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Expedia said lodging revenue was down 52%, on a 58% decline in room nights stayed.
Transversospinales/Dreamstime.com
Expedia
shares were higher after hours Wednesday after the online travel agency reported results that weren’t quite as bad as investors had feared.
For the quarter ended in September, Expedia (ticker: EXPE) posted revenue of $1.5 billion, down 58% from a year earlier, though a bit better than the Street consensus forecast of $1.38 billion. The company posted an adjusted loss of 22 cents a share, down from a profit of $3.38 a share, but better than the Street consensus forecast of a loss of 79 cents a share.
Gross bookings in the quarter were $8.6 billion, down 68% from the year-ago quarter. “Declines across our lodging, air and other travel products all moderated compared to the second quarter, with lodging bookings benefiting from year-over-year growth at Vrbo in the third quarter,” the company said.
Expedia said lodging revenue was down 52%, on a 58% decline in room nights stayed. Air revenue fell 87%, reflecting a 74% drop in tickets sold. Advertising and media revenue was down 70%.
“Travel demand continued to be significantly impacted by the virus in the third quarter, but the increased travel in the quarter, along with continued progress on our cost initiatives, led to improved financial results,” CEO Peter Kern said in a statement. “As the last several weeks have demonstrated, the travel industry and the world still face a prolonged and bumpy path to recovery, with increasing Covid-19 cases and uncertainty around vaccine and therapeutic timelines.”
“Despite the challenges of Covid,” Kern continued, “our teams continue to do great work to accelerate important long-term strategic priorities, including driving efficiency across the company and evolving our tech and data platforms to deliver value-added products and services to our customers and partners. While it will take a more fulsome rebound in travel before we will see the effect of many of these improvements, I am confident that we have made and will continue to make great strides to reshape our business and the industry during this challenging time.”
Expedia shares were up 5.1% to 103.55 around 5:15 p.m. Eastern time, after falling 0.3% in regular trading. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
ended the day up 1.3%.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]
