Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

These accompanying financial statements present our results of operations, financial position and cash flows on a consolidated basis. The unaudited consolidated financial statements include Expedia Group, 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 have eliminated significant intercompany transactions and accounts.

We have prepared the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for interim financial reporting. We have included all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the results of the interim period. These adjustments consist of normal recurring items. Our interim unaudited consolidated financial statements are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any other interim period or for the full year. These interim unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. trivago is a separately listed company on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and, therefore is subject to its own reporting and filing requirements, which could result in possible differences that are not expected to be material to Expedia Group.

Accounting Estimates

We use estimates and assumptions in the preparation of our interim unaudited consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP. Our estimates and assumptions affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of our interim unaudited consolidated financial statements. These estimates and assumptions also affect the reported amount of net income or loss during any period. Our actual financial results could differ significantly from these estimates. The significant estimates underlying our interim unaudited consolidated financial statements include revenue recognition; recoverability of current and long-lived assets, intangible assets and goodwill; income and transactional taxes, such as potential settlements related to occupancy and excise taxes; loss contingencies; deferred loyalty rewards; acquisition purchase price allocations; stock-based compensation and accounting for derivative instruments.

Reclassifications

We have reclassified certain amounts related to our prior period results to conform to our current period presentation.

Seasonality

We generally experience seasonal fluctuations in the demand for our travel 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 services, including merchant and agency hotel, is recognized as the travel takes place rather than when it is booked, revenue typically lags bookings by several weeks for our hotel business and can be several months or more for our vacation rental business. Historically, HomeAway has seen seasonally stronger bookings in the first quarter of the year, with the relevant stays occurring during the peak summer travel months. 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, have typically been experienced in the second half of the year, particularly the fourth quarter, as selling and marketing costs offset revenue in the first half of the year as we typically increase marketing during the busy booking period for spring, summer and winter holiday travel. 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 growth of HomeAway, may influence the typical trend of the seasonality in the future, and there may also be business or market driven dynamics that result in short-term impacts to revenue or profitability that differ from the typical seasonal trends, including trivago's recent changing marketplace dynamics.

Recent Accounting Policies

Recently Adopted Accounting Policies

Revenue from Contracts with Customers. As of January 1, 2018, we adopted the Accounting Standards Updates ("ASU") amending revenue recognition guidance using the modified retrospective method for all contracts reflecting the aggregate effect of modifications prior to the date of adoption. Results for reporting periods beginning after January 1, 2018 are presented under the new guidance, while prior period amounts were not adjusted and continue to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for those periods.

The new guidance impacted our loyalty program accounting as we are no longer permitted to use the incremental cost method when recording the financial impact of rewards earned in conjunction with our traveler loyalty programs. Instead, we re-value our liability using a relative fair value approach and now record our loyalty liability as a component of deferred merchant bookings. Additionally, due to the new definition of variable consideration, we are required to estimate and record certain variable payments, primarily volume commissions, earlier than previously recorded. Both modifications resulted in cumulative-effect adjustments to opening retained earnings, with an insignificant change to revenue on a go-forward basis. The new guidance also results in insignificant changes in the timing and classification of certain other revenue streams, including the reclassification of air distribution fees from net revenue to cost of revenue. For a comprehensive discussion of our updated revenue recognition policy, refer to the Significant Accounting Policies-Revenue Recognition disclosure below.

Upon adoption, we recognized a cumulative effect of applying the new revenue guidance as a reduction to the opening balance of retained earnings of $11 million ($8 million net of tax) comprised of changes in the accounting for our loyalty program of $49 million ($38 million net of tax) as well as other immaterial adjustments of $2 million ($1 million net of tax), partially offset by the impact of estimating variable consideration of $40 million ($31 million net of tax). The impact of the new guidance to our consolidated financial statements was not meaningful as of June 30, 2018 and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018.

