The past few years have been active ones for metasearch. Priceline’s acquisition of Kayak in late 2012 spurred a series of investments by OTAs in their own metasearch brands, according to Phocuswright’s European Online Travel Overview Tenth Edition. Expedia announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Trivago soon after Priceline’s purchase of Kayak, and smaller OTA brands followed suit, beginning with eDreams Odigeo’s purchase of Liligo from French rail company SNCF in September 2013.
In December 2013, Bravofly Rumbo Group purchased French metasearch site Jetcost. U.K.-based flight-focused meta brand Skyscanner is still building a strong position without OTA investment. The company achieved nearly 100% growth in turnover in 2013. Other niche metasearch players also reported solid gains for the year, including holiday search engine Travelsupermarket, whose yearly revenue increased 35%. Other metasearch leaders include Momondo in Northern Europe and Rastreator in Spain.
Current metasearch marketplace
There’s still plenty of room for brands that have captured a unique audience or niche in the €44 billion European OTA marketplace. The air-centric (and far different from Booking.com) eDreams ODIGEO and Bravofly Rumbo Group both rode a wave of optimism around their IPOs last year, but their stock prices have lagged amid intense competition. Other regional OTAs with a big presence in Europe are Unister, Hotel.de (HRS) and Travel Republic. Strong local brands include Atrapalo (Spain), Karavel/Promovacances (France) and On the Beach (UK). Even rail-centric OTAs such as Loco2 have found a niche and are gaining momentum. And in a fast-growing, specialized market like Russia, local OTAs such as Oktogo and OneTwoTrip continue to build traction.
Metasearch in Europe
There’s little doubt that consolidation has taken its toll on European brands. Power is dispersed among a few players and the big are getting bigger. Priceline’s Booking.com continues to tear up Europe, albeit at a slower pace than the past several years. Expedia is less than half the size in Europe but growing at a healthy clip, and will soon add Orbitz’ ebookers to its portfolio. These top two global brands represent 60% of all European OTA gross bookings. They are followed by eDreams ODIGEO and Bravofly, the latter of which acquired lastminute.com from Sabre in late 2014.
Changes in recent years
Just five years ago, the top four European OTAs represented 45% of the marketplace. In 2014, that number swelled to 70%. At Phocuswright Europe (12-14 May 2015, Dublin) watch some of Europe’s biggest names in metasearch debate what’s next in this part of the travel distribution environment as it moves toward greater consolidation. During the Executive Roundtable Heavy Meta, four companies discuss online travel agencies’ acquisitions of local brands and two of the major competitors, KAYAK and Trivago, pulling away from the competition.
In addition to hearing the latest Phocuswright research and debates on the hottest issues in travel, attending Phocuswright Europe places you in close proximity to the continent’s travel, tourism and hospitality pioneers. No other European conference gives you the quality of networking opportunities in such an intimate setting. Join the conversation.