Expedia Q3 2026 Earnings: What Vrbo Hosts Learned

Expedia Group reported third quarter 2026 results after the market closed on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, the last of the three big booking platform parents to report that week. The press release filed with the SEC shows gross bookings of $34,008 million, up 11% from a year earlier, revenue of $4,938 million, up 12%, and full year gross bookings guidance raised from $129.5 billion to $130.8 billion up to $131.4 billion to $131.9 billion.

For a Vrbo host the headline numbers are the least useful part of the filing. The call was the first time Expedia management faced investors since Vrbo moved every pay-per-booking host to a single 12% commission on October 29, 2026, and the first time anyone asked on the record what that change does to the company's take rate. CEO Ariane Gorin's answer, per the call transcript, was that the company does not expect it to affect the overall take rate. That sentence says more about the new fee than the September announcement did, and this post explains what it implies, why Vrbo is absent from the results, and what a softer fourth quarter means for a listing just repriced for 12%.

Key facts

• Expedia Group's Q3 2026 gross bookings were $34,008 million, up 11% year over year, and revenue was $4,938 million, up 12%, according to the release filed November 4, 2026.
• Lodging gross bookings grew 10% to $24,875 million and booked room nights grew 7% to 115.7 million in the same release.
• B2C gross bookings (the consumer brands, including Vrbo) grew 7% to $22,862 million; B2B gross bookings grew 19% to $11,146 million.
• Expedia guided fourth quarter 2026 gross bookings to $27.9 billion to $28.4 billion, growth of 3.3% to 5.2%, and CFO Derek Andersen named the U.S. election cycle among the reasons for a softer quarter on the November 4 call.
• Asked about the Vrbo host fee change, Gorin said on the same call: "We do not expect that to impact the take rate all up."

Where Vrbo sits in these numbers

Expedia reports two main segments. B2C is the consumer business, the Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo brands where travelers book directly. B2B supplies Expedia's inventory to partners such as airlines, banks and offline travel agents who sell it under their own brands.

Vrbo lives inside B2C, and B2C was the slower half: B2C gross bookings of $22,862 million grew 7% while B2B gross bookings of $11,146 million grew 19%, and on revenue the gap is 6% against 23%. B2C still carried 67.2% of gross bookings ($22,862 million divided by $34,008 million), but the fastest growth is in a channel no individual host participates in. Gorin told investors that "Expedia remains our fastest growing brand"; Vrbo was not described as a growth leader at any point.

The word Vrbo appears twice in the release, both times in boilerplate describing the brand portfolio. There is no Vrbo gross bookings figure, no Vrbo room nights figure and no vacation rental growth rate in the document. Lodging gross bookings grew 10%, but lodging is 73.1% of all gross bookings ($24,875 million divided by $34,008 million) and includes every hotel room sold through Expedia, Hotels.com and B2B. A host cannot read Vrbo demand off this filing in either direction; a pacing report is the better signal.

"We do not expect that to impact the take rate"

What take rate means

Take rate is the share of each booking the platform keeps as revenue. Expedia's release calls it revenue margin, revenue as a percentage of gross bookings: $4,938 million over $34,008 million is 14.52% in Q3 2026, against $4,412 million over $30,727 million, or 14.36%, in Q3 2025. That is a blended ratio across hotels and rentals, consumer and wholesale, for a quarter that ended September 30, 2026, a month before the Vrbo change took effect. Nothing in the Q3 numbers reflects the 12% commission yet. A flat company take rate would also match the longer record: Expedia, Airbnb and Booking Holdings kept revenue-to-gross-bookings ratios roughly stable from FY2021 through FY2025 while the businesses grew.

How a host fee can rise while the take rate stays flat

Before October 29, 2026, a pay-per-booking host paid Vrbo 5% commission plus 3% payment processing, about 8% in total, and a host connected through property management software paid 5%, according to RentalScaleUp and Skift. Expedia's October 1, 2026 announcement says those hosts now pay "a flat 12% commission fee on bookings, which includes payment processing fees," that "payment processing fees are going away for hosts who are on Vrbo's merchant of record," and that rates range "from 12-15%" by region and brand.

On a $1,000 booking (nightly rate plus cleaning fee, the base Vrbo's help center says the commission applies to), the host side of Vrbo's cut went from $80 to $120, a 50% increase in the fee. For Expedia's total share of that booking to stay flat, the traveler side has to give back roughly what the host side added. The October 1 announcement says as much in softer words: Vrbo "does not disclose its traveler service fee range," but "the traveler service fee will typically be lower" and will be priced "dynamically based on market conditions." Skift reported the pre-change guest fee at 11% to 14%.

So the plain translation of "no impact on the take rate" is that Expedia expects the money to move from the traveler's line to the host's line, not to grow as a share of the booking. That is a company-level statement and says nothing about any one host's net. If you did not change your rates on October 29, your payout on each new booking fell and the traveler's total fell by a similar amount: you funded a price cut for Vrbo's guests. If you raised rates to hold your payout, the traveler pays roughly what they paid before, split differently. Expedia has not published a new guest fee level, so this reading is an inference from the take rate comment and the newsroom FAQ, labeled as one.

The arithmetic lives in our October 29 repricing guide, with the merchant-of-record detail in what the 12% includes. The short version: holding net from the old 8% on a $1,000 booking means $920 divided by 0.88, or $1,045.45, a 4.55% increase; a software-connected host coming from 5% needs $950 divided by 0.88, or $1,079.55, a 7.95% increase. Adding 4% or 7% does not get there, because the commission is taken from the new, higher price.

