Expedia News

It's rare to have an Expedia CEO speak so candidly about Google's threat to his own company. After all, Google knows how to punish companies when it wants to. Given Barry Diller's recent statements, and Okerstrom's view, there must be a lot of concern in Expedialand behind the scenes.

Expedia officials can try to assure hoteliers that the rise of alternative accommodations is no big deal for their businesses. But you can be certain that figuring out how to manage this changing dynamic is of paramount concern for all parties involved.

Trivago has reportedly admitted to misleading consumers about its hotel comparisons and will have to appear in court later this month to defend its actions. This comes as Australians are being whipped up to boycott foreign-owned hotel aggregators that are accused of ripping off local hotel owners and operators.

In what appears to be a clash of ideals and aspirations, the brains behind Traveloka’s technology, Derianto Kusuma, is leaving the company he co-founded in early 2012. It is telling how a startup that has reached unicorn status is changing. But is it for the better?

Would Airbnb and Uber, for example, be truly better off as public companies? It's unclear because they both have access to tons of money already. But they would both certainly be better equipped to spin their own narratives.

If Airbnb is indeed seeing a slowdown of its business in more mature markets like Europe and the U.S., that's all the more reason for the company to double down on its efforts in emerging markets like China, and to work on adding more professional inventory, ahem, hotels.

No one saw that Argentina's economy would take such a bad turn this year. But Despegar, based in Buenos Aires, is making moves to weather the storm after its market valuation has been slashed in half.

It might not be surprising to hear that rich experiences will continue to be high on the lists of travelers in 2019. But there are a few trends that will shape the types of experiences they’ll be looking for.

The biggest knock on the online travel agencies these days is that the competition is intense and that their golden years are done. Expedia's Mark Okerstrom counters that his company has a single-digit share of a $1.6 trillion market, and he's going wide and deep to pick up more. The jury is still out.

When it comes to the acquisition game, Expedia Group CEO Mark Okerstrom is one of the travel industry's savviest players. It's fun to see him back at it, after a mostly quiet period of him settling into the company's top job.