Priceline is launching its first U.S. ad campaign for Booking.com, its European hotel website.
The campaign, titled “Booking.yeah,” includes television and online advertisements as well as movie-theater placements. Booking.com lists more than 265,000 lodging properties in 178 countries.
Priceline's overseas businesses such as Booking.com and Agoda enabled it to surpass Expedia’s worldwide sales in 2010. Now, Priceline is looking to gain ground on its competitors in the U.S.
For the first half of last year, Priceline accounted for about 11% of OTA bookings by U.S. travelers, about a quarter of Expedia’s domestic market share, according to travel research firm PhoCusWright. Orbitz and Travelocity had about a 20% and a 16% share, respectively.
Priceline acquired Amsterdam-based Booking.com in 2005 for about $133 million.
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