The Highest Paid Online Travel Agency CEOs

Expedia Group in 2021 awarded vice chairman and CEO Peter Kern a $296 million compensation package, outpacing all his peers by an order of magnitude, and reportedly making him the third-highest compensated CEO in all of corporate America.

See the chart below outlining the 2021 compensation for the CEOs of Expedia Group, Booking Holdings, Tripadvisor, and Airbnb. The companies disclosed their executives' compensation in May.

On paper, Kern's bonanza makes Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky's 2020 package of $120 million seem like a relative paltry sum.

All of these comparisons are apples versus oranges. We'll explain.

To put it all into perspective, on the surface Kern's 2021 compensation package has a 2,897:1 ratio compared to the median pay for Expedia workers, which was $102,270.

Kern's 2021 compensation package, though, actually covers three years plus a make-good for Covid-tinged 2020, while the median pay for Expedia employees was calculated for one year. (Chesky's 2020 payload covered 10 years.)

"On February 25, 2021, Expedia Group entered into an Employment Agreement with Mr. Kern that has a term that expires on April 22, 2024 (the “Kern Employment Agreement”), after which Mr. Kern is expected to continue to serve as the Company's Executive Vice Chairman at least through June 1, 2026," Expedia Group stated in a financial filing.

The company sai