Expedia News

Priceline Group Interim CEO Jeffery Boyd is too much of a gentleman and a professional to get into a public shouting match with his hotel-chain partners. Still, behind the scenes, he doesn't intend to sit back and let hotel chains withhold their lowest rates without taking retaliatory steps.

Breaking up is hard to do but when it comes to mergers, the stakes can be very high and the challenges acutely complex. It's really hard to find someone who will argue that Expedia's acquisition spree will be its undoing but success will take focus and certainly isn't guaranteed.

Egencia is leveraging the tech-savvy of its parent Expedia Inc. to compete at a high level in the corporate travel space. It has a real competitive advantage against other travel management companies, which have begun to pivot from providing travel services to developing travel technology solutions to solve the problems that travel buyers and agents can't.

Did Expedia finally bite off more than it can chew when it went on an acquisition tear? The company stumbled during the second quarter of 2016 but likely has the skills to get back on track.

An IPO for Trivago has been a hoped-for option for Expedia since it acquired the company in 2012. Trivago has been a growth juggernaut and now its investors hope to cash in and to spur increased growth.

Expedia apparently bailed out Trover, a photography app that created an attractive user experience but ran into a stone wall in the form of Instagram and Facebook, as well as user interest.

Lots of consumers start their trip-planning with flights. Expedia will use its customer reviews of flights to spur more flight bookings but the company is also focusing on up-selling and facilitating smooth navigation to hotel and vacation-package options.

Big travel management companies are going to look to acquire technology companies and smaller competitors as they struggle to scale up their technology platforms.

While one U.S. administration is getting ready to pack up things in the White House and Trump or Clinton hope to redecorate the place on their own, it could be an opportune time to sneak a Priceline-TripAdvisor or Google-TripAdvisor marriage past those sometimes-pesky antitrust regulators.

Asia-Pacific is expected to replace North America as the world's biggest online travel market next year. If your travel business operates online, it's time to take a good, hard, look at your Asia-Pacific strategy.