Expedia Reports Strong Third-Quarter Growth
Expedia, Inc. reported solid growth in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Room nights increased by 20 percent, driven by the Chinese booking site eLong and Brand Expedia. Gross bookings were up 15 percent over 2012.
The overall growth of revenue was 17 percent year-over-year due to the increased hotel room nights as well as revenue from advertising and media, and, to a lesser extent, increased air.
Brand Expedia, trivago and Hotels.com were responsible for driving the revenue growth. Trivago, an online hotel search company with sites in 33 countries, is set to grow its full-year revenue up almost 85 percent over last year.
New strategic agreements were signed including Expedia powering the technology platforms for Travelocity-branded websites in the U.S. and Canada, while providing Travelocity with access to Expedia, Inc.’s extensive global supply and customer service operations. The Brand Expedia-powered sites are expected to launch in the first half of 2014.
Distribution agreements were signed with international airlines, including Mexico’s national airline Aeromexico.
Worldwide air revenue increased 16 percent for the third quarter due to a 9 percent increase in revenue per ticket as well as a 7 percent increase in air tickets sold. All other revenue (excluding hotel and air) increased 44 percent for in third quarter through strong growth in advertising and media revenue generated by trivago.
EBITDA increased 16 percent compared to last year’s third quarter due to the overall top-line growth and the leverage of fixed costs.
Downloads factored in to Expedia’s success. There were almost 80 million cumulative mobile app downloads since its launch, including approximately 35 million downloads at eLong as well as 25 million and 18 million downloads of the Hotels.com and Brand Expedia mobile booking apps, respectively.
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