Expedia News

Expedia and Travelocity are now strategic partners, but they still will compete against each other to a certain extent. That's where Hotwire, an Expedia subsidiary, fits in. Hotwire is advertising to the world that its hotel deals are better than Travelocity's -- and, by extension, Expedia's. It's the travel industry. Get it?

The UK's Office of Fair Trading has made the hotel industry a bit more competitive, but the new rules have their limits. Booking.com and Expedia aren't permitted to advertise discounted rooms to the general public, but will only do so for members of their loyalty programs and other closed groups. Still, it puts hotels at a disadvantage.

Whether Traxo is the company that ends up bringing personalized hotel recommendations to throngs of travelers or another company does it, this is where online and mobile travel is heading. The airlines are trying to do this, as well.

Groupon is rounding out its hotel offering after having acquired same-night hotel app Blink last September. The whole thing is still a very niche product.

Malte Siewert of Trivago has a mantra that's a characteristic of many successful companies: Test things out, yes, but make quick decisions and get things done. He's happy about the Expedia acquisition, but Trivago is apparently creating its own destiny.

Expedia has long argued that Google wields inordinate power, and now it is feeling Google's wrath. There will be a financial impact, and perhaps a bit of a brand hit, but this injury is far from fatal.

Now that the Expedia-Travelocity agreement's implementation has begun, we can expect to hear about some of the financial benefits to Expedia during its upcoming Q4 earnings call. The agreement is being phased in, and the rollout is taking place somewhat faster than expected.

These are explosive allegations that Expedia is involved in a paid links scheme with travel bloggers and that frenemy Google retaliated. Stay tuned for more fireworks.

Expedia's Flight Recommendations feature is a valuable tool for flyers planning their itineraries. Finally, a Big Data feature that transcends the usual hype.

It was a great year on the stock markets in 2013 for online travel agencies as a whole. Their businesses are increasingly global, and many are benefiting from expansion into developing markets and boosting their hotel products.