Articles tagged “orbitz”

It was a helluva ride but the Expedia-Orbitz deal was never in serious jeopardy because there is plenty of competition despite the Expedia-Travelocity-Orbitz consolidation. But if Expedia gets greedy in the future and uses its new powers unwisely, you can bet that regulators will pounce.

We said all along that increased competition from Booking.com and TripAdvisor's burgeoning power as a hotel-booking site would be enough to get the Expedia-Orbitz deal approved. The Antitrust Division saw Google as an up-and-coming force in flight and hotel bookings, as well.

TripAdvisor is already a must-have for travel marketers, including Expedia and Booking.com. But how big a force the Justice Department believes TripAdvisor will become in hotel booking in the near future could be an Orbitz-Expedia deal-maker or breaker.

Orbitz Worldwide's second quarter of 2015 results sent a really bad signal. Companies about to be acquired usually put up a better front. What happens if regulators block the Expedia acquisition? The downward spiral could be tough to stop.

Expedia's acquisition of Orbitz Worldwide would indeed limit consumer choice. However, what the American Hotel & Lodging Association doesn't mention is that Expedia-Orbitz would only control about 15 percent of the overall U.S. travel market when you consider hotels' own websites, phone lines and offline options in general.

With the emergence of TripAdvisor and Google as online travel agency alternatives and Amazon waiting in the wings if it ever figures out what it wants to do in travel, all the signs point toward an increasingly competitive online travel agency market in the U.S. These are factors the DOJ will consider when mulling the Expedia-Orbitz deal.

In a twist, Expedia is now arguing that consolidation in the travel market -- i.e. Expedia acquiring everything that isn't bolted down -- will benefit consumers because prices will come down. That hasn't happened in the airline industry but we'll see how it plays out for hotel rates.

Outsiders aren't as impressed with the social media efforts of the tourism industry as the tourism industry is.

Facebook is focusing its laser on Messenger and third-party app partnerships to retain and monetize its audience.