Overview
- This week at its Explore 26 partner conference in Las Vegas, Expedia previewed an in-development AI toolkit and an Intelligent Experience Platform of composable components that will roll out with pilot partners in the coming months.
- Expedia said the platform will let brands embed Expedia-powered booking, inventory, payments, refunds, loyalty and multilingual servicing behind their own interfaces so partners can offer branded, AI-assisted planning and booking.
- The group announced an agreement to buy CarTrawler, expected to close in the second half of 2026, and confirmed it has integrated the recent Tiqets acquisition to extend its Rapid API beyond lodging into cars, activities and trip protection.
- Expedia emphasized trust and operations as competitive assets, naming a Responsible AI Council to review higher-risk deployments and highlighting its scale in servicing more than 7 million partner calls a year and 24/7 voice support in 25 languages.
- New commercial tools include a Merchandising API, a B2B Partner Portal for marketing planning, and an AI-powered Travel Media Network, and Expedia also flagged partner deals with Uber, CLEAR and IWG to surface its services inside other apps.