Articles tagged “vrbo”

One thing is for sure: The inaugural Future of Lodging Forum is not to be missed.

How things change: Expedia said its sale of Egencia won't have a major impact on operations or financials, although in years' past the company touted Egencia as a rising star. In 2018, Egencia was its own Expedia reporting segment and accounted for 8 percent of gross bookings.

Expedia Group's Peter Kern may or may not be correct in his claim that the trend toward long-term stays will eventually weaken to a considerable degree. On the other hand, his Vrbo vacation rental brand probably could have done more to capitalize on the trend.

Don't get us wrong: Expedia, Vrbo and Booking.com will all get mileage out of their in-game or pre-game Super Bowl ads. But they lack breakthrough potential.

Expedia Group is still very much caught up in making over the company. Is it working? Company officials are basically telling Wall Street — trust us, we think this is going to be good.

Short-term rental owners in locked-down countries undoubtably suffered or went out of business in 2021. But for many owners in the U.S., it was the best of times, and their revenue soared. One wakeup call — there may not be an adequate number of listings to meet demand.

Will Booking.com, Expedia.com or Vrbo create Super Bowl ads that everyone will be talking about in the days after the Big Game? We haven't seen them yet, but so far it sounds as if they are trotting out very predictable and familiar themes.

Airbnb has been a savvy public relations practitioner throughout the years, and the volume of press releases the company churns out annually is legion. Brian Chesky's yearlong digital nomad stint aligns with the company's brand narrative and marketing strategy.

No big surprises on Google Maps, but Booking.com outpaced rival Airbnb in downloads in the online travel agency category globally by nearly 20 million in 2021. That's not a game-changer, but it's important if Booking is going to eat into Airbnb's daunting direct-booking advantage.

Airbnb proved to be more nimble in 2021 than many of its competitors, and is leading the grand online travel experiment in reducing over-reliance on Google.