US / Worldwide: Expedia Group has laid off an undisclosed number of team members in the United States and abroad [including in Czechia], in departments including travel operations, support, IT, recruiting, marketing and B2B services.
Speaking to Phocuswire, which first revealed the news, an Expedia Group spokesperson said: “We continue simplifying and reprioritising resources to achieve our business goals. This resulted in eliminating some roles and realigning our investments to ensure we can deliver great technology and experiences for our travellers.
“We remain confident in our strategy and are excited about our future as travel demand remains high,” they added.
While the layoffs are not believed to be widespread across the group, an additional statement issued to Skift suggested that the layoffs were “targeted actions” and would be “immaterial” to the business and its financials.
The company’s last redundancy round occurred in March, affecting fewer than 100 employees in what were called “strategic actions” designed to help the company “simplify and reprioritise resources to meet our business and traveller needs”.
By the end of December 2022, Expedia Group revealed that it had 16,500 employees [including around 3,500 in Seattle] spread across 50 countries, having previously cut around 3,000 jobs during the pandemic. The group also restructured its divisions, retired its HomeAway brand in the United States, and merged its technologies behind the scenes as a way of streamlining the business.
Since then, the company has steadily recovered as travel demand has experienced a resurgence. In its most recent earnings report for Q1 published in May, Expedia Group reported an 18 per cent rise in Q1 revenue on the same period a year ago, increasing to $2.7 billion.
In recent weeks, Expedia Group has terminated its vacation rental and hotel supply relationship with online travel agency [OTA] rival Hopper, accusing the latter of “exploiting consumer anxiety and confusing customers”.
It has also introduced a new loyalty program – One Key – across its three travel brands for travellers to earn and use rewards on eligible flights, hotels, vacation homes, car rentals, cruises and activities. Unifying Vrbo, Expedia, and Hotels.com into one flexible loyalty program, One Key is currently available in the United States and will roll out globally from next year.
