e-richard wrote:Now it seems that they are trying to recoup their investment from a smaller number of properties, so guess what comes next?
It needs someone smarter than I am to answer that. But in order to increase the revenues from the companies they purchased Expedia would need to increase the service fee for guests and the annual subscription for those owners on subscription (or otherwise the owners' percentage commission for those on pay per booking).
However, the down side for Expedia will be a further reduction in listed properties, because more owners will not renew at the higher price or otherwise not be tempted to list in the first place. Add to that bookings will fall off, because guests will be further put off by the hike in the service fee as well as becoming more educated in finding their chosen property cheaper elsewhere, plus a reduced number of rentals to choose from.
This is all hypothesis. But perhaps it will always be a zero-sum result and Expedia will discover that they would have done better to have left things as they were originally, without service fees and the Yapstone 3% charge.