The cumulative effect of the revenue accounting changes made to our consolidated balance sheet as of January 1, 2018 were as follows:



	Balance at December 31, 2017		Adjustments			Balance at January 1, 2018
	(in millions)
Current and long-term assets:
Accounts receivable, net	$	1,866	$	(40	)	$	1,826
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	269		(1		)	268
Long-term investments and other assets	845		(3		)	842
Current and long-term liabilities:
Deferred merchant bookings	3,219		619			3,838
Accrued expenses and other current liabilities	1,265		(564		)	701
Deferred income taxes	329		(3		)	326
Stockholders' equity:
Retained earnings	331		(8		)	323

Recognition and Measurement of Financial Instruments. As of January 1, 2018, we adopted the new guidance related to accounting for equity investments and financial liabilities under the fair value option. The most significant impact to the Company of this new guidance was with respect to the requirement that minority equity investments with readily determinable fair values, such as our investment in Despegar.com, Corp ("Despegar"), must be carried at fair value with changes in fair value recorded through net income. Previously, such investment was designated as available for sale and was recorded at fair value with changes in fair value recorded through other comprehensive income (loss). In addition, we elected to prospectively account for minority investments without readily determinable fair values at cost, with observable price changes reflected through net income. Upon adoption, we reclassified $7 million related to the unrealized loss, net of tax, of Despegar from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (“AOCI”) with a corresponding decrease to retained earnings. See Note 3 – Fair Value Measurements for further information on Despegar as well as our minority investments without readily determinable fair values.

Statement of Cash Flows. As of January 1, 2018, we adopted the new guidance related to the statement of cash flows, which clarified how companies present and classify certain cash receipts and cash payments as well as amended previous guidance to address the classification and presentation of changes in restricted cash in the statement of cash flows. Upon adoption, we retrospectively adjusted the prior periods presented in our consolidated statement of cash flows, which resulted in a slight working capital benefit in prepaid expenses and other assets within operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2017. Refer to the Significant Accounting Policies-Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents section below for a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash and cash equivalents reported in our consolidated balance sheets to the total shown in our consolidated statement of cash flows.

Intra-entity Transfers of Assets Other Than Inventory. As of January 1, 2018, we adopted the new guidance amending the accounting for income taxes associated with intra-entity transfers of assets other than inventory. This new guidance requires an entity to recognize the income tax consequences of an intra-entity transfer of an asset other than inventory when the transfer occurs rather than our historical practice to defer and amortize the tax consequences over a specified period of time. As a result of the adoption, we reduced retained earnings by approximately $26 million, reduced long-term investments and other assets by approximately $31 million and increased deferred tax assets by approximately $5 million related to the unrecognized income tax effects of asset transfers that occurred prior to adoption.

Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. In February 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued new guidance that allows an entity to elect to reclassify “stranded” tax effects in AOCI to retained earnings to address concerns related to accounting for certain provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("the Tax Act") enacted in December 2017. The guidance is effective for annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted.

We elected to early adopt the new guidance during the first quarter of 2018, which resulted in the reclassification of the income tax effect of the Tax Act from AOCI to retained earnings in order to reflect the tax effects of items within AOCI at the appropriate tax rate. As a result, we reclassified approximately $10 million as an increase in retained earnings and a reduction to AOCI as of January 1, 2018. Our policy is to release income tax effects from AOCI based on the tax effects of amounts reclassified from AOCI to pre-tax income (loss) from continuing operations. Any remaining tax effect in AOCI is released following a portfolio approach.

Definition of a Business. As of January 1, 2018, we prospectively adopted the ASU clarifying the definition of a business for determining whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions (or disposals) of assets or businesses. Upon adoption, the standard impacts how we assess future acquisitions (or disposals) of assets or businesses.

Non-employee Share-Based Payment Arrangements. In June 2018, the FASB issued new guidance related to accounting for share-based payments with non-employees. The updated guidance substantially aligns the accounting requirements of share-based payment awards to non-employees with those of employees. The guidance is effective for annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted.

