Groupon and Expedia Team Up to Slash Travel Prices
By: Julia Boorstin | CNBC Media and Entertainment Reporter
Groupon is expanding its reach with another major corporate partnership, this one designed to offer half-priced travel deals. Today at the 'All Things D' conference Groupon and Expedia announced a new discount travel site, called "Groupon Getaways with Expedia."
I sat down with Groupon CEO Andrew Mason and Expedia Worldwide's President Scott Durchslag to talk about the deal. Mason wouldn't comment on Groupon's IPO, but he did talk about how this fits into Groupon strategy. Durchslag says revenue should ramp quickly to impact the company's bottom line over the course of the year.
Check out the full interview here.
Groupon Getaways with Expedia will launch in June with hotels in the US, expanding to airlines and car rentals, even cruises. Before the end of the year the service will roll out to Latin America, Europe and then Asia. It'll work a lot like Groupon — customers will have a limited time to buy a discount voucher, usually about half-off, for future travel. They'll be able to redeem the voucher within a certain redemption period, but the idea is that the period will be flexible, without blackout dates.
Together Groupon and Expedia will be able to reach a huge audience — 50 million people between Groupon and Expedia's members.
Who wins on the back end? The merchant will receive about half of what consumers spend, Expedia and Groupon sharing the rest. The companies didn't disclose any specific terms but Durchslag says Expedia isn't doing any deals that aren't accretive. This is certainly a crowded marketplace with the likes of Priceline — but Groupon and Expedia hope that the simple, straightforward approach will cut through the clutter.
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