Articles tagged “affiliates”

Booking.com's purge of affiliates is about cutting costs and reducing fraud, but it's created a lot of confusion in the process.

Mondee began its journey of expanding offerings via seven acquisitions during the pandemic. Now it's starting another acquisition spree, and all signs point to that being a good move.

Expedia is trying to press its advantage in business-to-business programs. It's ahead of Booking Holdings in this area, and Airbnb doesn't have one.

Media brands that publish travel content are seeking enhanced monetization of their work and audiences. The story of one vendor serving them helps to highlight the questions that brands such as BBC and MTV face more generally.

Booking.com doesn't want affiliates or other partners to make unsubstantiated promotional claims about the online travel agency having the "best," meaning the lowest prices, which it admits it doesn't have. With regulators in Europe and elsewhere watching its every move, Booking.com doesn't want to play like that.

If the Expedia-Marriott partnership works out as promised, then there will be fewer Marriott rates on metasearch sites that are deeply discounted compared to Marriott's own websites. And bedbanks and tour operators will have to sign up with Expedia — not Marriott — to get their hands on Marriott's wholesale rates.

Expedia in December promoted Ariane Gorin to become boss of Expedia Business Services. Gorin had led a team that had recently won major enterprise accounts, like Marriott's exclusive redistribution deal. Opportunity abounds for the company to expand its business-to-business partnerships.

The homesharing giant is only partnering with websites that attract at least a million visitors a month. Airbnb is calculating that the revenue upside would be worth the brand sacrifice that comes with affiliate marketing.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association has no love lost for Expedia, other online travel agencies and their affiliates, and will likely welcome the squabbling and any additional exposure the affiliate issue gets from this lawsuit. Expedia has to move fast to protect its reputation among partners.