PHOENIX—During a break at this month’s PhoCusWright Conference, HotelNewsNow.com caught up with Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to ask for the online travel agency’s take on a number of key issues affecting the supplier-distributor relationship.
Specifically, Khosrowshahi reiterated that commissions paid by hoteliers on Expedia-based bookings are fair.
“The market forces commissions to be fair. This is a free-market system, and a free-market system is going to push commissions up or down,” he said. “If we weren’t delivering the service to the hotels that we do, I think that we wouldn’t be getting their business. Our business in general is growing with our partners, and I think it will continue to grow.”
Expedia is having a good year in 2012. The company continues to see strength in its hotel business, with roomnight growth accelerating across all major regions. In the third quarter of 2012, international points of sale delivered 50% of Expedia’s total roomnights for the first time in the company’s history.
Expedia has been working on an end-to-end program to connect with hotels, and the result has been faster roomnight growth, Khosrowshahi said. The next step for the company, he said, is to focus on packages, which up until this point have been “battling macro headwinds.” He said packaging hotel rooms with airfare is a win for hoteliers because packaged business brings longer lengths of stay and attracts international visitors, both of which can be leveraged by smart hotel revenue managers.
