Today we are interviewing travel industry rockstar Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia Inc. Last Tuesday, Expedia Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Venere.com from Advent International and Venere’s founders.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your fabulous career?
Well, I’m not sure if you can call my career fabulous but it certainly has been interesting and a ton of fun. I was an Engineering major at college and planned to pursue a technical career. That is until I met my girlfriend in New York City and had to go there to be with her. There weren’t many technical jobs in New York, so I joined a small Investment Bank called Allen & Company.
I advised a number of clients in the Media and Entertainment industries in the mergers and acquisitions area. It was a time of great consolidation in the area, and incredibly interesting and exciting. Barry Diller became a client of mine and asked me to join him in a new company that he was building, named Home Shopping Network. I joined as the head of strategic planning in 1998, the early heyday of the Internet.
Over the next 7 years we transformed the company from a small shopping network to a media and internet conglomerate, and bought the businesses that would form the base of what is now Expedia – Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com. In 2005 we decided to seperate the travel businesses from the rest of the portfolio – Expedia Inc. was born and I was lucky enough to be selected as the CEO.
What would you expect to be the next big thing in travel distribution?
I still think that there is a ton of potential in personalizing the travel experience for the traveler. Right now OLTAs [online travel agencies] pretty much treat every customer the same way – show them the same options, give them the same experience. With the wealth of data and tracking available, we should be able to provide a much more tailored experience to the traveler. Hopefully this can drive loyalty in a very competitive environment.
How will the new ownership of venere.com affect users and hotels? How will Venere and Expedia customers benefit from the new situation?
I think it will afford Venere the opportunity to make longer term bets on its future. We are interested in making Venere ten times bigger than it is now. That means many many more customers and hotels all over the world.
What makes Venere special and how do you see Venere’s future?
I love the site – I think Venere is the most distinctive hotel web site out there. There is a certain same-ness that has settled into the industry and I really like the unique look and feel and mapping that Venere has built. We were also very interested in Venere’s terrific inventory in Southern Europe and your success in building out your hotel supply.
I’d like to see Venere aggressively expand not only in its core European markets, but also into Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas.
What is your favorite travel destination?
Lake Como – I love being able to hike up in the beautiful hills and coming down to a great meal with great wine!
29 responses to “Interview with Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi”
Report an inappropriate commentJuly 20th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Why Mr Dara Khosrowshahi never give an answer about my case (click on my name to read it) when EXPEDIA tried to scam me (1254.95 U$D and failed…..miserably).
I can a answer this question:”How will the new ownership of venere.com affect users and hotels? How will Venere and Expedia customers benefit from the new situation?
”
Response: a significant number of customers probably are going to be cheated/scammed by EXPEDIA. It is a pity Vener eis now in the hands of scammers.
Good luck
July 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am
John,
I am in favour of “no moderation” policies to blog comments, but it’s a real pity that the first comment to this very significant deal in the travel industry becomes an opportunity for an online Jimmmy Jump to get into the court while everyone is watching… I have a lot of sympathy for consumers’ complaints: they are always a good way to streamline company processes and to improve communication, and usually a reflection of true customers concern and determination to see their expectations fulfilled. However, there are places and processes to pursue such endeavours; every company (and the laws of every state) have got them, and a welcome interview on the blog of a company that does not even has systems to process customers’ credit cards (Venere invoices the hotels after the customers paid their bills on check-out!… very difficult for consumers to get scammed) is probably not very appropriate place for it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
“We are interested in making Venere ten times bigger than it is now”… COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
i mean COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 am
Dear Mr. CEO:
I today requested a refund of the remaining of my reimbirsable travel.
I recently booked a vacation to Cancun and needed a date change. I did not request cancellation but a date change.. I only wanted to change the dates of travel. The package reads, “no refunds”. I did not request a refund. I wanted to change the dates. the Expedia customer guarantee reads,
“You can count on us to provide support throughout your trip. Whether you have questions about your itinerary, have a change in travel plans, or need help resolving a problem with the trip you booked, we’re here to help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our job is to satisfy you!
We guarantee that the travel you booked with Expedia will meet the descriptions on our site and in your itinerary (as confirmed on our site within 24 hours of travel), or we will work with our partners on your behalf to find a solution.
