Expedia Group CEO Mark Okerstrom said expanding HomeAway and VRBO inventory into international markets will come with challenges.
Speaking on the company's Q1 earnings call on Thursday, in response to an analyst's question, Okerstrom said there are a number of hurdles to overcome in expanding stock of alternative accommodations internationally.
"I would say that, generally, everything outside of the U.S. is harder than the U.S., and I think we learned this very early in our core OTA business that being multi-language, being multi-currency is a little bit more challenging," Okerstrom said.
Expedia also faces more established competition elsewhere in the world, he said, whereas in the U.S., HomeAway and VRBO are among the first and strongest alternative accommodations brands.
However, Expedia does see opportunity internationally, and said the company is seeing "some nice growth" in international markets.
Okerstrom also responded to reports of Airbnb testing the elimination of guest fees. In the long run, he predicted that monetization would shift more toward suppliers as the overlap between properties among various players like HomeAway and Airbnb grows.
Right now, approximately 175,000 alternative accommodations from HomeAway are featured on other Expedia Group sites. Around 25,000 of those were added in the first quarter (Expedia's total lodging portfolio has more than 665,000 properties).
The availability of alternative accommodations on other Expedia brands, like Expedia.com, Orbitz and Travelocity is "not yet at a point where it's a big driver for us," Okerstrom said, as Expedia looks to optimize things like search and sort order.
"It's still in the early stages, I would say, but we are optimistic that it's going to be a nice driver for us," he said.
An analyst asked why Expedia doesn't ramp up the pace of adding alternative accommodations on its sites. Okerstrom said an "operational gate" is blocking that from happening. For instance, hosts and property managers need to do a lot of work on their end to ensure pricing is accurate, and many alternative accommodation owners are used to charging by the week, whereas that needs to be translated into daily rates.
"We'll get there," he said. "It's just a matter of a lot of sausage-making, as we like to say."
For the first quarter of 2018, Expedia reported a 15% year-over-year revenue increase to $2.5 billion. Net loss was $137 million, increased 60% year over year; in the first quarter of 2017, net loss had been $86 million.