The vacation rental company reported “better travel demand than expected” as room nights, total bookings and revenues rose double digits, according to fourth quarter revenues announced Thursday.
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Expedia reported an increase in bookings and revenues as travel demand increased year-on-year and worldwide, the company reported Thursday.
The night of the booked room helped to raise revenues 10% year-on-year, as it was 12% higher in the fourth quarter of the previous year, the company said in its revenue report.
Room night, total bookings and revenues increased double digits.
“Our fourth quarter results exceed our expectations and reflect continuous strong execution and better travel demand than expected,” said Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group. “All three core consumer brands achieved reservation growth and further accelerated the growth of their B2B business. These results contributed to a solid year of 2024 for us. The quarterly dividend recovery reflects our trust in the long-term outlook and our commitment to shareholder returns. ”
The company has not separated reservations or revenue from its short-term rental platform VRBO. However, Gorin said that the company’s three key brands, Expedia, hotels.com and VRBO, each saw the growth in bookings.
Gorin said the company has added 1 million properties to its VRBO platform. Many of them are urban apartments.
She refused to explain how these new properties worked, but noted that they “contributed to the recovery of VRBO” during the year. She added that the company aims to continue expanding supply on its platform.
This will put the company directly in competition with Airbnb, its largest short-term rental platform. Airbnb has been moving in recent years to add supply to urban areas, including partnering with apartment owners to allow tenants to lease apartments on Airbnb.
Airbnb is aiming for other Expedia holdings, especially in the much larger hotel industry.
Golin said the company will work to maintain quality this year, aiming to get more supply to the VRBO platform.
“When it comes to quality of supply, it’s not just the number of properties,” she said. “But that also comes from the rate type and flexibility.”
Golin said the company is growing in regions around the world, but they were the strongest outside of the US and Europe. She said booking growth has increased in US “teens”, with “low double digits” in Europe and “teens” all over the world.
She also said the company is focused on adding more value and improving the quality of its platform, particularly the vacation rentals available through VRBO.
“We’ve improved the quality of our vacation rental supply,” Gorin said.
Golin said the company will focus on providing more value to travelers and increasing profit margins by using artificial intelligence throughout 2025.
Investors like what they saw in the company’s reports, and Expedia’s stock price is rising after business hours.
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