We’ll take responsibility—at no additional cost to you—if we make a mistake booking your travel.
If you need to change your travel plans at any time, just call us at 1-800-EXPEDIA (1-404-728-8787 outside the continental U.S.), and we’ll work with our partners to find the best available solution.”
I sent a letter to you as CEO and then received a response via email after calling the 1-800 customer service number that gave regrets. I was left with no other option but to cancel since I cannot travel on the dates originally scheduled. It was also apparent that you never received the FEDEX and the support staff opened mailed addressed to you. I am told that my refund amount is less than half of what was payed for this trip.Expedia gets to keep over $1000. Your guarantee did not appear in place during this event. Again, I would have been happy to just change the dates. Unfortunately, you have lost a longterm faithful customer.
It pays to treat customers fairly. When you make a statement and call it a guarantee, it should be a guaratee.
Long live integrity. It’s better than money. Learn that!
JR Fowler
August 4th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Dear JR Fowler,
I am replying to your comment on behalf of venere.com (I am not sure I should and if I am supposed to, as you have a complaint against Expedia, but I do it anyway).
Before a direct answer, let me add the following:
as mentioned on a previous comment, Expedia is taking over Venere, meaning that it will own the shares of Venere; this does not mean that Venere will be merged into Expedia, nor that Venere will change its processes and even its business model, or that Venere will cease being independent as an organization.
On the contrary, one of the very reasons for Expedia to acquire Venere is to be able to count on an “additional” way to provide services to hotels and users, this additional way being the Venere “agency” model, whereby users pay on check-out directly at the hotel. If this was to be changed, then why buying Venere in the first place? or forcing integration and reducing autonomy?
To your complaint to Expedia, in view of the above comment, I cannot help much, because Venere and Expedia (will) have a shareholding relationship, but they are not the same organization. I am confident that all complaints, following appropriate routing, are dealt with applying the required attention by the teams respectively accountable for.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Dear Mr. Khosrowshahi,
I’m an Expedia, Venere and WorldBy.Com customer (as traveler) and at the same time, a manager of a hotel chain with my hotels published on Expedia, Venere and WorldBy.Com.
From your words (“personalizing the travel experience”) it looks like the model that is representing the “next big thing in travel distribution” that the interviewer was asking you, is already “alive and kicking” on WorldBy.Com’s websites. http://www.tuscany.net/booking/bookings.htm (point number 8.)
How do you intend to benefit from the WorldBy.Com model? As hotelier, I like the partnership with WorldBy.Com a lot, and amongst the companies of the Expedia group, we’d love to see more WorldBy philosophy in your Venere and Expedia service in the future.
Congratulations for the acquisition, Venere and WorldBy.Com are really great companies.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Mr. Dara Khosrowshahi
ON April 9, 2009 I booked a vacation with Expedia’s customer service. While discussing the reservation I articulated clearly my requirements(hotel name, location, room type, service type) and paid $4800.00 over the phone with a credit card. Instead of getting my confirmation immediately emailed it took two days for confirmation which was wrong. This EXPEDIA sales agent deceitfully altered my initial and agreed upon reservations. I have emailed 5 times, called corporate, and left a voicemail today April 15, 2009 for Barbara, assistant to Vice President, but got no returned phone call. This is my HONEYMOON and I leave on MAY 18, 2009! I am extremely aggrivated with the lack of compassion and professionalism. IF this doesn’t get resolved by tomorrow I will have an attorney write a letter on my behalf and persue legal action.
Howard Cox
February 9th, 2010 at 11:28 am
I jut want to say that I’m very disappointed with this company. I tried to book a trip and the price changed! Price elevated $628.00 higher then the quoted price. Then I called 1-800## with which I was disappointed as well. It took 30 min for the representative just to take the basic information which I think she was assisting more then 2 customers at the same time. Anyways, then I spoke with the manager of Telesales Dept. Elva , she said that the price changed because of flight updates, which I can try and understand. What happened is that at 1 am when I tried to book the trip for the 1st time it quote me the price $2068.00 and when I tried to book the trip the price changed to $2628.00 because of and update, which I can try and understand as I stated earlier. But what I don’t understand is that after an update how come the price goes back to the same price that was quoted for the first time. When I went back at 3 am (after the update) price quotation was $2068.00 and again I tried to book the trip and price change occured again, and in both websites,expedia.com and hotels.com or should I say the same website. Anyhow if someone can explain to me how this price change is an update other then a scam I would greatly appreciate. Thank You!
