Expedia News and Updates

Expedia Group is one of the most influential players in online travel, with a portfolio of brands and platforms that shape the digital booking landscape. PhocusWire provides timely, in-depth coverage of Expedia news and updates, including leadership changes, platform innovation, and shifts in its global strategy across lodging, air, and experiences.

The latest developments from Expedia and the OTA market

Track how Expedia is evolving its technology stack, streamlining traveler engagement, and reimagining its marketplace to compete in a rapidly changing OTA environment. Our reporting includes insights on product development, loyalty integration, and strategic partnerships that reflect broader trends in online travel retail.

End to hotel dimming, spotlight now on commissions
News / Distribution
End to hotel dimming, spotlight now on commissions
By Linda Fox | September 23, 2016
News this week that Expedia is ending its strategy of dimming hotels in search results should raise a cheer in hotel circles. Yet it is a subject that raises blood pressure within the hotel communi Read More
Expedia axes strategy of dimming hotels that apparently offer low value
News
Expedia axes strategy of dimming hotels that apparently offer low value
By Kevin May | September 21, 2016
A process where search results for some hotels are not shown in prominent positions or do not include types of media content has been scrapped by Expedia Inc. The group, which has the Expedia, Hote Read More
Expedia pushes hotel B2B services with revenue management launch
News / Online
Expedia pushes hotel B2B services with revenue management launch
By Kevin May | September 21, 2016
Expedia Inc wants to boost its efforts on the hotel technology side of operations - unveiling a revenue management tool known as Rev+ this week. The Expedia Partner Central wing of the group says i Read More
With retro travel posters, Expedia coaxes travelers to dream of extinct animals
News / Online
With retro travel posters, Expedia coaxes travelers to dream of extinct animals
By Sean O'Neil | September 11, 2016
Expedia UK has launched a quirky marketing series called Unknown Tourism -- a series of vintage-style travel posters advertising destinations as if it were decades ago and rare animals were still aliv Read More
OTAs aren't so bad after all - Expedia to power Marriott packages channel
News / Distribution
OTAs aren't so bad after all - Expedia to power Marriott packages channel
By Kevin May | September 6, 2016
Online travel agencies have been powering elements of third party websites for years - but here is one deal that flies in the face of the current direct-intermediary saga. Expedia and Marriott have Read More
Australia gives hotels more leeway to compete with Expedia and Booking.com
News / Distribution
Australia gives hotels more leeway to compete with Expedia and Booking.com
By Kevin May | September 2, 2016
Another nail in the parity coffin, perhaps, following an Australian regulator's move to restrict rate contracts by Booking.com and Expedia. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says, Read More
Expedia promises investigation over bait and switch allegation
News / Distribution
Expedia promises investigation over bait and switch allegation
By Kevin May | August 30, 2016
Expedia Inc says it will look in to whether its own regulations were followed correctly after being accused of a "bait and switch" scam. A California, US-based property, Buckeye Tree Lodge And Sequ Read More
Direct hotel bookings, loyalty and the clandestine world of closed user groups
News / Technology
Direct hotel bookings, loyalty and the clandestine world of closed user groups
By Viewpoints | August 26, 2016
Loyalty schemes have been front and centre in advertising campaigns from the large hotel chains this year, as they look to increase their proportion of direct bookings. One notable aspect of this i Read More
In a first, Expedia promotes a hotel’s loyalty rates and rewards program
News / Distribution
In a first, Expedia promotes a hotel’s loyalty rates and rewards program
By Sean O'Neil | August 23, 2016
Expedia, Inc., is the first online travel intermediary to begin displaying a hotel chain's discounted loyalty rates next to standard rates. It's also the first to cheerlead for a hotel's own loyalty p Read More
Direct hotel booking battle - a potted history [INFOGRAPHIC]
News / Distribution
Direct hotel booking battle - a potted history [INFOGRAPHIC]
By Kevin May | August 23, 2016
The seeds of the current face-off between hotels and intermediaries go back to the mid-1990s, when online travel agencies first arrived on the scene. The creation of Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, L Read More
Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Wotif quietly add natural language search to their homepages
News / Online
Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Wotif quietly add natural language search to their homepages
By Sean O'Neil | August 22, 2016
Last month, Expedia Inc quietly rolled out natural-language search to its platforms. The "Search Anything" feature has been added as a tab to the homepages of most of its English-language platform sit Read More
Travel tech CEO allegedly fell for a €1.5 million scam before his fatal flight
News
Travel tech CEO allegedly fell for a €1.5 million scam before his fatal flight
By Sean O'Neil | August 22, 2016
In the days in July before his chartered plane crashed in Slovenia, Thomas Wagner, founder of Germany's largest homegrown seller of package tours, was conned out of €1.5 million, say investigators. Read More
New Expedia Labs site shows off test projects, to get feedback
News
New Expedia Labs site shows off test projects, to get feedback
By Sean O'Neil | August 16, 2016
Today a new site appeared from Expedia, Inc.,'s engineering team: Expedia Labs, which shows off the company's experimental travel tech projects, such as its Facebook bot and its prototype cruise-compa Read More
The state of online travel agency bookings in charts
News / Distribution
The state of online travel agency bookings in charts
By Kevin May | August 4, 2016
Whilst bots and other future-tech items get many of the headlines in 2016, there is undoubtedly a war of words out there between the intermediaries and hotels. The latest salvo (coming the same day Read More
Direct now cheaper than agencies for majority of hotel searches
News / Distribution
Direct now cheaper than agencies for majority of hotel searches
By Kevin May | August 4, 2016
Maybe the regulatory restrictions are starting to get through, or something else - data-crunching has shown that 53% of rates are now cheaper on hotel websites than intermediaries. Checks on over 2 Read More