Expedia swings to profit even after Omicron setbacks

[NEW YORK CITY] Expedia Group reported fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates, benefiting from a holiday travel season that proved resilient despite the onset of the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Shares gained in extended trading.

Net income was US$276 million in the 3 months ended Dec 31, compared with a loss of US$412 million in the quarter a year earlier, the online travel company said Thursday (Feb 10) in a statement. Earnings, excluding certain costs, were US$1.06 a share. Revenue more than doubled to US$2.28 billion, while analysts, on average, projected US$2.29 billion.

"It burned bright and fast," Expedia chief executive Peter Kern said of Omicron in an interview. "It was increasingly like a bad news, good news, story for us."

Expedia, which hosts reservations for traditional lodging like hotels and offers short-term rentals through its platform Vrbo, has been buffeted by the ebb and flow of the pandemic.

After being pummeled initially by a near-complete halt in travel as the virus set in 2 years ago, Expedia saw a resurgence last year as borders and businesses opened and travel picked up, at least in some markets. Then, the Omicron variant swooped in late last year, again shuttering businesses and prompting a massive disruption of flights and vacation plans.

For the week ended Dec 12, Expedia's US net room nights booked declined by 18 per cent from 2019, according to market researcher YipitData. With infection rates receding, analysts expect travel will revive again this spring and summer. Those expectations have pushed Expedia shares to a record high.

Kern expects a continued travel recovery if the course of the virus stays the same. "People, to the extent that they want to get out and live their life and see things, they're going to do it," he said.

After the initial downturn in the early months of the pandemic, Expedia, like its rival Airbnb, benefited as people took advantage of work-from-anywhere policies to explore other places. That strength is likely to continue this year, as short-term rental reservations across online travel agencies for the first half of 2022 are significantly higher than 2021, JMP Securities analyst Andrew Boone wrote in a note in late January.

"It was fortunate for us that we're in that business and we clearly leaned into its moment as much as we could, and I think we've been really successful at that," Kern said.

Expedia, based in Bellevue, Washington, said gross bookings, which represent the total retail value of transactions, including taxes and fees, were US$17.5 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with estimates for US$19.5 billion.

The stock gained about 5 per cent in extended trading after closing at US$197.52 in New York. So far this year, shares of Expedia have risen 9.3 per cent, compared with a 9.6 per cent gain from rival Booking Holdings and a 3.3 per cent advance in shares of Airbnb. BLOOMBERG