March 26th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Unsatisfactory experience with Expedia.
This was my first booking with Expedia. I booked for the Ramada Inn in Oceanside, CA for March 24.
When I arrived at the hotelan hour after the booking, there was no fax or other confirmation sent to the hotel about my arrival. I had to make multiple calls and the hotel was nice and accommodated me without a confirmation in hand.
The Expedia agent I spoke with assured the hotel receptionist that they would receive a fax in the next ‘few minutes’
Next morning, there was still no fax. The receptionist called my room twice, and finally called Expedia yet again and yet again requested a fax.
I dont understand this. Why was a fax or email not sent right away the first time ? Ive booked with Priceline and Orbitz within 15 min from arrival and the front desk had received the reservation on my arrival.
And why again was no fax sent when both I and the hotel receptionist spoke with Expedia and was told we would get it ‘within minutes’ ?
This business is competitive, and with such shoddy performance and lack of attention to such an important step I am considering never to use Expedia again for my travels. With a sold-out hotel and a unfriendly recpetionist I might have had to spend the night in my car.
Please attend to this issue. Looking forward to your reply.
Best Regards,
Taufiq Habib
April 27th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I have the same problem as lule.
Price showed on my itinerary. Then when I went to
book it went higher.
When I went back into the website it showed as the lower price, again when I went to book it showed a higher price.
Is this just a come on scheme?
May 26th, 2010 at 5:35 am
Very disappointed with the way Expedia is handling an itinerary to South Africa for 2010 FIFA World Cup. Less than a month before the event I received a call from an Expidia.com representative informing me about a change affecting my itinerary, which basically read: you will not be able to flight into Johannesburg on the schedule date, which is June 11th, the event’s opening date. “I’m sorry” was the representatives favorite word rather than trying to look for solutions. Expedia along with the airline are about to ruin a US $ 5000 trip and a year’s worth vacations. Im still wating on a resolution that will satisfy my initial travel need.
June 24th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Dear CEO,
I would like to leave in this little space my concerns about the customer service your company is providing. I had a terrible experience with your company and have yet to receive an apology.
I purchased a full package for my mother (who does not speak any English) and my 9 year old son to spend a week in Disneyland, I wanted to make sure all transportation, hotel accommodations, entrances to all the different attraction in Anaheim and LA were covered, I spent a few hours with your agents making sure nothing was missing for them to have a great experience.
Absolutely everything went wrong and my mother had to pay in cash for some of the things that they were paid through your company, why? i still do not understand. Little by little i did receive 3 refunds of some of the mistakes there is one missing…. It is now
one month after the vacation is over and never received an apology, I do want people to know that expedia has a very poor customer service
July 21st, 2010 at 3:10 pm
To avoid answering my question about a refund, you keep asking me for information that I have send at least twice. I have used Expedia several times and spend big bucks but no more. I am done with Expedia.
July 28th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I just had the worrt experience. To make a long horrible story short. Myself my girlfriend and my daughter were in another country with no money and no place to stay. From the beginning i have been misinformed. Not one employee from your agents to your managers gave me what i initially paid for. I had given your company every opportunity to do what is right and no one has. Put yourself in my nine year old daughters shoes imagine being in another country and you don’t speak the language and your parents have no money no place to stay and seeing both your parents upset because of a vacation gone horrible wrong.
August 2nd, 2010 at 7:58 am
i was in the telesales business a few years ago but now i do internet marketing:;-
September 17th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Are you, or do you know who is, responsible for management of River Terrace in Gatlingburg, TN?
That resort is unscrupulios, and I need to communicate with the CEO of the corporation responsible for their management.
