Expedia revenue shoots up 80% in Q1
Expedia Group Inc on Monday reported revenue in the first quarter that jumped 80%, in line with analysts’ estimates, and signalled a strong summer travel season after two years of pent-up demand.
Revenue was $2.25 billion in the first three months of the year, according to a statement from the Seattle-based company.
Expedia, which hosts reservations for traditional lodging like hotels and short-term rentals on its Vrbo platform, and provides access to pricing for airlines, hotels and car rental companies, reported gross bookings of $24.4 billion, compared with analysts’ projections for $24.5 billion.
“As we have seen many times during Covid, this quarter was a tale of two stories,” said chief executive officer Peter Kern. “There was early impact from omicron left over from late last year, which faded as the turnaround in demand reached new highs since the start of Covid.
“While the war in Ukraine did slow some of the recovery in Europe, there too we see travel at new highs since the start of the pandemic.”
Travel executives are betting that this summer will be one of the busiest yet as consumers excited to leave home will splurge on vacations — potentially going further afield and venturing back into tourist hot spots.
Some signs of strong demand are already emerging in the industry, with airlines such as United Airlines boosting capacity for transatlantic flights and Southwest Airlines saying they expect to be profitable for the remaining three quarters of the year, even with oil prices well over $100 a barrel.
“The pent-up demand seems to be outweighing anything the market can throw at it and we’re feeling very good about a summer recovery that should be very robust,” Kern said on a call with analysts after the results.
The vision of one of the best summers on record was blurry in the beginning of the year — with the spread of the Omicron variant peaking in January and the start of the war in Ukraine a month later.
Still, Kern said in a February interview that the highly contagious Covid-19 variant “burned bright and fast” and that the company has been able to adapt to new virus challenges.
Expedia gets three-quarters its revenue from the United States and has limited exposure to Russia and Ukraine.
The company has benefited from offering accommodations in hotels as well as alternative lodging through its Vrbo site, since people who can work from anywhere fled to remote short-term rentals during the pandemic.
Expedia doesn’t break out Vrbo’s performance, but Kern said demand remained above 2019 levels.