Expedia Aims to Be a $100 Billion Company

From its early days within Microsoft in the mid-1990s to today, Expedia has hit a myriad of milestones. Now, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has his eyes set on another: To become the world's first $100 billion travel agency.

Today, Expedia Inc. does about $71 billion in gross travel bookings, the CEO said last week during the Expedia Partner Conference. According to Khosrowshahi, Expedia is on track to hit the $100 billion mark in the next few years.

"The way that we get there is really through broad growth," he said, which means offering an array of travel products that customers want.

According to Khosrowshahi's presentation, room nights are up 26%, air tickets are up 39%, car rentals are up 55%, cruise sales are up 15% and activities tickets – Expedia' fastest-growing product -- are up 78%.

Expedia's growth strategy is both organic and acquisition-based. In 2015 alone, Expedia acquired Orbitz Worldwide, Travelocity and HomeAway, and has integrated those brands into the company with "extraordinary" results, the CEO said. As an example, Khosrowshahi said that hotel conversion for Orbitz is up 60%.

HomeAway is quickly moving toward having over 1 million of its properties bookable online, he said.

Growth going forward will come from both domestic and global expansion, with an emphasis on global expansion, Khosrowshahi said. While about one-third of Expedia's business comes from outside the U.S. today, he hopes that will grow to two-thirds. The Asia-Pacific region will be a priority.

Expedia will have revenue of $8 billion in 2016, and has a staff of 18,000