September 18th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Dear Mr. Dara Khosrowshahi-hamvetane aziz – I am so disappointed with Expedia and will never, ever book any of my trips with Expedia. I will tell my friends, family and coworkers to never use Expedia. I had such a bad experience with Expedia. Your reps, customer service people are of no help. I had booked a package for 5 member of my family including myself to go to Cancun, since we have to attend a family wedding on December 12th. Our flight was with Mexicana Airling, which filed for chapter 15. As soon as I heard that news, I called Expedia asking for their assistance & advice. Your reps were very rude and of no help. All I received from Expedia was to look for another alternative and no other assistance. I called my credit card company, and Mexicana. I was told by my bank that they could do nothing until they receive Mexicana’s approval for the refund.I practically paid almost $8,000 just for the air fairs for my family and your company did nothing help me with this situation other than being mean and nasty towards my situation. Mr. Khosrowshahi aziz, take some actions towards these problems and hire more experienced reps., otherwise you will lose many other customers and one of them being myself, my friends, my relatives and any other people that I can complain to regarding Expedia.com
c
September 29th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Buyer beware when booking travel plans through Expedia.com, they just took me for $1096.00. Here is how the monster sets it trap; early last winter I planned a family vacation that entailed flying to Phoenix to rent a car and drive southwest to beautiful San Carlos Mexico. In an effort to keep the travel expenses to a minimum the flight was booked months in advance. Of course as the day of departure approached news of violence in the Mexican border towns filled the media. It just didn’t seem practical to put my wife and daughter in possible harm’s way for a vacation, so we changed our destination to Florida. This was still weeks before our scheduled departure to Phoenix. We knew there would be expenses involved in changing our flight plans but we weren’t ready for phase 1 of the Expedia.com monster trap. After hearing all about their terms of service and how there was nothing they could do because United Airlines was the real culprit, the cheapest fair they offered was FOUR TIMES the cost of booking new tickets through United Airlines. So we booked the tickets ourselves directly through United Airlines. Expedia.com explained that we now had a credit with them but it had to be used within the year. So now I was setup for phase 2 of the Expedia.com plan to steal. As the deadline for our credit with Expedia.com came closer my family again decided to travel to Florida. A major part of the decision was based on having the travel expenses somewhat mitigated by the credit with Expedia.com. What a mistake, here is how it worked out; for us to buy brand new tickets for my wife, daughter and I from Southwest Airlines directly (without Expedia involvement) cost right at $1000.00. To utilize my credit with Expedia.com I would have had to pony up an extra $2600.00. That is above the $1096.00 credit! So that’s how Expedia.com stole from me. I gave them $1096.00 in good faith but because of the deteriorating climate in Mexican border towns I felt it was absolutely prudent to change our plans. The dark and monstrous side of Expedia.com sits and waits for victims who need to make a change and when found it pounces without mercy. All the solutions they offered were at FOUR TIMES the fair market value for airline tickets. I gave Expedia.com $1096.00 and received nothing in return, legal or not in my opinion that is at best a very poor way to conduct business and at worst downright theft. Beware of the Expedia.com monster, it’s heart is filled with greed and it is patiently waiting to lure you into its trap.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Dear Sir……………..Do you care at all about these people who have had terrible experiences with Expedia travel? Usually an excellent company with intergiry will respond to problems and try to make them right. This does not appear to be happening. I booked for the first time with Expedia, I had some questions and I have attempted to talk to a human for the ;past three days, without success…. enough already with the canned music and the instructions about how we can access great information on your web site. I stayed on the phone, an average of 45 minutes each time. Why don’t you hire more representatives to help your clients, why don’t you hire people who are capable of helping the clients and why are you not more accessable to the people that matter. THE CLIENTS! I am a retired R.N. specializing in obstetrics, if our hospital handled our clients with less than the optimum in care….. our clients would seek another hospital. You and your company have simply got to do better or your company will fail….. No PHD needed to figure that out……
October 25th, 2010 at 11:08 am
I am from India and kindly note that I booked a ticket on Expedia.com for which I was charged Rs.15,691 (for which a confirmation email was sent). Thereafter I receive an email mentioning that the fare has been hiked and an additional Rs.10,550 needs to be charged.
Thereafter I spoke to the customer service executive who mentioned that around Rs. 26,000 has been charged to my account.
The date of travel is tomorrow – 26th October and I have been put on hold with the customer service executive for the past half an hour.
I know I am not the first person with the same issue. A number of people have blogged about this.
What kind of a fraudulent business model is this?
