Skift Take
Incoming CEO Ariane Gorin said she plans to focus on driving traffic, lifting conversion rates, and expanding margins after taking the helm from departing chief Peter Kern on May 13.
Expedia Group trimmed its 2024 outlook for growth on Thursday mainly because of a slower-than-anticipated recovery at Vrbo, its vacation-rental booking brand.
The company lowered its full-year guidance to a range of mid-to-high single-digit top-line growth, with profit margins mostly in line with last year.
It was the last quarterly earnings call for Expedia Group CEO and Vice Chairman Peter Kern, who will step down as CEO and be replaced by Ariane Gorin on May 13.
Gorin and Kern said Vrbo's rebound from a tech platform migration last year had been slower than they expected. Other issues: "Overall trends" in its consumer business through June and Hotels.com's slower-than-hoped-for rebound, makes them expect Expedia Group growth to be lower than what they had anticipated for the full year.
"While it's going to take somewhat longer than we'd anticipated to see the benefits come through in our numbers, the investments we've made rebuilding our consumer business will pay off," said Gorin during a call about Expedia’s first-quarter earnings.
Ariane Gorin's Ambition as Incoming CEOGorin introduced herself to analysts on the call.
"My immediate priority as CEO is to wo