Priceline doing well but feeling pressure from Expedia, margins and hotel mix
Skift Take
Anyone who counted Expedia out in its competition against Priceline might have under-estimated the potential of Expedia's hotel platform investments. Meanwhile, Priceline has a very talented management that it is steering it ahead as market conditions change.
Priceline recorded a solid third quarter with gross bookings rising more than 25% and room nights climbing 36%, but many of the story lines of the past few years, including competition with Expedia, are entering a new chapter.
In the last couple of years, the tales were always about Priceline clobbering Expedia in the fight to be the top dog in the online travel agency and global hotel market.
Priceline indeed is still the king, with 245,000 hotels now in the fold, but CEO Jeffery Boyd conceded, without putting it in these words, that Expedia is no longer an also-ran.
Exped
