Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Expedia it posted better than expected second quarter results. However,
Speaker 2: the company did warn of like a softening in travel
Speaker 2: demand and the current quarter, and therefore it adjusted its
Speaker 2: expectations for the rest of the Year's dig into the details,
Speaker 2: expedia CEO is with us Arianne Goren and arian you
Speaker 2: managed to get the nuance because shares absolutely popped on
Speaker 2: the fact that you'd managed to do what you needed
Speaker 2: to do and delivered for the quarter that we were
Speaker 2: posting on, but then New downgraded for a second time.
Speaker 1: What is the consumer telling you right now?
Speaker 3: Well, first, thank you for having me. We were very
Speaker 3: happy with our second quarter results. We saw an acceleration
Speaker 3: in our consumer business, which is what we were looking for,
Speaker 3: and then continued strength in our B to B segment
Speaker 3: and in advertising. But it's true as we look at
Speaker 3: the third quarter, we have seen some softness.
Speaker 1: It's been a few quarters.
Speaker 3: In a row that air ticket prices have been coming down,
Speaker 3: that the pre car rental days have been coming down,
Speaker 3: and we just started seeing a bit of that also
Speaker 3: in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: So we're keeping an eye on it.
Speaker 4: And good morning. It's ed in San Francisco, away from
Speaker 4: the United States, It's been an incredible summer in Europe,
Speaker 4: the Euros football or soccer tournament, the Olympics. Why is
Speaker 4: that sort of event driven process not more of a
Speaker 4: confidence giver for you in your outlook?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, first of all, I would say events driven
Speaker 3: travel is a true trend, whether it's sports, whether it's concerts.
Speaker 3: You know, with Taylor Swifts concert tour the last year,
Speaker 3: you see that that really drives travel into destinations. So
Speaker 3: that certainly plays into our optimism.
Speaker 1: But again, you know, when we.
Speaker 3: Look at our forecast, we're looking at what's happening on pricing,
Speaker 3: what's happening in demand, and again in the long term,
Speaker 3: people certainly want to travel, which is what makes us
Speaker 3: sort of optimistic in the long term.
Speaker 4: Arian, what's the technology story for you? If you're going
Speaker 4: to drive that outlook a little higher than you've already given,
Speaker 4: is there a way you can more closely match what
Speaker 4: people are searching for maybe the budget conscious consumer as well,
Speaker 4: if the consumer is in real time pulling back.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, the great news is that because of
Speaker 3: the work that we've done on our platform in the
Speaker 3: last few years, in particular around having a customer identity
Speaker 3: across all of our brands. We have a better understanding
Speaker 3: of the traveler across all of our brands, looking at
Speaker 3: what are they searching for, what are they interested in,
Speaker 3: which allows us to make more personalized recommendations that are
Speaker 3: more relevant for each traveler.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the brands and brand loyalty. Before we
Speaker 2: do that, we just want to a minor audience of
Speaker 2: TV and radio. We have sat down with the Expedia CEO,
Speaker 2: Arianne Goren, and what's really interesting is you have this
Speaker 2: rollout of sort of a brand loyalty program one Key
Speaker 2: beyond the US and UK, but you're slowing it slightly
Speaker 2: and there was an impact perhaps to Hotels dot Com
Speaker 2: users in the loyalty programs they had. Can you tell
Speaker 2: us about what the ultimate goal is there and why
Speaker 2: you've slowed it a little bit?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 3: So, we actually just came up on the one year
Speaker 3: anniversary of our one Key loyalty program. We launched it
Speaker 3: last summer in the US and it's a program that
Speaker 3: ties together Expedia, Hotels dot Com, and Verbo, which are
Speaker 3: our three biggest brands. It allows travelers to earn and
Speaker 3: burn one key cash across all of the brands and
Speaker 3: also benefit from higher discounts, especially in hotels.
Speaker 1: Sort of the more loyal they are.
Speaker 3: We've been pleased with the results in the US and
Speaker 3: we've just launched in the UK, But as we step
Speaker 3: back and looked at other countries, what we realized is
Speaker 3: this is a program that works the best when we
Speaker 3: have all three of our big brands operating at scale,
Speaker 3: and in many countries outside of the US and.
Speaker 1: UK, we have one leading brand.
Speaker 3: So what we're doing now is we're looking at how
Speaker 3: do we make sure that we have the strongest loyalty
Speaker 3: value proposition in each country for the brands that are there.
Speaker 3: And the good news is, even before making any changes,
Speaker 3: all of the loyalty members outside of the US and
Speaker 3: UK are already benefiting from the higher member discounts.
Speaker 2: You are relatively new in this seat May twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four as CEO, you were on the board a bit
Speaker 2: before that, but arian you came from the B to
Speaker 2: B offering advertising offering, which you've just articulated.
Speaker 1: Is going really well.
Speaker 2: How therefore, can you bring your learnings from that to
Speaker 2: the consumer? How you focused on driving better margins growth
Speaker 2: from a consumer that, as you say at the moment
Speaker 2: is nervous.
Speaker 3: So I would start by saying, our consumer business has
Speaker 3: three very strong and well loved brands in Expedia, Hotels,
Speaker 3: dot Com and Verbo, and they all have great value propositions.
Speaker 3: My experience, and I think anybody's experience in business, is
Speaker 3: always that you want to make sure you understand what
Speaker 3: is your customer need and then how do you have
Speaker 3: a value proposition that matches it. And so what I'm
Speaker 3: focused on with the team is making sure that from
Speaker 3: our technology, to our supply to the way we market,
Speaker 3: each of our brands is very strong in addressing a
Speaker 3: particular customer need.
Speaker 4: Mary Anne, what's the one single biggest headwind or risk
Speaker 4: to you and to a consumer's choice to travel for
Speaker 4: the remainder of this year.
Speaker 3: Look, I would go back to what I talked about earlier,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, prices coming down somewhat. You could
Speaker 3: say that's sort of a headwind in the sense that
Speaker 3: you know, as you report earnings, obviously prices have an impact.
Speaker 3: But I like to see the glass half full rather
Speaker 3: than half empty. And when you consider it that way,
Speaker 3: you think we'll travels may be becoming more affordable.
Speaker 2: It's great to have some time with you. Arianne Goran
Speaker 2: exped at a CEO here in New York.
Speaker 1: We thank you, thank you for having me