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Expedia hotel bookings get a boost from new technology platform

August 07, 2012 | Online Travel

After four years of investment, Expedia's centralized technology platform is finally paying off, with the company announcing last week that the new technology is reigniting growth in one of its key business, hotel bookings on Expedia.com.

With Expedia's air-travel businesses recently migrating onto the new platform and vacation packages soon to follow, the new capabilities could give Expedia a competitive edge. But some caution that it is too early to know whether the technology transformation can vault Expedia to the kind of growth of a chief competitor, Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN).

Mark Okerstrom, chief financial officer of Expedia, said in a recent interview that the company thinks the modernization "can potentially deliver a huge amount of growth" and be a key differentiator for the company. "The new tech platform...enables us to make changes pretty quickly and tailor our websites to what is resonating with consumers, and that leads to better website conversion," he said. After previously releasing site updates three or four times a year under its old platform, Expedia now can release updates every two weeks.

In addition, the platform equips Expedia to home in on trends across brands and share what is working between them, Mr. Okerstrom said. On the supplier side, Expedia can provide hoteliers with more options on simpler interfaces, he said.

Since Hotels.com completed the migration in early 2010, revenue growth there has shot into the 30%-to-40% range from about 12% in the period from 2007 to 2010. Now, with all hotel products on the central platform since the middle of last year, Expedia's namesake brand has shown signs its growth could be on a similar track. Representing roughly half of the company's total revenue, performance of the core Expedia.com brand is key to the company's results, but it has underperformed Expedia's other businesses lately.

Get the full story at The Wall Street Journal

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