Expedia News

While the big chains have tech and marketing people to optimize websites and their cost-per click campaigns, booking sites in transformation such as Booking.com, Trivago and TripAdvisor are squarely directed at making themselves more essential to smaller, independent hotels. It is another sign of the changing role of metasearch sites and online travel agencies in the mobile era.

The latest revenue numbers from Airbnb explain why Expedia is acquiring HomeAway, the Priceline Group is touting its 21 million bookable rooms, and Wall Street analysts are questioning hotel-chain CEOs on the prospect of selling hotel rooms through Airbnb.

HomeAway, as it becomes part of Expedia Inc., will become more urban-oriented, and Airbnb is determined to onboard vacation rentals in resort locations. All of which means that Expedia, Airbnb, and Booking.com will increasingly butt heads over the next few years.

TripAdvisor wanted to keep the details secret. But the price for finally getting the Priceline Group/Booking.com into TripAdvisor Instant Booking was playing the online travel agency exclusivity card. Expedia is shut out for now and can join later. Will Book on Google play a similar game?

As this TripAdvisor-Priceline Group partnership takes off, observe it closely because it signals a new stage in earnest in travel bookings -- the real emergence of third-party sites such as TripAdvisor and perhaps Google at some juncture that were primarily media sites as real forces in travel transactions.

Although five companies other than Expedia expressed an interest in investing in HomeAway or proposed an alternative transaction, only one, Expedia, made a full-blown acquisition proposal. That may say something about HomeAway's prospects, the very competitive marketplace in the vacation rental space and the broader sharing economy.

Hotels like that online travel agencies sell their rooms, but they'd much rather sell the rooms themselves -- especially as consolidation has given giants like Expedia more power over negotiating prices.

Everyone knows that being nimble enough to test and introduce new technology is a tremendous advantage. Behind the scenes, though, Expedia got good at another skill -- moving really fast to identify and make acquisitions.

With Expedia acquiring Travelocity, Orbitz Worldwide, Wotif and HomeAway since 2014, it isn't hard to imagine Expedia adding GetYourGuide to its portfolio -- although with this latest funding round the price tag just went up.

Expedia's purchase of HomeAway sets the stage for big moves in the online booking sector.