Expedia Raises 2026 Revenue Outlook To $16.37 Billion-$16.43 Billion As B2B Sales Climb 23%
Third-quarter revenue grew 12% and adjusted earnings per share rose 24%, led by the partner business that serves airlines and travel agents.
Expedia Group, the online travel marketplace behind Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo, lifted its full-year 2026 outlook after third-quarter revenue rose 12% to $4.94 billion, with its business-to-business arm growing 23%. The company said it beat the high end of its own guidance.
B2B outruns the consumer business
Gross bookings, the total value of travel booked, rose 11% to $34.0 billion. B2B revenue grew 23% and B2B bookings 19%, against 6% revenue growth and 7% bookings growth in the consumer B2C unit, according to the earnings release.
B2B supplies travel technology and inventory to airlines, travel agents, online retailers and financial institutions. The earnings presentation attributes its growth to double-digit gains across all regions and elevated marketing activity from some of its largest partners. It also says B2B's adjusted EBITDA margin was pressured by partner mix and acquisition consolidation; the segment's margin was 27.5%.
Booked room nights grew 7% to 115.7 million, while booked air tickets fell 6%.
Earnings climb faster than sales
Diluted earnings per share rose 15% to $8.42. Adjusted EPS rose 24% to $9.39, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 17% to $1.69 billion, with margin up 135 basis points (1.35 percentage points) to 34.2%. Operating income rose 28% to $1.33 billion.
CEO Ariane Gorin said the company "exceeded the high end of our guidance in the quarter." The presentation says adjusted EPS outpaced EBITDA growth because of share repurchases; Expedia bought back about 2 million shares for $576 million in the quarter.
Operating cash flow was negative $1.16 billion in the quarter, and free cash flow negative $1.40 billion. For the first nine months, free cash flow was positive $3.63 billion.
The new guidance
Expedia now expects 2026 revenue of $16.37 billion to $16.43 billion, up from $16.05 billion to $16.22 billion. Gross bookings guidance moved to $131.4 billion to $131.9 billion from $129.5 billion to $130.8 billion. It also raised its expected adjusted EBITDA margin expansion to 1.8 to 2.0 percentage points from 1.5 to 1.75.
For the fourth quarter, it guides to gross bookings of $27.9 billion to $28.4 billion, revenue of $3.69 billion to $3.75 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $830 million to $880 million.
Expedia declared a $0.48 quarterly dividend, payable December 10 to holders of record on November 18, according to the 8-K.
