Expedia News

Big hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton, with their ample marketing and advertising budgets, can scoff all they want about Expedia and Booking.com pay-to play programs for sort-order preference as the chains push direct bookings on their own sites. But small chains and independents will likely use the programs, seeking any small advantage they can wrangle.

Imagine if Expedia and Priceline saw selling flights as an increasingly important part of their business and started offering airline IT solutions. That's what they and Trivago are essentially doing on the hotel side of the ledger, embedding themselves as hotel-technology providers. Now it has become a downright trend.

Priceline's and Expedia's respective selling and marketing spend on a global scale shows why Priceline remains on top despite all of Expedia's acquisitions. Priceline does it much more efficiently, getting a lot more bang for a buck.

Priceline's CEO says its "competitive moat is deep and wide." His counterpart at Expedia believes his company needs to get more international. And TripAdvisor's new CFO says it has ample resources for acquisitions. This all should make for an interesting 2016.

Expedia's acquisitions versus the Priceline Group's "competitive moat." Rock, paper, scissors. It's an interesting contest and in the $1.4 trillion global travel market, both companies can be winners. Expedia is trending upward and Priceline is showing strong growth, as well.

Advertising such as bidding programs can be a higher margin business than transactions for online travel agencies. It looks like Expedia, at least, wants to get involved in that bidding revenue that Google and metasearch players have generated for years.

With a seemingly endless array of options for consumers to book their travel, it's important to understand attribution and what influences consumers decisions. Download Expedia's Traveler Attribution Study to learn more!

Expedia's acquisitions in 2015 made it more of a U.S.-focused company, a weakness it intends to rectify in coming years. Meanwhile, the market share impact of its buying spree won't really be felt until 2016 and beyond.

The gorgeous new film from Brand USA will likely encourage families around the world to visit America's national parks.

Expedia inherited some minority investments in travel startups from HomeAway and Trivago, and made a few of its own in 2015. Look for Expedia to spread its money around in 2016, making additional minority investments, as well as a big acquisition or two.