Trivago the standout performer for Expedia in 2016 as it goes it alone
By cameron in Uncategorized
Travel comparison site Trivago emerged with strong 2016 numbers as Expedia reported its final quarter and full-year 2016 results.
The Germany-based service, which completed its IPO in December, finished the quarter 65% up on the same period in 2015. Trivago had reported a revenue increase of 57% in Q3.
The metasearch company, which Expedia originally bought a 61.6% stake in, in late 2012, will hold its own earnings call later this month.
Overall, Expedia reported full-year revenue of $8.8 billion, a 32% increase year-on-year. EBITDA was up 39% to $1.6 billion and room nights increased 21% to 246 million.
Corporate travel arm Egencia also gets a mention with revenue up 16% for the year which was helped with the addition of Orbitz for Business.
Expedia announced plans to acquire Orbitz almost two years ago to the day and says it spent the first half of last year migrating the majority of the business to Expedia and Egencia.
Commenting on the asset mix of the company, during an analysts call, Expedia CFO Mark Okerstrom described Egencia as getting big scale in the corporate market.
Over the next four years, the business travel arm is seeking to double gross bookings which are currently at $6.4 billion.
More generally, Okerstrom added:
“And then we have just two very big growth opportunities ahead of ourselves as it relates to HomeAway and the alternative lodging category in Trivago. So we like our portfolio a lot.
“It’s a combination of kind of highly profitable consistent growth businesses and then very, very big growth businesses if we execute.”
Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described 2016 as a “year of ups downs for Expedia” when the company learned “valuable lessons” on things it could do better.
The company also touched on its migration to cloud investment which started last year and cost $40 million. A further $110 million is expected to be spent in 2017 on ongoing migration.