TacticScaleWhat Expedia Does & How It Makes Money (EXPE)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Expedia's latest reported financials
Online travel company running Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo and trivago. It earns money when travelers book through its consumer brands, and when partner businesses use its travel technology and supply to sell travel to their own customers.
How Expedia makes money
It earns money when travelers book through its consumer brands, and when partner businesses use its travel technology and supply to sell travel to their own customers. Its trivago segment earns referral fees by sending hotel metasearch users to online travel companies and travel service providers.
What Expedia does
Expedia Group is a Seattle-based online travel company founded in 1996 that operates in the United States and internationally. It reports three segments. B2C covers its consumer brands: Brand Expedia, a full-service travel site; Hotels.com for lodging; Vrbo, a marketplace for alternative accommodations such as vacation rentals; plus Orbitz, Travelocity, ebookers and Wotif Group. The B2B segment provides Expedia's travel technology and supply to airlines, offline travel agents, online retailers, corporate travel managers and financial institutions, which use them to add travel to what they offer. The trivago segment runs hotel metasearch websites that refer users to booking sites and travel providers. The company markets itself through brand advertising, loyalty programs, mobile apps, search engine marketing, metasearch, social media and direct email. It changed its name from Expedia, Inc. to Expedia Group, Inc. in March 2018.
Products & services
- Expedia
- Hotels.com
- Vrbo
- trivago
- Orbitz
- Travelocity
What is Expedia worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Expedia's most-likely value is about $622 versus a recent price near $274 (127% below fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$316) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Deeply discounted.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
On the financials alone, $274 is below even the no-growth floor ($316); the market's discount — expectations and sentiment beyond the numbers — is pricing in ≈ -1.7%/yr. A bargain only if that pessimism is overdone.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →