Expedia

Expedia.com became the latest online travel agency to woo gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender globetrotters with its May launch of its LGBT travel site (www.expedia.com/daily/gaytravel). The site includes travel guides to popular gay destinations, a festival and event calendar, and a searchable list of “LGBT-welcoming’’ hotels around the world. As of last week, the directory included 842 hotels. Only 14 New England hotels were listed, including the Almondy Inn in Newport, R.I., and the Comfort Inn in Killington, Vt. Besides two places to stay in Provincetown (Revere Guest House and...

TripAdvisor Inc., the Newton-based online travel-recommendation and booking service spun off from Expedia Inc. in December, soared the most in five months after quarterly sales and profit exceeded some analysts' estimates. The stock, up 69 percent this year, was the top performer on the S&P 500 Wednesday. Profit excluding certain items was 38 cents a share. Revenue rose to $183.7 million.

NEW YORK — Expedia has been making American Airlines flights and fares harder to find on its website since the airline pulled its listing off Orbitz, a rival. Expedia, an online travel site, said it “cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers.’’ It’s moving American’s options from the first page of search results; they are now visible only after both a departure and return flight are selected. Expedia said the airline’s move to pull its fares from Orbitz will result in higher ticket prices and make it harder for consumers to find deals.

Expedia Inc. gained 5.8 percent to reach its highest stock price since at least 2005. The online travel company rallied for a second day after saying on April 26 that first-quarter profit and revenue topped analysts' estimates, driven by growth in the Hotels.com unit, which has websites in more than 60 countries. The Bellevue, Wash., company's operating income was up 38 percent from a year earlier.

Expedia Inc. gained 5.8 percent to reach its highest stock price since at least 2005. The online travel company rallied for a second day after saying on April 26 that first-quarter profit and revenue topped analysts' estimates, driven by growth in the Hotels.com unit, which has websites in more than 60 countries. The Bellevue, Wash., company's operating income was up 38 percent from a year earlier.

NEW YORK — US Airways said yesterday it has signed a deal with Expedia that will keep its flights and fares on the online booking site for at least the next several years, less than a month after Expedia pulled American Airlines fares. The Tempe, Ariz., airline will offer all of its content to Expedia, Hotwire, and Egencia sites through a global distribution system model, a central reservation system which is used by travel agencies to search and book travel. Airlines pay a commission every time people search for a flight, look up a fare, or book a trip on a site like Expedia.

The president of Expedia.com, the online travel agency, says consumers don't need a one-stop shop for travel. What consumers want in a travel website, said Steven McArthur, is a large selection of air and hotel offerings at competitive prices. "No retailer is a one-stop shop," he said. "It isn't necessary for us to have 100 percent of the brands available in a given market. " He is right about retailers, but most consumers don't view travel agents as retailers. Consumers hire travel agents as their representatives to search the best deals from all the options out there.

Expedia's spin-off of TripAdvisor as a separately traded, independent company was complete Wednesday, with TripAdvisor shares sinking about 5 percent. Expedia shareholders received one share of TripAdvisor and one share of Expedia for every two shares of Expedia they held at the close of trading Tuesday. Expedia lost about half their value and were trading at $28.02, which was more of a technicality after splitting the company. TripAdvisor shares cost $28.73 each. Expedia Inc. first said in April it planned to spin off TripAdvisor, which...

TripAdvisor Inc. will become an independent company this week when its parent, Expedia Inc., spins off the Newton-based travel service. Expedia will cease to have any ownership interest in TripAdvisor. For the past two weeks, TripAdvisor has been trading under the symbol TRIPV on the Nasdaq stock market. Starting this week, the new company will trade as TRIP. TripAdvisor will remain in Newton. Expedia Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Founded in 2000, TripAdvisor offers travel information, airline ticketing, and hotel and rental car reservations.

Online travel website Expedia Inc. raised its forecast after second-quarter earnings of 55 cents a share beat average estimates by 12 percent, according to Bloomberg. Expedia said net income in the period came to $140.4 million. That beat the 49 cents that analysts polled by FactSet expected, on average. Revenue grew 23 percent to $1.02 billion, besting forecasts of $965 million. Executives said they expect operating earnings to rise by a "mid-to-high single digit" percentage from last year, slightly more optimistic.

