAdvisor as a viable booking site is a wake-up call to Expedia and the Priceline Group, who have been TripAdvisor's largest advertisers in recent years. It wouldn't be surprising to see them cut the spending spigot a bit.

With the emergence of TripAdvisor and Google as online travel agency alternatives and Amazon waiting in the wings if it ever figures out what it wants to do in travel, all the signs point toward an increasingly competitive online travel agency market in the U.S. These are factors the DOJ will consider when mulling the Expedia-Orbitz deal.

Giving travelers a peek at what happens behind the scenes by sharing their staff's personal take is one way to build brand affinity.

Travelocity has left the gnome behind before, and it's come back to it in times of need. Maybe the gnome should just take a long vacation and wait for their call when they get desperate.

In contrast to its recent penchant for big acquisitions, the Priceline Group now seems to be content to take minority stakes, such as this one with Hotel Urbano, while Priceline focuses on integrating past acquisitions and its new B2B businesses.

Airbnb, with its roughly $24.5 billion valuation, would likely be too big for most of the online travel agencies to acquire but if they are forced to enter the sharing economy in a bigger way several years from now they always have the resources to buy their way in.

Videos are just like digital ads, they need to be tailored to specific audiences by interest and purchase behavior.

June is an opportune time for travel brands to celebrate the role of fathers and milestones of same-sex marriages, but they need to be careful not to exploit the occasion and the movement.