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Expedia signs MOU in San Diego
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Expedia Group, which owns short-term rental brands such as Vrbo and HomeAway, has signed a memorandum of understanding on potential regulations with a San Diego union. Unite Here Local 30, representing around 6,000 hotel, airport, and restaurant workers in the San Diego area, have signed, marking a key deal for labour-rental relations. Across the […]
Kaua’i County signs MOU with Expedia Group
Reading Time: 2 minutesHawaii: Mayor Derek S. K. Kawakami has announced a historic memorandum of understanding [MOU] between the County of Kaua’i and global travel platform Expedia Group, the parent company of vacation rental site Vrbo. The MOU is designed to allow the county to more effectively track and regulate vacation rentals, while protecting the ability of responsible […]
Expedia Group to simplify portfolio by retiring HomeAway U.S. brand
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Expedia Group has announced that it will retire its HomeAway brand in the United States next month, instead refocusing on simplifying its vacation rental portfolio and diverting U.S. users away from the HomeAway website and mobile app towards its Vrbo brand. The group has also confirmed that any travellers who have made existing bookings […]
Expedia set to phase out short-term rental multifamily business
Reading Time: 3 minutesUS: As Expedia Group strategises its recovery from the standstill in bookings during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is believed to be preparing to phase out its short-term rental multifamily building business, which includes its Expedia Group Multifamily Solutions product. The product was formed after Expedia Group acquired venture-backed hospitality startups Pillow and ApartmentJet in 2018, […]
Expedia notes uptick in Vrbo rental bookings in May
Reading Time: 3 minutesUS: Despite announcing first quarter losses and a reduction in revenue, Expedia Group has offered cautious optimism for a market recovery in both the vacation rental and hotel segments post-pandemic. In his first earnings call as CEO since being appointed to the role last month, Peter Kern said the group’s vacation rental brand Vrbo had seen […]
Expedia Group names Kern as CEO and raises $3.2bn in capital
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Expedia Group has named Peter Kern and Eric Hart as its new chief executive and financial officers, taking over from Mark Okerstrom and Alan Pickerill, who both resigned abruptly in December over reported disagreements with the company’s board on strategy. At the same time, the group confirmed through its chairman Barry Diller that it […]
Booking.com plans for lay offs after landing $4bn loan
Reading Time: 2 minutesNetherlands: Online travel agent Booking.com has told employees in an internal memo that layoffs from the company are “probable”, just days after the Financial Times reported it had received a $4 billion loan in bonds from investors to fend off severe effects caused by the coronavirus crisis. In a video conference held with hundreds of […]
Calls for greater inclusion in companies backed by industry leaders
Reading Time: 2 minutesUK: Expedia Group has teamed up with PhocusWire to launch its latest whitepaper on diversity and inclusion in the travel and tourism industry. Among the key findings, the whitepaper reveals that 54 per cent of women make up the global tourism workforce compared to 39 per cent in the broader economy. And yet, many still struggle to […]
Expedia plans 3000 job cuts to “bloated” organisation
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Global online travel agency Expedia is planning to lay off up to 3000 employees in job cuts, following December’s boardroom restructuring which saw its CEO and CFO depart. With long-serving chairman and major shareholder Barry Diller calling the organisation “bloated and sclerotic”, the company has told staff in an internal email that it will […]
Expedia Group announces shock CEO and CFO resignations
Reading Time: 2 minutesUS: Expedia Group has announced that its CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill have resigned from their posts with immediate effect. As a result, board chairman Barry Diller and vice chairman and Expedia director, Peter Kern, have been tasked with overseeing the company’s executive leadership team for the foreseeable future. They will manage day-to-day […]