Online travel platform Expedia posts loss for four quarters in a row

Expedia Group Inc, the company that operates the online travel platform Expedia.com, today reported its fourth straight quarterly loss, as coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the travel industry.

In the financial results released Thursday for Fourth Quarter 2020, the company struggling company reported that its net loss attributable was $412 million, or $2.89 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of $76 million, or 52 cents per share, a year earlier.

The Expedia Group brands include Hotels.com, Partner Solutions, Vrbo, Egencia, trivago, HomeAway, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Wotif, ebookers, CheapTickets, Expedia Group Media Solutions, CarRentals.com, Expedia Cruises, Classic Vacations, Traveldoo, and VacationRentals.com.

Explaining the difficult road ahead, Expedia Vice Chairman and CEO, Peter Kern said:

“Last year was an incredibly difficult year for the travel industry, and while not as hard hit as many of our partners, Expedia was not spared the broadly negative impacts of COVID-19. The fourth quarter brought signs of hope in the form of vaccine approvals, but rising cases across the globe and rolling shutdowns of various travel markets made an impact. As a result, Q4 did not show any real sequential progress other than some signs of modest improvement around the holidays that carried into the early part of 2021.”

Kern added:

“While the environment continues to be unpredictable, we remain keenly focused on reshaping and simplifying our business. We are proud of the teams’ immense effort during such a difficult personal and professional time for all of us, and we look forward to much better outcomes for our customers and partners as the travel market rebounds.”

Founded in 1996 by Rich Barton and Richard Bangs, Expedia is an online travel agency. It enables users to access a wide range of services. It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, and various attractions and services via the world wide web and telephone travel agents.

Its primary web businesses include Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, andEgencia.com. It launched Tripadvisor in 2011. It also offers services for corporate travel and travel services in Europe and Asia. Expedia also operates internationally with sites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Japan, and China.