It was a transaction that flew under the radar, but can have meaningful implications for travelers. Two weeks ago, Expedia bought HomeAway.com for $3.9 billion. This continues the process by which more and more of the travel booking websites (for flights, hotels, car rentals etc.) are now controlled by the same few major travel companies. Did you know that Expedia and Priceline own 8 of the 10 biggest travel websites?
In case you did not realize, Expedia also bought Orbitz and Travelocity in 2015, and also owns Hotwire.com, Hotels.com, and Trivago.com (among many more). Beyond Expedia, your primary choice is Priceline, which happens to own Kayak and Booking.com. So this idea of competing websites seems to fall by the wayside when you realize that the same parent company owns so many of the websites we use.
To further drive home the point, your travel choices are limited to:
- Expedia Inc.: Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Venere.com,TripAdvisor.com, CruiseCritic.com, BookingBuddy.com, SmarterTravel.com, SeatGuru.com, AirfareWatchdog.com, IndependentTraveler.com.
- Orbitz Worldwide: Orbitz.com, CheapTickets.com, RatestoGo.com.
- Sabre Holdings Inc.: Travelocity.com, IgoUgo.com, LastMinute.com.
- Priceline.com Inc.: Priceline.com, Booking.com, Kayak.com, Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com.
So when we are shopping around for the best travel deal, we are often just finding the same fares because they are driven by the same company’s search algorithm!
Which of these websites did you not know were owned by Expedia, Priceline etc.?
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1 comment
What part of monopoly did we not get when all are owned by the same core or parent company……as I am under the impression from all facts of evidence between me and the company calling themselves by the name Hotels.com and the Red Roof Inn the hotel I am provided in the area I am going to need to stay and all costs are from highest to lowest and there is the online travel site stating I am going to get the guaranteed lowest costs and its this guarantee I as all others are moved to book upon said fact…..which appears as true……is lower than the ones that are present online in which all are dba Expedia or the other way around …..no other company exists in truth….if my name is julia and I call myself jewels….or betsy or bunny…..am I the name I call myself or the name I legally am known as? I can believe I am what I am not and even if I believed that it makes it no more true because I cannot be what I am not. I can pretend but when its at the point where it counts….the paid status…did hotels.com get paid for what they paid the hotel for said services….no they paid the hotel for a room under their name…expedia….so hotels.com does not exist its only a name used or alias….they cannot give me anything at all and should not have charged me as if they were the one getting anything from me because Expedia paid for me not the hotels. com……but if they had provided to me the consumer who has the right to know who I am paying and if I want to pay them or accept service from one trusted or one to be avoided for no trust…..but I am cheated again….because they are allowed to pretend to be someone they are not what part of theft and identity misrepresentation to cheat me again.,,,.Expedia is every travel meta search and the various brand names as its called and they have cheated me out of thousands and monopolize the market .