3 Largest Public Travel Companies By Market Share

As technology evolves, we continue to see competition among the largest international, public travel companies including Expedia Group Inc EXPE, Booking Holdings Inc BKNG and Ctrip.com CTRP, among others.

Booking Holdings, previously known as Priceline, clearly retains its position as market share leader by strengthening its grip to 10 basis points shy of 40 percent. Priceline managed to remain profitable in struggling era for the industry as Airbnb continues to compete for customers and hotels start to advertise internally.

These companies are continuously competing to be the portal to help consumers travel. From last-minute flight deals, to cheap car rentals, each travel company takes a unique twist to get you there.

Booking Holdings

The recent name change in February was inevitable after the company’s recent acquisition of Kayak, OpenTable and rentalcars.com.

Overall, the previously known Priceline Group continues to maintain high profitability with EBITDA/revenue for all of 2017 amounting to 39 percent, compared to Expedia's 18 percent and Lastminutes.com 11 percent. The only other online public travel company that had a better EBITDA/revenue metric was OntheBeach.com, a UK online travel company that focuses strictly on providing beach vacations. Even from modest positive revenue growth and 17 percent second-quarter earnings beat, experts say Q3 outlook forced to send the stock plummeting on continue threats from Airbnb and industry consolidation.

Bookings has made it clear it doesn't want your average individual intrigued over its stock price of $1,862. The company trades on the NASDAQ with a market capitalization of almost $100 billion.

Expedia

Expedia sits at No. 2 in market share below Booking at 31 percent. Decreasing barriers to entry and industry realignment forced the global travel tech company into a year of lax revenue. Throughout all of 2017, the company experienced just under 13 percent revenue growth year over year, compared to the prior year where it achieved 30 percent. Taking much of the heat from rival Airbnb, the company still manages to maintain a healthy balance sheet with a debt ratio of 39.6 percent and a profiting business model.

The travel company conglomerate has majority ownership in hotels.com, trivago.com, orbitz.com, homeaway, hotwire, travelocity, carrentals.com and other mainstream domains.

Expedia trades on the NASDAQ around $133 per share, and with a market capitalization of about $20 billion.

Ctrip

Amid a booming economy up until late, the Chinese online travel tech company entered a huge turn around with an increase in market share to 12.9 percent, as well as a positive metric of 14 percent for its EBITDA/revenue ratio. The company saw its topline increase 39 percent in 2017, having sales upwards of $4.1 billion.

It's no surprise to see the travel company’s growth alongside the Chinese middle class growing with 9 percent increase in per capita GDP within the last year alone. Ctrip has been smart to acquire African travel agency consultant consultant, Webeez Inc, based out of southern California. The acquisition represents a measly fraction of Ctrip's $4.1 billion revenue stream, but surely primed for growth as African vacations remain a growing trend.

The company trades on the NASDAQ around $38.21 per share, and a market capitalization of $19 billion.

Final Thoughts

The industry is going through a phase of experiencing disruption due to industry consolidation in the face of competition. As company margins get smaller, domain will go on sale at low valuations. Priceline being on top saw its opportunity to partake in leading the way in the acquisition war. Forbes now expects Airbnb to be worth nearly $38 billion after the company’s latest funding round exposed a $31 billion valuation back in March of 2017.

Together, Booking Holdings, Expedia, and Ctrip comprise about 84 percent of market share of public companies in the travelling technology sub-industry.