Let’s begin where most stories don’t: in the back-end corridors of travel technology, where the real gears of global tourism are whirring at a pace the public rarely sees. This time, Expedia Group has torn the curtain and cleaned it off.
The digital juggernaut has dropped a travel-tech bombshell at its annual EXPLORE event — and not just any announcement, but a full-blown B2B renaissance featuring slick new APIs, artificial intelligence galore, and social media wizardry that transforms your Instagram scroll into a suitcase-packing moment.
Booking Dreams by Algorithm — Meet Expedia’s New B2B Arsenal
Ariane Gorin, Expedia Group’s sharp-eyed new CEO, didn’t mince words: “As the leading B2B travel platform, we’re investing so our partners can grow faster and serve travellers better.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. Among the bevy of announcements, the most headline-grabbing may be a quartet of new APIs — think of them as the Swiss Army knives for Expedia’s B2B partners. A Car API is tapping into more than 110 brands across 190 countries (yes, including exclusives from 43 providers), an Activities API with over 170,000 bookable experiences, an Insurance API for seamless trip protection, and an incoming Air API to bundle flights with lodgings and car rentals in one smooth click.
For partners running white-labelled Expedia solutions — some of the biggest names in the game — this means deeper engagement, more loyalty, and bigger bottom lines. Alfonso Paredes, President of Private Label Solutions, was as bullish as a Wall Street trader on a caffeine binge: “We delivered 135 million room nights globally in 2024. And we’re just getting started.”
Hotel Admin, Be Gone: The Reservation Management API
Hotels of the world, rejoice. Expedia’s new Reservation Management API promises to slash through eight million hours of admin drudgery like a machete through jungle vines. That translates to roughly $120 million in saved operational costs each year.
Built on GraphQL (for the uninitiated: it’s faster, leaner, and less crash-prone than its predecessors), the system allows hoteliers to manage bookings, recover data, streamline payments and handle it all within their own tech ecosystem. The result? Real-time issue resolution and something Expedia’s calling “Autonomous Supply” — a fancy way of saying, “Let the robots do the boring bits.”
From Scrolling to Soaring: Instagram Reels Become Real Travel
Now this is where it gets sexy.
Starting in June, travellers can send any travel-related Instagram reel — a clip of Amalfi lemons or a Balinese sunrise — straight to Expedia’s new Trip Matching feature. Out comes a customised itinerary, destination suggestions, and booking links that are so seamless you might accidentally holiday in Tuscany by Tuesday.
That’s GenAI in full swing — not just as a chatbot but as a bridge between daydreams and departures.
AI That Doesn’t Just Think — It Plans Your Holiday
Expedia has also gone live with a conversational AI agent on Hotels.com. It doesn’t just give you information — it holds a conversation, recommends in real time, shows current pricing, and adapts based on whether you’re dreaming or already booked.
If you’re mid-trip and your cousin decides to crash the party or a flight’s gone walkabout, the AI gently nudges you with contextual options. Less chaos, more choices. All of it is built on Expedia’s treasure chest of travel data, guest reviews, imagery, and seasonal smarts.
Oh — and the operators integrated with OpenAI and Microsoft Copilot, ensuring that even if your journey starts as a musing with ChatGPT or Cortana, Expedia is right there to turn it into bookings.
The Video Army: ACI Gets to Work
Behind the curtain is a busy little bot named ACI — Artificial Creative Intelligence. This chap moderates over 400 videos daily, crafting engaging travel clips that fuel the content engines across Expedia’s empire. It’s machine learning with a flair for the dramatic — and a sense of timing only rivalled by veteran editors.
This leap into personalised video is part of Expedia’s broader goal: transforming travel discovery from a chore into a cinematic teaser. Judging by engagement rates, they might just be succeeding.
Media That Moves the Needle — and the Traveller
Let’s not forget the marketing side. Expedia Group Advertising (formerly Media Solutions) revealed a new bag of tricks for partners. One highlight: teaming up with Beautiful Destinations to co-create viral, shoppable travel content that reaches their jaw-dropping 50 million-strong following.
Want to advertise on Expedia? The new integration with The Trade Desk helps brands reach audiences far and wide, using Expedia’s privacy-friendly first-party data.
And there’s even a loyalty cherry on top — partners can now sponsor OneKeyCash rewards for travellers. That means destinations can pay people to fall in love with them.
The Pod Has Landed: Powering Travel Returns
Finally, the Powering Travel podcast is back for Season Five for those who prefer their inspiration with a splash of conversation. This time, Elisabeth Goodridge is at the helm — a seasoned journalist with a knack for squeezing insight out of CEOs, chefs, actors and AI evangelists.
Expect travel gossip, trend spotting, and warm-blooded stories from Ariane Gorin, The Amazing Race’s Phil Keoghan, actor Jaime Camil, and even happiness guru Arthur Brooks. Yes, there’s also a rising star from The White Lotus, proving the podcast has something for travel nerds and pop-culture tragics alike.
For further details or to try Trip Matching, visit Expedia.com/tripmatching.
By My Thanh Pham
