To build brand awareness and increase revenue, your hotel ads or airline ads need to stand out from the competition — especially when demand is high surrounding highly anticipated events. From football games to concerts, you can show up higher in relevant search results by using sponsored listings to reach passionate, engaged fans when they’re looking to book.

Our sponsored listings advertising tools can help you capture demand and turn experiences into advertising opportunities. In fact, our data shows that hotels and airlines saw significant boosts in bookings and revenue during major events in 2023 when using these tools to increase visibility.

Boosting your visibility to potential customers

TravelAds Sponsored Listings and Flight Sponsored Listings are advertising tools that help you improve your position in search results and get your listings noticed. To reach our more than 10 million average daily visitors, sponsored listings allow lodging and airline partners to appear higher in search results across Expedia Group brands.1

Attract travelers with more visible hotel ads

TravelAds is our powerful pay-per-click advertising solution that helps hotels boost their brand awareness and connects them with travelers who are ready to book. Combined with our first-party traveler intent data, your property can use TravelAds to drive demand and maximize your hotel ads.

Keep reading to see some ways hotel partners used TravelAds in 2023 to benefit from increased interest during major events.

TravelAds helped hotels increase revenue around big events

The ball is in your court

  • Hotels using TravelAds in the surrounding area of Wimbledon, London, saw an average boost in revenue of almost 30% last summer during the tennis tournament that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators each year.2 Imperial London Hotels used TravelAds to drive demand, resulting in almost 30% of their total Expedia-booked room nights during the event coming from the sponsored listing tool.3

Tour tourism drives bookings

  • Local markets near Taylor Swift’s tour locations saw a significant boost in their economies, including her homecoming stop in Nashville in May 2023. To capture travelers’ attention during this highly competitive moment, Nashville hotels that ran TravelAds campaigns for stays during her Nashville concert saw an average boost of 5% in both revenue and bookings.4
  • When Taylor Swift’s 2024 tour schedule was announced for Asia and Australia, travel searches increased by over 250% year over year for the corresponding tour cities. Similarly, when the 2024 European tour dates were announced, travel searches for May to August 2024 increased by nearly 65% for cities with corresponding tour stops.5
Unpack ‘24 report, and 40% of survey respondents say they’d travel for a concert as an excuse to visit a new place.6

Helping hotel partners score a touchdown

  • During the 2023 Super Bowl, hotels using TravelAds in Phoenix saw an average boost in revenue of more than 15% over the weekend.7 Hotels in Las Vegas saw an average 5% boost in revenue during Super Bowl 2024 when running a TravelAds campaign over that weekend.8

TravelAds features that help increase visibility

TravelAds is already a budget-friendly way to stand out, and our newly launched automated bidding feature removes the guesswork from campaign setup and keeps you competitive by dynamically adjusting your bids based on your market goal preference and budget. Through the opportunities feature, you can access personalized and actionable data-backed opportunities and insights to help refine your advertising strategy and drive incremental room nights and revenue.

Another way that TravelAds helps you reach your goals is through precise targeting. TravelAds targeting is based on real-time travel intent and demand data, helping partners identify the most valuable travelers for their hotel. Whether it’s targeting remote workers for longer stays or last-minute bookers, we work with partners to understand their unique needs. With the shift to a world without third-party cookies, our exclusive first-party data means partners can continue to get their message to the right audience at the right point in a traveler’s journey.

How boosting your visibility supports your airline marketing efforts

With over 300 million average monthly searches for flights on Expedia Group sites, airlines need to stand out among the competition if they want to increase brand awareness and revenue.9 Airlines can drive ticket sales and promote strategic routes using Flight Sponsored Listings, our cost-per-click advertising tool. With Flight Sponsored Listings, your airline can secure a premium position in search results and use custom copy to encourage travelers to book.

Our airline partners used Flight Sponsored Listings in 2023 to benefit from increased interest during major events and seasonal moments:

  • Racing to glory: When fans of Formula 1 traveled to Las Vegas, a U.S.-based regional airline saw an opportunity to promote its Dallas to Las Vegas route via Flight Sponsored Listings to help harness demand from Texas fans. The advertising tool drove almost a 30% increase in revenue and contributed to over 20% of bookings for flights between November 15-19, 2023.10
  • Expanding horizons: Etihad Airways helped American tourists go beyond their typical winter escapes to locations farther from home in both Abu Dhabi and the Maldives. Using Flight Sponsored Listings, Etihad saw bookings from the U.S. to both destination airports increase by almost 5%, which resulted in a 30% boost in gross bookings.11

Our first-party data reveals 2024’s top trending global flight routes based on the increase in demand compared to last year. According to Unpack ‘24, the No.1 jump was Los Angeles to Tokyo, up 430%, followed by Perth to Bali, up 350%.12

We’re here to help you stay competitive and stand out. As experts in the travel advertising space, we bring you the latest insights and tools to get you to the right traveler at the right time and through the right channel.

Get started

1. Expedia Group internal data, 2023, identified and anonymous visitors. 2. Compared to hotels in the same market not using TravelAds. 3. Stays at Imperial Hotels, London UK, between July 3-16, 2023. 4. Compared to year over year, May 5-7, 2023. 5. For February to March 2024. 6. Unpack ’24, Expedia Group, 2023. 7. Compared to hotels in the same market not using TravelAds. 8. Compared to hotels in the same market not using TravelAds. 9. Expedia Group internal data, Q1 2023. 10. Compared to non-FSL tickets sold. 11. Flights booked from Oct 1, 2023-Feb 23, 2024, compared to Oct 1, 2022-Feb 23, 2023. 12. Unpack ’24, Expedia Group, 2023.

About Expedia Group Media Solutions

Expedia Group Media Solutions is the world's leading travel media network. We connect advertisers with hundreds of millions of travelers across the globe. Our exclusive first-party data on traveler trends, search behavior, and booking data provides travel marketers with unique insights to inform their strategies. We offer a full-funnel suite of solutions to help you convert travelers, and our digital experts can help you create advertising campaigns that deliver.

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