US Trends

who owns hotels.com

Hotels.com is owned by Expedia Group, the large U.S.-based online travel company that also owns brands like Expedia, Vrbo, Orbitz, and Travelocity.

Quick Scoop: Who Owns Hotels.com?

  • Hotels.com operates as a brand under Expedia ’s corporate umbrella.
  • It began as Hotel Reservations Network and was later fully acquired and folded into what is now Expedia Group.
  • Today, strategic decisions and overall ownership sit with Expedia Group, while Hotels.com is run as its own lodging-focused platform.

Tiny bit of backstory

  • Hotels.com was founded in 1991 by Robert Diener and David Litman (originally as a phone-based hotel booking service).
  • By the early 2000s, USA Interactive (a Barry Diller company that later evolved into IAC/Expedia) bought up the remaining Hotels.com shares, consolidating control and paving the way for it to sit firmly inside the Expedia ecosystem.

Why it matters for travelers

  • Being part of Expedia Group gives Hotels.com access to a huge inventory of hotels and global negotiating power for rates and loyalty perks.
  • For you as a user, this mainly shows up in similar-style rewards programs, cross-brand promotions, and familiar booking flows across Expedia-owned sites.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.