The global landscape of online travel agencies (OTAs) is undergoing a significant structural shift as Booking Holdings emerges as a formidable, and perhaps superior, competitor to Expedia Group in the business-to-business (B2B) sector. For more than a decade, industry analysts and market participants have largely regarded Expedia Group as the undisputed leader in the B2B travel space, primarily through its robust partner solutions that power the travel booking engines of banks, airlines, and major retail brands. However, new financial modeling and market analysis suggest that Booking Holdings has not only closed the gap but may have surpassed its primary rival in terms of total room nights processed through partner channels.
According to a research note released by BTIG analyst Jake Fuller, Booking Holdings’ B2B operations are estimated to have booked approximately 196 million room nights over the last twelve months. This figure represents a 15% lead over Expedia’s B2B segment, which recorded roughly 170 million room nights during the same period. This revelation challenges the long-standing industry consensus that Booking Holdings’ B2B business was a secondary, relatively small component of its overall portfolio. The discrepancy in perception is largely attributed to the differing disclosure practices of the two giants; while Expedia provides detailed financial breakouts for its B2B segment, Booking Holdings has historically kept these figures integrated within its broader corporate reporting.
The Invisible Giant: Understanding the Booking Holdings B2B Surge
The B2B travel sector involves the sale of hotel rooms, flights, car rentals, and other travel inventory to third-party partners rather than directly to the end consumer. These partners, which include financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, as well as traditional travel agencies and airline loyalty programs, use the technology and inventory of OTAs to provide travel services under their own branding.
The recent estimates from BTIG suggest that Booking Holdings has successfully leveraged its massive global inventory—the largest in the world for alternative accommodations and hotels—to capture a dominant share of this "white-label" market. The lack of public disclosure from Booking Holdings regarding its B2B financials has allowed its growth in this sector to remain largely under the radar. By contrast, Expedia’s B2B segment has been a highlight of its recent financial performance. In the second quarter of 2024, Expedia reported that its B2B revenue grew by 23% to $1.5 billion, significantly outperforming its consumer-facing business, which grew by 8% to $2.7 billion.
The shift in Booking’s B2B trajectory is closely tied to its multi-year transition toward a "merchant model." Historically, Booking.com operated primarily on an "agency model," where the guest paid the hotel directly and the hotel paid a commission to Booking. To succeed in the B2B space, a company must act as the "merchant of record," taking the payment from the customer and distributing it to the supplier. Over the last five years, Booking Holdings has aggressively expanded its merchant capabilities, a move that was essential for powering complex third-party integrations and offering "The Connected Trip," a strategic initiative aimed at providing a seamless, multi-product booking experience.
A Chronology of the OTA B2B Evolution
To understand the current competitive landscape, one must look at the evolution of these two companies over the last two decades.
In the early 2010s, Expedia Group established an early lead by creating Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS). This division focused specifically on building APIs and white-label templates for partners. During this era, Expedia’s technology was viewed as more flexible for third-party integration, allowing it to sign massive deals with partners like Delta Air Lines and various international loyalty programs.
Between 2015 and 2019, Booking Holdings remained focused on its direct-to-consumer dominance, particularly in Europe. However, behind the scenes, its brands—notably Agoda in Asia and Priceline in the United States—were quietly building robust B2B networks. Agoda, in particular, became a powerhouse in B2B distribution in the Asia-Pacific region, providing inventory to a vast network of offline travel agencies and smaller regional OTAs.
The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for change. As travel demand plummeted in 2020 and 2021, OTAs sought more stable, diversified revenue streams. Financial institutions began looking to enhance their loyalty programs with travel rewards to retain high-spending cardholders. During this period, Booking Holdings accelerated its merchant model transition. By 2023, the company’s merchant gross bookings had grown to represent a substantial portion of its total volume, providing the necessary infrastructure to challenge Expedia’s B2B dominance.
In late 2023 and early 2024, Booking Holdings initiated a series of organizational reviews and restructurings. While the company has framed these moves as a way to optimize operations and free up resources for investment, analysts believe a core component of this reorganization is the consolidation of B2B efforts across its various brands, including Booking.com, Priceline, and Agoda.
Supporting Data: Comparing the Financial Engines
The divergence in how these companies report their numbers often masks the true scale of their operations. In the second quarter of 2024, Expedia Group’s total revenue was approximately $3.6 billion, with B2B contributing $1.5 billion—roughly 42% of its total revenue. This high percentage underscores how vital the partner business has become to Expedia’s valuation.
