Expedia News

Expedia's HomeAway unit isn't as profitable as the parent company initially envisioned, and Booking.com rained on Trivago's parade. Still, Expedia itself — and financial analysts — are optimistic about Expedia's long-term prospects. Regardless of the promise, these are very challenging days in online travel.

Expedia has been talking for a couple of years about being opportunistic when it comes to mergers and acquisitions for its Egencia business travel unit. That may be on the back burner for awhile, though, as the parent company, which has been bogged down in integrating acquisitions over the past couple of years, focuses on growing what it already has.

Expedia isn't done trying to grow; that would be suicide for any public company. Instead, Expedia argues it can best spur growth by digging in deeper in countries where it already operates rather than expanding its map. The new strategy boils down to a question of priorities, and could change again in coming years.

Expedia penned its second loyalty-enrollment agreement with a hotel chain, but like the previous pact with Red Lion's parent, the G6 Hospitality deal isn't any kind of game-changer for Expedia as it tries to soften the effects of the the big chains' direct-booking campaigns.

What do a debate over landing pages, the acquisition of Momondo, a shift into hotel software services, and regulators forcing changes in online travel agency contracts have in common? Each of those seemingly unrelated things may have pushed Priceline to toggle back its spending on Trivago.

The Priceline Group is in the catbird seat in online travel — for now — while Expedia is a much smaller company with so much ground to make up. Expedia's Okerstrom is laudably talking tough about his ambitions to propel his company forward. But 2017, so far, has been anything but easy for the two newbie CEOs.

Expedia Inc. seems ready to further develop existing brands like HomeAway in 2018. An opportunistic acquisition or two might also take place, but CEO Okerstrom says he's focusing on organic growth from companies already in Expedia's portfolio.

It should be no surprise that the new Expedia CEO, who Barry Diller claims to have selected without conducting a wider candidate search, would have his own ideas about where to take the $22 billion company. Okerstrom is even talking about a path for Expedia becoming number one in online travel. That's definitely something we haven't heard publicly articulated in awhile.

Visit Seattle is positioning itself as a broker of innovation, versus a sales conduit for meeting space, by introducing meeting planners nationwide to some of the world's most advanced companies.

Expedia's move seems odd, as hotel chains ramp up their direct-booking campaigns that include best-price guarantees. Our guess is that the company tested and found that most consumers are no longer swayed by price-matching offers. Or perhaps there was pressure from ongoing probes in Europe.