elliot

Expedia Leads in Online Travel Search

I am not quite sure that these are the most important metrics in determining OTA ROI. More important would be a) Direct Traffic, which is a good indication of brandng and loyalty and b) Referral Traffic which shows how the larger travel community is funneling traffic their way. Example of a hotels.com affiliate is here:

www.tripcart.com/usa-r...

Expedia Down on Weak Travel Outlook

I would look to expedia to make some acquisitions. This was Barry Diller's strategy in the bubble days. He basically bought the internet. And in the past few years Expedia has been buying up start-ups. The competing OTA's are priced cheap, some airlines and suppliers are going bust and there are lots of privately funded startups, including nileguide.com,www.trip...,
triptouch.com
www.tripcart.com/usa-r...
www.flyerblogs.com
www.tripit.com

to name a few

Expedia: An Opportunity in Travel

Orbitz/Expedia/Travelo... = Ford/GM/Chrysler

They have been around since the beginning of time and are steadily losing market share to companies that offer better value (suppliers and meta-search).

The three of them are selling basically identical products, the same hotels rooms from the same database at the same price.

And they have massive advertising expense and an employee count orders of magnitude larger than other successful internet companies (Kayak has under 100).

Does all that sound like Ford/GM/Chrysler??

The fact that they have little value to the consumer (or the suppliers) is more worrisome to me then travel industry fluctuations.

I think their hope is not in the Expedia brand, but rather in some of their acquisitions - from TripAdvisor in 2004 to SeatGuru and others. If you feel that the Expedia corporate culture can nurture and grow their acquisitions and identify and acquire innovative travel companies - their stock will outperform the travel industry.

I am biased. My internet start-up, TripCart.com, aims to provide what the big guys don't. Planning the trip from a where to go, what to do perspective -
www.tripcart.com/usa-r...