Gorin framed the change as "about simplifying things for travelers" and said that "across the industry, we are all getting closer to similar structures," a description of Airbnb's single host-only fee.

The Q4 slowdown and what it means for repriced listings

Gross bookings grew 11% in the third quarter. The fourth quarter range of $27.9 billion to $28.4 billion is growth of 3.3% to 5.2% over a Q4 2025 base of roughly $27.0 billion ($27.9 billion divided by 1.033). Andersen gave three reasons: "a softer operating environment in Q4," lapping "B2B partner promotional activity in the prior year," and "the timing of our fall sale, which pulled demand into Q3 of this year." The softer environment "reflects several factors, including the U. S. Election cycle, and ongoing geopolitical events driving travel disruptions across EMEA."

For a host, the timing matters more than the number. The fourth quarter is the first full quarter at 12% commission, and the parent company has told investors to expect the slowest growth of the year in the same window, so a listing repriced on October 29 is being tested against softer demand than existed when the increase was planned. That fee season is also the one in the 2027 vacation rental industry outlook: more of the managers surveyed plan to rely more on booking platforms than plan to step back.

Judge the repricing against the same weeks last year, not against a third quarter Expedia called "stronger than expected." If pacing is behind, the first lever is minimum stay and gap-night rules, not the nightly rate you set to cover the commission; undoing the 4.55% or 7.95% increase hands the fee back to Vrbo and leaves you with the lower payout anyway.

Vrbo's AI is now handling 15% of support contacts

Gorin said in her prepared remarks: "In servicing, we released our new agentic experience on Vrbo, And already in the first 2 months, it is effectively resolving over 15% of inbound contacts. Driving higher satisfaction scores at a lower cost." Agentic here means software that resolves the request itself rather than routing it to a person. More guest contacts are now closed before a Vrbo employee sees them, which matters most for disputes with money attached: cancellations, refunds and the payment-timing questions that come with Reserve Now, Pay Later, which Gorin said the company "recently launched" across all of its brands.

Expedia's release on the Vrbo version, dated November 2, 2026, says a traveler can confirm an eligible rental with $0 due at booking and the card "is charged automatically seven days before the property's free-cancellation deadline." If the charge fails, "Vrbo retries the payment for two days, then gives travelers up to four days to update their payment information," and a reservation still unpaid 12 hours before that deadline is canceled with the dates reopened. The release promises "no changes to host payouts or performance metrics" and describes no host opt out. The refund clocks that run when one of those reservations cancels are in our Vrbo host refund policy.

Sponsored listings and advertising

Andersen confirmed that "advertising did see a deceleration in the quarter," adding, "We grew 13 points last quarter, 7 in the most recent," and, "We expanded our sponsored listings offering to Vrbo this year." The release puts Expedia Group advertising and media revenue at $206 million against $194 million a year earlier. Paid placement on Vrbo is now a line in the parent's growth plan on top of the 12% commission; the cost per booked night of bidding for a slot is worked through in our Vrbo sponsored listings analysis.

What to do this week

Pull the first bookings taken on or after October 29, 2026 and check the payout line against the price you set. The 12% should apply to the nightly rate plus mandatory host fees such as cleaning and pet fees, and not to taxes or refundable deposits, per Vrbo's pay-per-booking help page, which also says a host paid through their own processor still pays that processor's fee.

Compare fourth quarter pacing to the same dates in 2025, and treat softness as partly market-wide, since the platform's parent has guided to it. Do not count a Reserve Now, Pay Later reservation as revenue until the card is charged.

Finally, keep a channel running that does not reprice itself. Haven builds branded direct booking websites on a host's own domain, charges no booking commission, keeps the guest relationship and guest data with the host, and syncs calendars with leading property management systems and OTA calendars. The details are at bookwithhaven.com.

FAQ

What did Expedia report for Q3 2026?

Expedia Group reported third quarter 2026 gross bookings of $34,008 million, up 11%, revenue of $4,938 million, up 12%, and adjusted EBITDA of $1,689 million, up 17%, in a release filed with the SEC on November 4, 2026. Lodging gross bookings grew 10% and booked room nights grew 7% to 115.7 million.

Did Expedia say anything about Vrbo's 12% commission?

Yes. Asked on the November 4, 2026 call how the host fee change affects the take rate, CEO Ariane Gorin said, "We do not expect that to impact the take rate all up." Expedia's announcement says the traveler service fee "will typically be lower," which is how a 12% host commission can leave the company's share of a booking unchanged.

Why does Expedia not report Vrbo bookings separately?

Expedia reports by segment, B2C and B2B, and by lodging versus non-lodging, not by brand. Vrbo is one of Expedia's three flagship consumer brands inside B2C, and the Q3 2026 release mentions it only in boilerplate, so hosts cannot measure Vrbo demand from the filing.

Is Expedia expecting travel demand to slow in Q4 2026?

Relative to the third quarter, yes. Expedia guided fourth quarter gross bookings to $27.9 billion to $28.4 billion, growth of 3.3% to 5.2%, after 11% growth in Q3. CFO Derek Andersen cited a softer operating environment including the U.S. election cycle, lapping prior-year B2B promotions, and a fall sale that pulled demand into the third quarter.