expedia's competitive advantage
Valuable: Their combination of human and technology driven services are valuable since they help customers save money and time in planning their travel. They are valuable to airline, hotel and transportation companies since they assist in bringing in new business and fill each trip to capacity. Expedia has the networking effect working their favor. Since they are well-known they receive more customer traffic, which makes hotels and airlines more willing to use Expedia. Recently Expedia has been working with hotels by offering Expedia’s technology to run direct booking deals off of hotel’s websites instead of through Expedia.
For example they recently partnered with Marriott International to run a direct booking service called “Vacations by Marriott.” The site uses Expedia’s technology and transportation deals and pairs them with Marriott's available hotel rooms. This alliance helps Expedia turn direct bookings off of hotel’s websites from a threat into an opportunity to expand its competitive advantage.
For example they recently partnered with Marriott International to run a direct booking service called “Vacations by Marriott.” The site uses Expedia’s technology and transportation deals and pairs them with Marriott's available hotel rooms. This alliance helps Expedia turn direct bookings off of hotel’s websites from a threat into an opportunity to expand its competitive advantage.
Rare: Expedia’s services are not rare, there are other sites like Priceline and Travelocity. that have the same capabilities as Expedia. However what distinguishes Expedia from sites like Priceline is that they have complete control of eLong, the number three Chinese OTA, which can help their expansion in China --East. Biggest battle ground right now is China between Priceline & Expedia.
Imperfectly Imitable: Expedia has the advantage of data on customer’s past purchases and spending patterns. They also have a substantial amount of credibility. The company has been around for awhile so to some degree they have brand recognition. Their bundle deals that include flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.makes it easier to plan a trip and more difficult for its competitors to compete since they are able to offer the services at a lower price when they they are bundled. Other companies may be able to copy certain aspects of their company but they can’t copy their unique combination of technology, data, and partnerships they already have established within the travel industry.
Non-Substitutable: In order to make themselves non-substituable they need to continue to expand their alliances with hotel chains in order to maximize the networking effect. As well they need to focus on how they can integrate technology more efficiently with the human elements of their company. Their biggest asset is the technology they use to make travel more efficient and convenient for their customers. If they continue to increase the ease-of-use for their query searches and apps it will ensure that their services are easily accessible and usable from all types of digital devices and give them an edge over their competitors.
compare expedia to it's rivals
Expedia
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Priceline
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Our data on revenue from the agent/merchant model is referring to Expedia Inc. as a whole not just the Expedia site.
The same is true for Priceline, our data on revenue from the agent model for Priceline refers to Priceline Group Inc.
The same is true for Priceline, our data on revenue from the agent model for Priceline refers to Priceline Group Inc.