Ariane Gorin took over as CEO of Expedia Group in May 2024 after more than a decade at the company. She stepped in at an interesting time, as AI reshapes how people search for vacation destinations, book hotels, and plan their itineraries.
We spoke to Gorin about how she’s future-proofing her brands — Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo — with splashy strategic partnerships, how she approaches leading a Fortune 500 company, and her advice for women looking to climb the corporate ladder.
Watch our full interview right here, and check out some of the highlights below.
How is Expedia using AI, and how do you think the tech will change the travel industry?
Gorin: We’re already using AI quite a bit in our product. For example, 70 percent of travelers look at a review before choosing a hotel. We have a ton of reviews, so we can use generative AI to make it easier for travelers to interact with that content and ask questions. Today, about two-thirds of our bookings come straight to our brands, but there’s still a third who start their planning elsewhere — on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google. We’re partnering with them to make sure that our brands show up when travelers are planning.
We also released a feature on Instagram called trip matching that allows you to take a reel you see on the app, send it to an Expedia agent, and translate that into an itinerary that shows you where that reel was shot, where you can stay, and how to book through Expedia.
What’s one failure you’ve had throughout your career that you think taught you the most?
When I was at Microsoft in France, I had a mentor who told me: “Ariane, if you ever want to run a business, you need to go into sales.” At that time, I’d done strategy and marketing, but I’d never done sales. I think I was a bit scared, but he really pushed me. So I went into the job, and after a couple months, we weren’t hitting our numbers. I was tired, my team wasn’t happy. I had approached it with sharp elbows and went in thinking that people were trying to steal our accounts. I wasn’t being myself.
I remember going home one night and thinking, "I’m going to fail at this." And I decided that if I was going to fail, I wanted to do it being authentically myself. So the next day, I walked in and started doing the job differently, and our numbers turned around and the team became more engaged. The learning for me was, yes, you should get out of your comfort zone, but if I’m not being myself, I will not succeed. And I think that’s true for a lot of people.
As someone who’s risen through the ranks at Expedia, what would you tell a woman looking to climb the corporate ladder?
I was fortunate in that I had 10 years at Microsoft and now have been at Expedia for 12. In both companies, I was able to take on a bigger scope every two years. I kept learning and it was great, but there were some people who said, “Oh, Ariane, she’s so ambitious.” And they were using it in a negative way. I think women confront that a lot.
A friend of mine found a quote for me about ambition: “Talent without ambition is a bird without wings.” It really changed the way I thought about my ambition, and how I am driven to achieve things and to help my team achieve things. Even in taking this CEO role, it took me a while to articulate that I wanted this, as I think it’s hard for a lot of women to voice our ambition. But this quote really changed my mindset.
Do you have any tips to help travelers find the best deals?
One is sign up for price tracking. We have price tracking for flights on Expedia and price alerts on Hotels.com. There's a lot of data out there that can help travelers understand when's a good time to buy. Number two is bundle and save. One of our strongest value propositions is if you book through us, you can buy a flight and a hotel and get a discount on your room. Or if you add a hotel and book a rental car, you can get a discount on the car.
