Expedia News

Vacation rentals and guest-booking fees aren't particularly sexy or headline-grabbing but 11-year-old HomeAway could have a far-reaching impact on parent Expedia's profit numbers. Trivago is a very nice plaything, too.

It seems Expedia is happy to bide its time to find a replacement for Andy Washington, its managing director for Northern Europe.

When it comes to relationships, hotel chains and online travel agencies have a lot of baggage but Marriott and Expedia, at least, are being open-minded and are taking advantage of each other. Expedia is becoming a technology provider for hotels in a move that has parallels with the way rival Booking.com's BookingSuite division is providing market intelligence and website services for properties. Where this all ends up is anyone's guess.

Trivago would likely be a hot IPO given its hyper growth and the potential further expansion of online travel around the world. However, investors will question whether the huge amount of money Trivago pours into sales and marketing is an overreach.

Red Lion Hotels is obviously a much smaller chain than a Hilton Worldwide or Marriott International. Still, Red Lion's deal to offer its member-only rates on Expedia.com and Hotels.com represents the start of some shifting in the direct-booking landscape. Expedia is a powerful force in hotel distribution and there will be more of these changes to come.

By increasing its dividend, Expedia management has put its money where its mouth is in expressing confidence about the future of the company. The takeaway: Expedia officials believe its second quarter stumble was an aberration.

If only more startup founders would realize this: As Rich Barton says, most startups don't know how to execute on their visions. That is the big difference maker. Talk and ideas are cheap but execution and having the team to carry it through is what it's all about.

If Expedia is successful in turning its Trivago hotel-metasearch unit into a public company in 2016, it would be the second time Expedia has monetized an asset in such a way in five years. Expedia shareholders made a ton of money when Expedia spun out TripAdvisor in 2011.

There are innumerable factors that impact the health of the travel industry but the latest U.S. government numbers on retail spending lead to the conclusion that consumer spending habits are changing. There is a shift in emphasis from purchasing consumer goods toward buying services such as travel. That's a classic tailwind and a very healthy trend indeed for the gamut of leisure-travel businesses.

There's so much excitement and anticipation around messaging and artificial intelligence that Priceline and Expedia CEOs' remarks remind us that this emerging technology is still too new to gauge regarding potential success. Still, CEOs of both companies seem pleased with how messaging has performed so far.