November 22nd, 2010 at 12:14 am
EXPEDIA is leaving me stranded in Rome. I foolishly let Expedia book round trip shuttle service froim the airport to the hotel and a return trip from the hotel back to the airport. I have had 3 email rejections for my request for interventiion in arrangingfor my return shuttle trilp. The person who answers the shuttle company number keeps hanging up on me. Now Exdpedia says they can’t help because I am emailing them. It seems I now have to call them long distance from Rome back to the US so they can keep me on hold while they “research” my issue. Can we say EXPENSIVE??? ( Not to mention taking valuable time away from my vacation?) CUSTOMER SUPPORT??? Hey,you guys had no problem booking this trip, taking my money and arranging this shuttle ON LINE, and now you’re telling me you can’t help me online? What kind of runaround is this??? I am thoroughly disgusted with Expedia.
January 22nd, 2011 at 11:23 pm
I am extremely dissatisfied with Expedia’s customer service department. I simply wanted to add a car to my travel plan. This is my first and only experience with Expedia. The reps are rude, stay too rigidly to the script, do not answer direct questions and talk to you as if you should be happy they answered the phone! I’m going out of the country with a reservation that scares me senseless. I don’t feel comfortable with what’s going to happen. They selected a user id for me and did not bother to let me know….silly me, I was trying to log in with an ID that I chose. Then they quote their rules to you…as if I worked there or would know it magically on my own. I’m not sure if you ever listen to the calls…if not, you should! Signed, Scared to Travel w/Expedia
March 11th, 2011 at 6:10 am
Well I was called by expedia and told that one leg of my friends flight was cancelled and they could book her on a flight 5 hrs earlier, well this would mean we would have to cancel our events for that morning and change ground travel. Could probably be done, but then I would also be left sititng at the airport until my 430 pm flight. I feel that since I’m having to make all of these changes then expedia should bite the bullet and pay or waive change fees to put me on a morning flight too.
I was on phone and asked for a manager and just now after being on hold for one hour and 11 minutes she said oh thanks for holding I’ll transfer you now and hung up on me. Thanks expedia!. I’ve used expedia for over a decade. My mom died in septemeber and my best friend and I promised her we would take a trip and relax for my birthday, thansk for helping us relax expedia. Thank goodness I do conferences about customer service becasue maybe this can be my next topic. If the CEO can remedy this situation I would be ecstatic!
March 15th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
A friend of mine, too, has had incredibly horrible, time-wasting experiences with customer service at Expedia. Of course, like the rest of you, there was no resolution to the problem. In my life experiences, I have found that a complaint letter sent directly to the HOME address of the CEO generally gets results. Finding Mr. Khosrowshahi was unusually difficult but, using public records available on the internet, I managed to get two very likely addresses for him. You may want to send your complaints to both addresses.
1910 15th Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98112
1212 39th Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98112.
Good luck!
March 21st, 2011 at 3:07 pm
I want to take the survey on your customer service.
I called Expedia, told them this; was told they would send and I never received it.
I have plenty to say about “refundable tickets”, cancelation fees, change of flight without e-mailing me, difficulty understanding non-americans.
April 26th, 2011 at 2:36 am
Very bad experience with this Co. Booked a flight and was told by email a day later that it wwas not booked. Rebooked the flight and found out that I was charged for the first booking. Have been trying to get a credit on my credit card for over a week now with no results. Was assured by one rep that it will be taken care of. No satisfaction yet. You’re right, half the time can’t understand the reps on the phone with heavy accents!! You can be sure Expedia will not get my business again!!
May 11th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Congrats Dara! I as in Iranian am proud of him.
Wish always the best for such Iranian brilliant persons. God bless you!
موفق و پیروز باشی
July 7th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
never never use expedia..ruined our family vacation for our disneyland adventure …on phone for 12 hours or more off and on..never resoved the issue..but got alot of people who do not speak good english..sorry being one they say alot..and just loop you around..disgusting ..i think it is an example how america can fix itself stop out sourcing..expedia is a prime example..please do not ever use them..a fity dollar voucher for next travel on expedia does not cut it..once you have to deal with a serious problem and find out their is no one on the other end really would you do it again..pass on do not deal with expedia.for anything…
Comments on Twitter
May 4th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
@Expedia http://www.venere.com/blog/dara-khosrowshahi-interview/ April 26th, 2011 at 2:36 am Very bad experience with this co.
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