Duff on Hospitality Law

The big news last week of course was Peter Kern’s announcement that he is stepping down as Expedia Group CEO in May. Peter’s announcement came as part of an otherwise robust quarterly earnings release for Expedia. What Peter’s departure means for Expedia and its many partners remains to be seen.

• • Expedia’s Peter Kern Is Out and the Numbers Look Good Too. Peter Kern’s announced departure as Expedia Group CEO took front stage during last week’s quarterly earning call.  Peter’s announced replacement is Ariane Gorin.  Ariane has been with Expedia for over 10 years serving in many executive roles, most currently as President of Expedia for Business.  While the planned leadership change featured prominently during last week’s call, Peter and team also presented some strong (even record breaking) results . . .  For calendar year 2023, Expedia generated $104 billion in total gross bookings ($74 billion of which was in lodging bookings (growing 18% year of year)), $12.8 billion in revenue and $2.7 billion in EBITDA (at a margin of 21%).  Last year also marked the strongest year yet with Expedia’s B2B business, with top and bottom lines growing by 33%.  For the fourth quarter, total gross bookings were $21.7 billion (6% increase year over year), and revenue totaled $2.9 billion (a record breaking quarter).  For those of you wanting additional detail about the recent earnings release or call, we’ve attached a copy of the earnings transcript. 

• • Expedia Must Face Competition Claims of Former Swiss Booking Platform. A Washington federal court judge refused last week to dismiss the claims of former booking platform Amoma against Expedia.  According to Amoma, Expedia Group’s metasearch site, Trivago, made changes to its site that decreased Amoma’s presence on the site and increased its cost to display rooms.  The changes resulted in Amoma’s advertised lower rates being obscured from users of the meta search site.  According to federal judge, Barbara Rothstein, Amoma made plausible allegations that Expedia abused its market power to harm a competitor.

• • Another Week, Another Announced Settlement on Resort Fees. On Wednesday last week, Colorado Attorney General, Phil Weiser, announced that it had settled claims against Marriott, Weiser’s third such settlement with a national hotel chain (Omni and Choice).  Like other previously announced settlements, this latest settlement requires that total price (rate plus mandatory fees) be the most prominently displayed price in any advertisement or offer.  Online search results sortable by price must also display total price.  The settlement also requires that Marriott require third party managers operating Marriott hotels to comply with the settlement and for Marriott to take actions to enforce the settlement if such managers do not comply. 

• • Google Ends Two Hotel Ad Products. Beginning in October of this year, Google will be canceling its COVID era Commissions Per Stay and Commissions Per Conversion advertising products.  According to Google, the cancellations are due in part to Google’s planned phasing out of third-party cookies later this year.