Guggenheim analyst Jake Fuller said the consensus view appears to be that Expedia (EXPE) has a "bloated cost structure" and that the company will likely target non-marketing operating expense cuts after the resignation earlier this month of its CEO and CFO. However, while there may be cost-cutting opportunities at Expedia, he thinks that a "simple margin comparison" relative to Booking Holdings (BKNG) may "substantially" overstate that opportunity, Fuller tells investors. He argues that most of the margin delta between the two OTAs is driven by take-rate and that Expedia's operating expense as a percentage of bookings is actually close to Booking. Fuller maintains a Buy rating on Expedia with a $135 price target on the shares.

WEX (WEX) announced that it has reached a new long-term agreement with Booking.com (BKNG), effective April 2024. This agreement distinguishes WEX as Booking.com's preferred virtual card provider as it continues providing WEX payment solutions in support of Booking.com's payments vision to make buying and selling travel-related products and services easier for everyone. "With more than 800,000 active customer relationships worldwide, WEX is proud to work with eight of the top ten online travel agencies globally, including Booking.com," said Carlos Carriedo, WEX's Chief Operating Officer, International. "Building on years of working together, we remain committed to delivering WEX's deep expertise in both payments and travel, as well as the reliability of our technology platform, to help Booking.com power its B2B travel payment activities 24/7 and 365 days/year at scale, globally." Booking.com first became a WEX customer in 2013. Over a decade later, WEX now processes payments for Booking.com across the world.