Booking Holdings, meanwhile, reported total revenue of $5.9 billion in the same quarter. While the company does not provide a specific B2B line item, the BTIG estimate of 196 million room nights suggests that if Booking’s B2B revenue per room night is even remotely comparable to Expedia’s, its B2B division could be generating revenue in the range of $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion per quarter. If these estimates hold true, Booking’s B2B business is not only larger than Expedia’s in volume but potentially in total revenue as well.
Furthermore, the growth rates tell a compelling story. Expedia’s B2B revenue growth of 23% is impressive, but it comes at a time when its B2C (business-to-consumer) growth is lagging. Booking Holdings, conversely, is seeing robust growth across both its direct and indirect channels. The "merchant" segment of Booking’s business, which encompasses most of its B2B activity, has consistently shown high double-digit growth over the past eight quarters.
Strategic Implications and Market Reactions
The realization that Booking Holdings may be the leader in B2B travel has significant implications for the broader travel ecosystem. For hotel suppliers, the dominance of two massive entities in the B2B space creates a duopoly that controls a vast amount of distribution. While this provides hotels with access to diverse customer bases (such as bank loyalty members who might not otherwise book a hotel), it also gives the OTAs immense leverage in commission negotiations.
From a competitive standpoint, the B2B sector is often more "sticky" than the B2C sector. A consumer may switch from Booking.com to Expedia for a $10 price difference, but a major bank like Chase or a global airline like American Airlines is unlikely to switch its entire travel backend frequently due to the technical complexity of the integration. Therefore, winning in B2B is a play for long-term, stable market share.
Market reactions to these findings have been cautiously optimistic for Booking Holdings. Investors have long rewarded Booking for its superior margins and efficient marketing spend. The revelation that it has a massive, hidden B2B engine suggests that there is further room for margin expansion as the company streamlines its partner operations.
Conversely, for Expedia Group, the data serves as a warning. Expedia has marketed itself to Wall Street as the "partner of choice" for the travel industry. If it loses that narrative to Booking, it may face pressure to innovate its technology stack even further or offer more aggressive pricing to its partners to maintain its client base.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Future Technology
Looking ahead, the battle for B2B supremacy will likely be fought on the frontier of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Both Booking Holdings and Expedia have invested heavily in generative AI to improve the customer experience. In a B2B context, this technology is being used to provide partners with "smarter" booking engines that can offer personalized recommendations to their loyalty members.
Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel has frequently emphasized the "Connected Trip" vision, which relies on AI to link accommodations, flights, and ground transportation. By offering this integrated technology to B2B partners, Booking can provide a more comprehensive solution than a simple hotel API. Expedia is countering with its "Open World" platform, designed to give partners of all sizes access to its technology, loyalty, and service capabilities.
Analysis of Broader Impact
The shift toward B2B dominance by the major OTAs represents a maturation of the travel industry. As the cost of acquiring individual customers through Google search and social media advertising continues to rise, the efficiency of B2B partnerships becomes more attractive. By powering the travel portals of large corporations and financial institutions, Booking and Expedia can access "closed-user groups"—customers who are often more loyal and have higher lifetime values than the average internet shopper.
However, this trend also raises questions about market concentration. If Booking Holdings successfully consolidates its B2B operations and continues to outpace Expedia, the barrier to entry for new competitors becomes nearly insurmountable. Smaller wholesalers and regional bedbanks may find themselves squeezed out as the "Big Two" use their scale to secure exclusive inventory and lower prices from hotel chains.
The reorganization currently underway at Booking Holdings is the final piece of the puzzle. By potentially unifying the B2B sales teams and technology stacks of Booking.com, Agoda, and Priceline, the company is positioning itself to offer a global, seamless inventory solution that is difficult for any other player to match.
While Expedia remains a formidable pioneer in the space with a deeply entrenched partner network, the numbers suggest a changing of the guard. If the BTIG estimates are accurate, Booking Holdings is no longer just a consumer powerhouse; it is the new titan of B2B travel distribution, a development that will dictate the competitive dynamics of the travel industry for the remainder of the decade. As the company moves toward greater financial transparency, the true scale of this "invisible" business will likely become a central theme for investors and industry observers alike.
