Expedia Ends Nov. 9 Session at $259.16 as Claims About Odisia Circulate
Key Facts
Expedia shares closed at $259.16 in the Nov. 9 session, down from $259.24 in the Nov. 6 session, according to EL7 data. The close came as news briefs circulated claims that OpenAI had acquired travel platform Odisia, but the deal could not be verified through a credible open source. The three companies’ shares showed no uniform direction during the session: Booking Holdings rose to $163.49 from $160.67, and Airbnb climbed to $190.29 from $189.99. The closing prices show that Expedia posted a slight decline, while the other two shares ended the session higher. These figures alone therefore do not establish that the acquisition claims pushed travel stocks in one direction.
Odisia is linked to the circulating claims about an OpenAI deal, but the related material could not be accessed through a credible source to verify its details. In the context of the company’s use of technology, Agoda said in an announcement dated Oct. 30 that its AI assistant had expanded to users in 21 markets. The assistant was launched in a limited test during September before its availability was expanded. Agoda said the assistant combines conversational trip planning with its live travel inventory. It said the assistant’s core conversational intelligence runs on OpenAI models, a technology relationship cited in the announcement alongside the geographic expansion. The announcement does not mention an OpenAI acquisition of Agoda or a travel platform.
The inventory Agoda said was available through the assistant includes more than 6 million travel services, including accommodations, flights, tours, attractions and supporting services. The company’s app also offers more than 130,000 flight routes, along with more than 300,000 activities. These figures place the assistant among trip-planning and booking tools connected to the platform’s existing inventory. The announcement relies on the company’s description of its services and app capabilities, without linking them to an ownership transfer or a deal with OpenAI. Agoda’s expansion comes as Expedia is also developing AI-based tools for trip planning and booking. Expedia had previously announced its acquisition of AI-based trip-planning and booking platform Layla.
Expedia announced its acquisition of Layla on July 31, 2026, without disclosing the terms of the deal. The announcement was part of the company’s stated strategy to accelerate the development of AI-powered trip planning and booking. On Oct. 28, Expedia announced more than 30 new and enhanced features across its Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo brands. The updates included natural-language search and a new activity-planning tool on Expedia. These features span planning and booking, while Agoda’s announcement offers another example of a conversational assistant connected to booking inventory. The moves come in a market where investors have differing views on whether AI tools will bring new customers to travel platforms or change how they reach booking.
Expedia’s third-quarter results offer a parallel operational picture of this technology expansion. Gross bookings totaled $34.008 billion, up 11% year over year, while revenue rose to $4.938 billion, up 12%. Room nights booked reached 115.7 million, up 7% from the same period a year earlier. Within the total, gross bookings in the business-to-business segment grew 19%, compared with 7% growth in consumer bookings. Chief Executive Ariane Gorin said the company “exceeded the high end of its expectations during the quarter, reflecting resilient travel demand and strong execution.” The company raised its full-year revenue guidance, indicating that quarterly results and observed demand supported its updated outlook.
Expedia raised its 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $16.37 billion to $16.43 billion, from a previous range of $16.05 billion to $16.22 billion. By contrast, it set its fourth-quarter revenue outlook at between $3.69 billion and $3.75 billion. This account balances companies’ interest in expanding their presence in AI tools against the limited effect such visits had on Expedia bookings up to that point. The available facts do not show whether the expansion of conversational assistants will change that effect later. The raised annual guidance, alongside the fourth-quarter outlook, remains among the company’s key disclosed indicators of expected performance.
Against the backdrop of the relationship between travel platforms and AI tools, travel stocks rose on March 5 after a report said OpenAI was scaling back plans to integrate direct bookings into ChatGPT. Expedia shares rose more than 12% at the time, while Booking Holdings gained 8% and Tripadvisor rose 5%, according to a Reuters report carried by Investing.com. A Bernstein analyst said the shift could allow Booking and Expedia to reach consumers through AI platforms and reduce the risk of disintermediation. Those moves relate to the March session and the report about direct-booking plans; they do not establish the cause of share-price moves in the November session. The next announced milestone for Expedia shareholders is a quarterly cash dividend of $0.48 per share. The dividend will be paid on Dec. 10, 2026, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Nov. 18, according to the company’s announcement.