Stocks climbed as investors weighed higher corporate profits against disappointing economic news. Amazon jumped after the online retailer reported a big increase in shipments. And online travel company Expedia rose on results that beat estimates. But a report that the US economy grew slower than expected tempered gains. European markets also rose.

Its stock pummeled after reporting disappointing profit numbers, its reputation for the truth under attack, the travel review site TripAdvisor Inc. has had a tough first two months as a public company. And now Google is ramping up the competition. Fifty million people a month visit Newton-based TripAdvisor to discover which hotel is "disgustingly filthy," as one user called a Cape Cod motor court, or "impeccable," a compliment for a historic Boston inn. With 1,200 employees worldwide, and 500 in Massachusetts, TripAdvisor is the Boston area's largest consumer Internet company.

LONDON - TripAdvisor must stop claiming that all reviews on its British travel site were written by independent travelers - and are therefore reliable - a regulator said. The Advertising Standards Authority said claims on TripAdvisor.co.uk, including "reviews you can trust" and "more than 50 million honest travel reviews and opinions from real travelers," were misleading. The agency said it is possible some reviews were submitted by people who were trying to influence customers' choices.

Newton-based TripAdvisor Inc., the world's largest travel site, was raised to "buy" from "underperform" by Bank of America analysts. They say the company's fourth-quarter earnings report should give a clearer picture of the newly public company. TripAdvisor was spun off last month by Expedia Inc. to be a stand-alone company. With 1,172 employees and $486 million in 2010 revenue, TripAdvisor is the biggest consumer Internet company in the Boston area.

Travel website TripAdvisor Inc. received a tepid welcome on Wall Street yesterday, with shares falling 8.5 percent to $27.67 on the day after it was spun off as a stand-alone, company by former parent Expedia Inc. "The stock got off to a rocky start," said Carroll Rheem, an analyst at the travel industry research firm PhoCusWright Inc. in Sherman, Conn. TripAdvisor, which was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Newton, claims to be the largest travel site in the world, hosting millions of reviews generated by users and members.

Expedia's spin-off of TripAdvisor as a separately traded, independent company was complete Wednesday, with TripAdvisor shares sinking about 5 percent. Expedia shareholders received one share of TripAdvisor and one share of Expedia for every two shares of Expedia they held at the close of trading Tuesday. Expedia lost about half their value and were trading at $28.02, which was more of a technicality after splitting the company. TripAdvisor shares cost $28.73 each. Expedia Inc. first said in April it planned to spin off TripAdvisor, which lets travelers post advice and...

TripAdvisor, the Newton travel website, said it has bought Chicago’s Where I’ve Been LLC for an undisclosed amount. Where I’ve Been is a travel website and social platform that lets users share where they’ve been, lived, and want to go. TripAdvisor said the site’s “Facebook application has allowed 10 million people to create color coded travel maps, ‘pinning off’ close to half a billion places.’’ In April, TripAdvisor’s corporate...

NEW YORK - Expedia Inc., the online travel agency, said it will appeal a judge's order to pay $184.5 million in a case in which it was accused of inflating tax charges on hotel bookings and adding extra service fees. Expedia received the order from Washington state court in Seattle on Friday, the company said yesterday in a regulatory filing. "Because we believe that the court's decision is inconsistent with both the facts and the law, we will vigorously pursue our rights on appeal," Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia said in the filing.

TripAdvisor Inc. will become an independent company this week when parent firm Expedia Inc. spins off the Newton-based travel service. Upon completion of the spin-off, Expedia will cease to have any ownership interest in TripAdvisor. For the last two weeks, TripAdvisor has been trading under the symbol "TRIPV" on the Nasdaq stock market. This week, the new company will start trading under the symbol "TRIP. " TripAdvisor will continue to be based in Newton, and Expedia Inc. will remain headquartered in Bellevue, Wash.

TripAdvisor Inc. will become an independent company this week when its parent, Expedia Inc., spins off the Newton-based travel service. Expedia will cease to have any ownership interest in TripAdvisor. For the past two weeks, TripAdvisor has been trading under the symbol TRIPV on the Nasdaq stock market. Starting this week, the new company will trade as TRIP. TripAdvisor will remain in Newton. Expedia Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Founded in 2000, TripAdvisor offers travel information, airline ticketing, and hotel and rental car reservations.