Expedia Group recently announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019.
Key Highlights
• Gross bookings increased 8% and revenue increased 4% year-over-year.
• Expedia Group's net loss improved 25% and Adjusted EBITDA grew 42% year-over-year.
• Total stayed lodging room nights increased 9% year-over-year.
• Expedia Group exceeded 1.1 million properties available on its core lodging platform as of March 31, 2019, including approximately 460,000 integrated Vrbo listings.
• In April, Expedia Group agreed to acquire Liberty Expedia Holdings, Inc. in an all-stock transaction. As a result of the transaction Expedia Group expects to retire approximately 3.1 million shares.
Financial Summary
Gross Bookings & Revenue
For the first quarter of 2019, total gross bookings increased 8% (including 3 percentage points of negative foreign exchange impact), driven primarily by growth in Expedia Partner Solutions and Brand Expedia. Domestic gross bookings increased 11% and international gross bookings increased 4% (including 6 percentage points of negative foreign exchange impact).
For the first quarter of 2019, total revenue increased 4% (including 3 percentage points of negative foreign exchange impact). Excluding trivago, total revenue increased 6% (including 3 percentage points of negative foreign exchange impact), driven primarily by growth in Expedia Partner Solutions, Brand Expedia and Vrbo. Domestic revenue increased 9% and international revenue decreased 2% (including 6 percentage points of negative foreign exchange impact). Excluding trivago, international revenue increased 2% (including 6 percentage points of negative foreign exchange impact).
Product & Services Detail
Lodging accounted for 66%, advertising and media accounted for 10%, air accounted for 10% and all other revenues accounted for the remaining 14%.
Lodging revenue increased 7% in the first quarter of 2019 on a 9% increase in room nights stayed driven by growth at Expedia Partner Solutions, Hotels.com and Brand Expedia, partly offset by a 2% decrease in revenue per room night, due to the negative impact of foreign exchange.
Air revenue increased 3% in the first quarter of 2019 on an 11% increase in air tickets sold driven by growth at Expedia Partner Solutions and Brand Expedia, partly offset by a 7% decrease in revenue per ticket, which was driven by a shift in product mix and reclassification of certain partner fees to other revenue, as well as a negative impact from foreign exchange.
Advertising and media revenue decreased 6% (including 4 percentage points of negative foreign currency impact) due to declines at trivago which were partly offset by strong growth at Expedia Group Media Solutions. Other revenue in the first quarter of 2019 was flat compared to the prior year.
Both total GAAP and adjusted selling and marketing expense increased 1% compared to the first quarter of 2018, primarily due to a $22 million increase in direct costs partly offset by a decrease in indirect costs.
Core OTA
• Vrbo now offers over 1.2 million instantly bookable listings and grew stayed property nights 8% in the first quarter.
• Trivago continued to grow its alternative accommodation inventory and now has more than 1.8 million alternative accommodation properties listed.
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