[user5994461]

>>> Expedia has moved to an agency model since but the damage was done. Booking managed to get far more inventory, capitalise on more search/PPC traffic and blow past Expedia.

Absolutely not! Expedia has the hotels.com brand. They are doing very very well by all metrics.

hotels.com and booking.com are about 50/50 market share globally. hotels is bigger in the USA, booking is bigger in the EU.

Historically, the USA hotels are massive chains whereas the EU hotels are smaller and independents. That's why they respectively started with the merchant and agency model.

Source: Insider data.

[_joe]

booking.com and hotels.com 50/50?

LOL.

And yes, failing to kill booking.com when Expedia was a clear market leader is a huge mistake indeed.

[jgust]

> booking.com and hotels.com 50/50?

If you consider only OTAs, this is about right.

[user5994461]

Yes, they are.