Following a strong quarter for the Expedia Group’s B2B segment, where it contributed 55% to economic growth compared to 2022, the company announced new partnerships with technology tools aimed at expanding the network it already partners with. Expedia Group’s White Label Template and API addresses the dynamic traffic of over 400 million members of the world’s leading financial, airline and rental companies. The announcements came as hundreds of leading players gathered at Expedia Group’s SEE 23: Connect conference, held for the first time at its Seattle campus.
“Our growth in B2B has been largely driven by the speed with which our technology has been adopted by businesses of all sizes looking to increase travel or expand their travel experience. The demand for this business continues to be strong as evidenced by our new partnerships with Mastercard, SoFi, and some of our major partners hotel,” said Peter Kern, Vice Chairman and CEO, Expedia Group. “The work we’ve done in building an extensive B2B network that delivers travel to millions of people around the world through leading names in banking, travel and more, continues to grow as we continue to establish our technology as the number one way to manage travel.”
Expedia Group’s exciting new and expanded partnerships include:
Mastercard: “Travel with Rewards”
- Expedia Group’s template technology and Mastercard’s digital redemption capabilities now power the participating loyalty points redemption program that allows cardholders to redeem credit cards for travel bookings. Cardholders have access to the world’s best Expedia products, including more than 700,000 properties, 500 flights, 100+ car rental companies and thousands of activities around the world.
SoFi: “SoFi Travel”
- Expedia Group’s template technology powers SoFi Travel, which will soon allow SoFi members to book flights, hotels, cars, packages, events and vacation rentals through SoFi. In addition to better delivery and customer service, the partnership will enable SoFi to benefit from Expedia Group’s wealth of data and technology, as well as take advantage of new features and process changes that are automatically integrated.
“Over the past decade, our B2B segment has grown exponentially in both online and offline travel. We combine the technology tools that power our travel, with our deep B2B expertise, all backed by our artificial intelligence and machine learning, so that our solutions they’ll be smarter every day. We help businesses of all sizes succeed in travel, and in a nearly $2 trillion industry, there’s plenty of room for growth,” added Ariane Gorin, President Expedia for Business, Expedia Group.
Confirming their commitment to helping more companies succeed in travel, Expedia Group has announced the following on EXPLORE:
Travel OS: Building on Expedia Group’s desire to develop its technology as microservices to help any type of travel company use its technology to improve their business, the Company shared an interesting experience as its travel system: Travel OS. Today, the Company announced that its first mobile service offered through Travel OS, its fraud capability, is now commercially available and its technology and financial management API is now in beta testing with partners.
Away Goals: After a successful year of working with hotel partners to create a guest guide that shows which hotels offer the best travel experience, Expedia Group announced today that these scores will be made available to travelers in the second half of 2023. Hotel partners can see their Guest. Find out more when you log into Expedia Group Partner Central.
Total Distribution: In two years, Expedia Group has tripled the number of participating chains using Optimized Distribution, a new product that gives hotel partners greater control over their retail business. Today the Company has announced that new pricing management capabilities will be released later this year, which will bring flexibility to many of its partners.
One Key – Airline Members Only Categories: In addition to Members Only Clubs for hotels, cruises and operators, One Key has now extended these offerings to airlines, helping them increase exposure to Key members. The airline’s Members Only Dials will be available for the first time in the US to One Key members. One Key, the first joint program of the Expedia Group, will be launched on July 6, 2023, in the United States, and additional markets will follow in 2024.
Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP): TAAP empowers over 35,000 travel agencies in over 30 countries with a booking platform built to meet their unique needs. Expedia Group continues to invest in TAAP and has introduced a number of new features including, payment solutions that give travel advisors more flexibility and improved Live Agent chat management to help travel advisors get answers to their questions faster. The company sees strong usage with 32% of all agent transactions in the US in Q1 2023 supported via Live Agent chat. Reservations that will make it easier for travel advisors to serve their customers will be launched in the US this year with a global launch to follow later in 2023.
