Expedia 2005 Annual Report Download - page 11

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pursuing a strategy focused on differentiating our service offerings by positioning ourselves as a hotel
expert with premium content about lodging properties, while simultaneously broadening our focus to
include other travel products and services.
Hotwire.com. Our discount travel website, Hotwire.com, makes available airline tickets, hotel rooms,
rental cars, cruises and vacation packages. Hotwire.com's approach matches the price-sensitive travelers
willing to be flexible to save money with suppliers who have excess seats, rooms and cars they wish to fill
without affecting the public's perception of their brands. Hotwire.com travelers may enjoy significant
discounts by electing to book travel services ""opaquely'' or ""semi-opaquely,'' without knowing certain
itinerary details such as brand, time of departure and exact hotel location, while suppliers create value
from excess inventory without diluting their core brand-loyal traveler base. Hotwire.com works with many
domestic and international airlines, including United States full-service major network airlines, top hotels
in hundreds of cities and resort destinations in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico and the
Caribbean and major car rental companies in the United States.
WWTE and IAN. Our private label programs make travel products and services available to travelers
through third party company-branded websites. The products and services made available through our
websites, www.wwte.com and www.ian.com, are based on those made available on Expedia-branded and
Hotels.com-branded websites, respectively. We generally compensate participants in the WWTE and IAN
private label programs on a revenue-share basis.
Classic Vacations. We offer individually tailored vacations that we provide primarily through a
national network of third-party retail travel agents. We deliver a full line of premium vacation packages Ì
air, hotels, car rentals, activities and private transportation Ì to create customized luxury vacations in
Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe and Tahiti. Travel agents and travelers can preview
our product offering through our websites, www.classicforagents.com and www.classicvacations.com.
Destination Services. Our network of in-destination travel desks located at hotels and resorts in
Florida, Hawaii and Mexico makes available to travelers the opportunity to obtain tours, attractions, airport
transfer services and other travel-related services. Our network expanded through our acquisition of
Activity World, a destination service provider in Hawaii in 2004, and our 2005 acquisition of Premier
Getaways, a destination service provider in Florida.
Expedia Corporate Travel (""ECT''). Our full-service travel management company makes travel
products and services available to corporate travelers in the United States, Canada and Europe. In 2004,
we established ECT Ì Europe, which includes Egencia and World Travel Management, both of which
were acquired in 2004. ECT provides, among other things, centralized booking tools for employees of our
corporate travelers, support of negotiated airfares and consolidated reporting aimed at small- and mid-sized
businesses. ECT charges corporate client companies sign-up and set-up fees, as well as transactional fees
for making or changing bookings. In addition, ECT provides on-site agents to some corporate clients in
order to fully support the account.
eLong. Our majority owned online travel service company, based in Beijing, People's Republic of
China (""China''), specializes in travel products and services in China. eLong uses web-based distribution
technologies and a 24-hour nationwide call center to provide consumers with consolidated travel
information and the ability to access hotel reservations at discounted rates at over 3,000 hotels in major
cities across China. eLong also offers air ticketing and other travel related services, such as rental cars and
vacation packages. Travelers can access travel products and services through the websites, www.elong.com
and www.elong.net.
TripAdvisor. Our comprehensive online travel search engine and directory aggregates unbiased
articles, guidebook reviews and user opinions on cities, hotels and activities in a variety of given
destinations from a number of online sources through our website, www.tripadvisor.com. In addition to
travel-related information, TripAdvisor's destination-specific search results provide links to the websites of
TripAdvisor's travel partners (travel service providers and marketers) through which travelers can make
related travel arrangements.
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