Expedia has announced that it would be laying off almost 3,000 employees globally, including 500 from its brand new Seattle headquarters.
Online travel giant Expedia has committed to a restructuring effort designed to simplify the company’s businesses and improve operational efficiencies and it will eliminate 12% of its workforce or around 3,000 jobs.
In an email sent to staff on Monday, an executive from Expedia Group’s “Travel Leadership Team” said the company had been “pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way,” echoing comments made by Diller earlier this month following its fourth-quarter earnings report.
Expedia said at the time that it was targeting $300 to $500 million of annual cost savings, but hadn’t previously announced explicit plans for job cuts.
Expedia will begin laying off individual employees this week in some regions. In other areas where the leadership has less clarity on its simplification strategy, the company plans to consult with employees and their representatives to discuss reduction proposals. A company spokesperson also said Expedia will reduce its use of vendors and contractors.
Expedia opened its new Seattle campus last October, with 4,500 employees initially slated to occupy the space. The campus was also built with room for an additional 1,800 people, and the company had reportedly hoped to double its local staff by 2031.
Expedia is one of the leading online travel portals in Asia, offering travellers an extensive selection of hotels, activities and travel services to meet every budget and activities of every kind at competitive rates. With hundreds of thousands of hotel partners worldwide and a comprehensive offering of flight inventory made available on the website, travellers can book everything they need for a holiday – rooms to meet every budget, activities of every kind and travel services to complement.
Expedia was run by Dara Khosrowshahi for more than a decade before the executive defected to Uber in mid-2017.
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