Expedia Group saw total gross bookings and total revenue both increase significantly in the first quarter of 2022, according to the online travel giant’s latest earnings report.
Gross bookings for the three months ending March 31, 2022, were $24.4 billion, up 58% compared to $15.4 billion in Q1 2021 and down 17% compared to the first quarter of 2019, the smallest quarterly decline since the start of the pandemic.
Revenue for the period was $2.2 billion, a jump of 81% from $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Net loss, meanwhile, was $122 million and adjusted EBITDA net loss was $74 million. Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2022 was $173 million, roughly flat versus the first quarter of 2019, despite revenue being down 14%.
Booking trends for lodging, air and other travel products all improved sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2021, Expedia Group reports, which saw a larger impact form the Omicron variant.
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As a percentage of total revenue in Q1 2022, lodging accounted for 72%, advertising and media accounted for 7% and air for 3%, with all other revenues accounting for the remaining 18%.
Expedia Group says the increase in lodging revenue in Q1 2022 compared to the same period in 2021 was driven by a significant increase in room nights stayed across hotels and alternative accommodations as well as average daily rate.
Air revenue increased because of an increase in tickets sold as air travel demand improved compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Speaking in a call with analysts, Expedia Group vice chairman and CEO Peter Kern says that despite concerns over COVID and the war in Ukraine, he’s “pleased with the quarter. We continue to see strong demand coming back, continue to see efficiencies with the business.
“We went into the quarter with Omicron looming and expected that to have some impact early in the quarter, which it did. We’re very pleased that demand came back post-Omicron and lived up to our expectations that it was the shortest wave.”
Sales and marketing expense for the first quarter of 2022 was $1.3 billion – a 102% jump compared to $664 million in the same period in 2021.
Kern says Expedia Group has been spending into recovery with an eye toward driving long-term customer engagement. “We’ve found the right mix of marketing,” he says, “with an eye toward lifetime value and will continue to do so,” highlighting Vrbo as a bright spot.
Looking ahead, “the real work this year is on delivery, on the brand work we’ve done,” Kern says. “We’ve got a lot of new product innovation coming this year and doing a ton of work on the backend platform. It will have some impact on this year, but the real impact is longer-term.”