Expedia Begins Revealing Its Big Ambitions in Hotel Services
Skift Take
Expedia is seeking to gain even more influence in the hotel industry while the big chains are trying to limit online travel agencies' clout through the hotels' direct-booking campaigns. As Expedia's recent Marriott Vacations and Red Lion deals, along with the needs of smaller hotels, show, there is substantial upside for Expedia.
Expedia Inc. is in the process of introducing globally a new way for hoteliers to promote ancillary services such as discounted spa treatments, loyalty points or free parking on brands from Expedia.com to Hotels.com -- but the new product is mostly interesting because it is emblematic, although a small element, of the online travel agency's huge ambitions in providing new business services to the hotel industry.
And getting a greater foothold in the hotel industry as a service provider is a way for Expedia to increase its influence, gain a wider audience and offset the hundreds of millions of dollars the company invests annually ($830 million in 2015) in its wide-ranging technology platforms.
In a Skift backstage podcast right after appearing on stage at the Skift Global Forum in Manhattan September 27, Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi revealed some very interesting perspectives about Expedia's push into business services for hotels, which include direct-connect technology to Expedia's extranet, providing hoteliers with guests' feedback during their stays, powering package-selling on Marriott Vacations, auto-enrolling Expedia site visitors into Red Lion's loyalty program, and an Accelerator feature for hotels to jump higher in search r
