What Is Expedia?
Expedia is a full-service online travel brand owned by Expedia Group, which describes itself as a global travel marketplace and also runs Hotels.com and Vrbo. At the end of 2025, about 3.6 million lodging properties were available across the group's brands (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025).
Last updated: October 2026
How Expedia works
Expedia Group sells travel under several brands. Brand Expedia is the full-service online travel brand, Hotels.com focuses on lodging, and Vrbo runs a marketplace for alternative accommodations such as vacation rentals (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025). The group also owns Orbitz, Travelocity, ebookers and Wotif, among others (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025). Vrbo accounts for about 2.4 million bookable alternative accommodations, and the other brands for about 1.2 million hotels and alternative accommodations (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025).
The business reports three segments: B2C for its consumer brands, B2B for the travel and non-travel companies it powers, such as airlines and offline travel agents, and trivago, which earns advertising revenue by sending referrals to online travel companies (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025).
Expedia sells under both a merchant model and an agency model. In 2025, merchant revenue made up 70% of its $14.7 billion total revenue, agency 22%, and advertising, media and other 8% (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025). How the two models differ, including who takes the guest's payment, is covered on merchant model vs agency model.
Hotels and rentals usually connect through a connectivity provider, such as a property management system, a channel manager or a central reservation system, instead of updating Expedia Partner Central by hand, and Expedia lists hundreds of these providers (Hotel connectivity solutions, Expedia Group Partner). Partner Central itself is covered on Expedia Partner Central.
Why Expedia matters for hotel distribution
In 2025, Expedia Group recorded $119.6 billion of gross bookings and 415.4 million booked room nights, both up 8% on 2024 (Expedia Group Q4 and full year 2025 results (Form 8-K)).
A growing share of that demand reaches properties through other companies' sites. Its B2B business lets partners sell its hotel and rental inventory through the Rapid API, white label or co-branded templates (Expedia Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025). That network covers over 70,000 businesses (Expedia Group Partner home). In the fourth quarter of 2025, B2B gross bookings grew 24% while B2C grew 5% (Expedia Group Q4 and full year 2025 results (Form 8-K)). Over the same quarter, the company said Vrbo and Hotels.com had returned to growth (Expedia's B2B Surge Buys Time for Vrbo and Hotels.com (Skift, 2026-02-12)). The supply-side connection has its own page, Expedia API.
Expedia runs a program, VIP Access, that ties visibility to guest experience (VIP Access Program, Expedia Group Partner). What it asks of a property is covered on Expedia VIP Access.
Pricing terms are under legal challenge in the US. A class action alleges that Expedia restricts hotels from offering lower prices on their own websites, and on competing platforms through search penalties. These are allegations only (Expedia sued over hotel rates (Asian Hospitality, 2026-10-18)). The wider practice is explained in our post on rate parity, and what properties pay is covered under OTA commission.
Expedia compared with Booking.com, Airbnb, metasearch and direct booking
Expedia Group competes for the same guests with another large OTA group, with rental platforms, with travel search and with the property's own website.
| Channel | How it relates to Expedia |
|---|---|
| Booking.com (Booking Holdings) | The larger OTA group in Europe: 68.8% of the European OTA segment in HOTREC's 2026 study, against 16.6% for Expedia Group |
| Airbnb | Expedia Group's own business for homes and rentals is Vrbo, its marketplace for alternative accommodations |
| trivago and metasearch | trivago is Expedia Group's own metasearch business |
| Direct booking | The hotel's own website, the channel the US lawsuit says Expedia's parity rules hold back |
Booking.com row: HOTREC study coverage (Travel Extra, 2026-09-21). Booking.com has its own page, what is Booking.com.
Frequently asked questions
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Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
Every channel a property sells through, Expedia's brands and its B2B partners included, needs the same rooms, rates and availability. Jetstream builds distribution technology that connects a property's inventory to those channels and keeps it accurate on each of them, managed from one place.