Organization and Basis of Presentation	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2016
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Organization and Basis of Presentation	NOTE 1 — Organization and Basis of Presentation Description of Business Expedia, Inc. and its subsidiaries provide travel products and services to leisure and corporate travelers in the United States and abroad as well as various media and advertising offerings to travel and non-travel advertisers. These travel products and services are offered through a diversified portfolio of brands including: Expedia.com^®, Hotels.com^®, Hotwire.com^TM, Travelocity^®, Expedia^® Affiliate Network, Classic Vacations^®, Expedia Local Expert^®, Egencia^®, Expedia^® CruiseShipCenters^®, trivago^®, CarRentals.com^TM, Wotif Group, Orbitz Worldwide (“Orbitz”) acquired in September 2015, HomeAway^® acquired in December 2015, and eLong^TM through its sale on May 22, 2015. In addition, many of these brands have related international points of sale, including those as part of AirAsia-Expedia upon our acquisition of a controlling interest in March 2015. We refer to Expedia, Inc. and its subsidiaries collectively as “Expedia,” the “Company,” “us,” “we” and “our” in these consolidated financial statements. Basis of Presentation The accompanying consolidated financial statements include Expedia, Inc., our wholly-owned subsidiaries, and entities we control, or in which we have a variable interest and are the primary beneficiary of expected cash profits or losses. We record our investments in entities that we do not control, but over which we have the ability to exercise significant influence, using the equity method. We have eliminated significant intercompany transactions and accounts. We believe that the assumptions underlying our consolidated financial statements are reasonable. However, these consolidated financial statements do not present our future financial position, the results of our future operations and cash flows. Seasonality We generally experience seasonal fluctuations in the demand for our travel products and services. For example, traditional leisure travel bookings are generally the highest in the first three quarters as travelers plan and book their spring, summer and winter holiday travel. The number of bookings typically decreases in the fourth quarter. Because revenue for most of our travel products, including merchant and agency hotel, is recognized when the travel takes place rather than when it is booked, revenue typically lags bookings by several weeks or longer. The seasonal revenue impact is exacerbated with respect to income by the nature of our variable cost of revenue and direct sales and marketing costs, which we typically realize in closer alignment to booking volumes, and the more stable nature of our fixed costs. Furthermore, operating profits for our primary advertising business, trivago, are experienced in the second half of the year as selling and marketing costs offset revenue in the first half of the year as we aggressively market during the busy booking period for spring, summer and winter holiday travel . Additionally, trivago has historically earned a substantial portion of its operating profits in the fourth quarter. As a result on a consolidated basis, revenue and income are typically the lowest in the first quarter and highest in the third quarter. The continued growth of our international operations, advertising business or a change in our product mix, including the assimilation and growth of HomeAway, may influence the typical trend of the seasonality in the future. We expect that as HomeAway continues its shift to more of a transaction-based business model for vacation rental listings its seasonal trends will generally trend similar to our other traditional leisure businesses over time.

NOTE 1 — Organization and Basis of Presentation

Description of Business

Expedia, Inc. and its subsidiaries provide travel products and services to leisure and corporate travelers in the United States and abroad as well as various media and advertising offerings to travel and non-travel advertisers. These travel products and services are offered through a diversified portfolio of brands including: Expedia.com^®, Hotels.com^®, Hotwire.com^TM, Travelocity^®, Expedia^® Affiliate Network, Classic Vacations^®, Expedia Local Expert^®, Egencia^®, Expedia^® CruiseShipCenters^®, trivago^®, CarRentals.com^TM, Wotif Group, Orbitz Worldwide (“Orbitz”) acquired in September 2015, HomeAway^® acquired in December 2015, and eLong^TM through its sale on May 22, 2015. In addition, many of these brands have related international points of sale, including those as part of AirAsia-Expedia upon our acquisition of a controlling interest in March 2015. We refer to Expedia, Inc. and its subsidiaries collectively as “Expedia,” the “Company,” “us,” “we” and “our” in these consolidated financial statements.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include Expedia, Inc., our wholly-owned subsidiaries, and entities we control, or in which we have a variable interest and are the primary beneficiary of expected cash profits or losses. We record our investments in entities that we do not control, but over which we have the ability to exercise significant influence, using the equity method. We have eliminated significant intercompany transactions and accounts.

We believe that the assumptions underlying our consolidated financial statements are reasonable. However, these consolidated financial statements do not present our future financial position, the results of our future operations and cash flows.

Seasonality

We generally experience seasonal fluctuations in the demand for our travel products and services. For example, traditional leisure travel bookings are generally the highest in the first three quarters as travelers plan and book their spring, summer and winter holiday travel. The number of bookings typically decreases in the fourth quarter. Because revenue for most of our travel products, including merchant and agency hotel, is recognized when the travel takes place rather than when it is booked, revenue typically lags bookings by several weeks or longer. The seasonal revenue impact is exacerbated with respect to income by the nature of our variable cost of revenue and direct sales and marketing costs, which we typically realize in closer alignment to booking volumes, and the more stable nature of our fixed costs. Furthermore, operating profits for our primary advertising business, trivago, are experienced in the second half of the year as selling and marketing costs offset revenue in the first half of the year as we aggressively market during the busy booking period for spring, summer and winter holiday travel . Additionally, trivago has historically earned a substantial portion of its operating profits in the fourth quarter. As a result on a consolidated basis, revenue and income are typically the lowest in the first quarter and highest in the third quarter. The continued growth of our international operations, advertising business or a change in our product mix, including the assimilation and growth of HomeAway, may influence the typical trend of the seasonality in the future. We expect that as HomeAway continues its shift to more of a transaction-based business model for vacation rental listings its seasonal trends will generally trend similar to our other traditional leisure businesses over time.