We elected to early adopt the new guidance in the second quarter of 2018, which requires us to reflect any adjustments as of January 1, 2018, the beginning of the annual period that includes the interim period of adoption. The primary impact of adoption was the change in the measurement objective and the associated measurement date for all non-employee share-based payment awards to the grant-date fair value. Prior to adoption, non-employee awards were measured at the fair value of the consideration received or the fair value of the equity instruments issued, whichever could be more reliably measured. Additionally, the measurement date was previously determined by the earlier of the date at which either (1) a commitment for performance by the non-employee to earn the equity instruments was reached or (2) the non-employee’s performance was complete. Typically, the measurement date was delayed until performance was complete, which led to the non-employee awards being remeasured or “marked to market” each reporting period until they were vested. The adoption of this new guidance did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, and had no impact on our previously reported quarterly results for the three months ended March 31, 2018.

Recent Accounting Policies Not Yet Adopted

Leases. In February 2016, the FASB issued new guidance related to accounting and reporting guidelines for leasing arrangements. The new guidance requires entities that lease assets to recognize assets and liabilities on the balance sheet related to the rights and obligations created by those leases regardless of whether they are classified as finance or operating leases. Consistent with current guidance, the recognition, measurement, and presentation of expenses and cash flows arising from a lease primarily will depend on its classification as a finance or operating lease. The guidance also requires new disclosures to help financial statement users better understand the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. This guidance is effective for annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption is permitted and, as currently issued, should be applied using a modified retrospective approach. We are in the process of evaluating the impact of adopting this new guidance, including implementing changes to our systems and processes in conjunction with our review of existing lease agreements. We currently expect the most significant impact of this new standard will be the recognition of the right-of-use assets and operating lease liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet upon adoption as well as the related financial statement disclosures.

Hedge Accounting. In August 2017, the FASB amended the existing accounting guidance for hedge accounting. The amendments require expanded hedge accounting for both non-financial and financial risk components and refine the measurement of hedge results to better reflect an entity's hedging strategies. The new guidance also amends the presentation and disclosure requirements on a prospective basis as well as changes how entities assess hedge effectiveness. The new guidance is effective for annual periods, and interim periods within those annual periods, beginning after December 15, 2018 with early adoption permitted. The new guidance must be adopted using a modified retrospective transition with a cumulative effect adjustment recorded to opening retained earnings as of the initial adoption date. We are in the process of evaluating the impact of adopting this new guidance on our consolidated financial statements.

Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. In June 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on the measurement of credit losses for financial assets measured at amortized cost, which includes accounts receivable, and available-for-sale debt securities. The new guidance replaces the existing incurred loss impairment model with an expected loss methodology, which will result in more timely recognition of credit losses. This update is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those annual periods. Early adoption is permitted for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those annual periods. We are in the process of evaluating the impact of adopting this new guidance on our consolidated financial statements.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue upon transfer of control of our promised services in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those services.

For our primary transaction-based revenue sources, discussed below, we have determined net presentation (that is, the amount billed to a traveler less the amount paid to a supplier) is appropriate for the majority of our revenue transactions as the supplier is primarily responsible for providing the underlying travel services and we do not control the service provided by the supplier to the traveler.

The following table disaggregates our revenue by major source:



	Three months ended		Six months ended
	June 30, 2018		June 30, 2018
	(in millions)
Business Model:
Merchant	$	1,532	$	2,866
Agency	777		1,435
Advertising and media	274		556
HomeAway	297		531
Total revenue	$	2,880	$	5,388
Service Type:
Lodging	$	1,992	$	3,604
Air	223		465
Advertising and media	274		556
Other⁽¹⁾	391		763
Total revenue	$	2,880	$	5,388

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(1)	Other includes car rental, insurance, destination services, cruise and fee revenue related to our corporate travel business, among other revenue streams, none of which are individually material.

We offer traditional travel services on a stand-alone and package basis generally either through the merchant or the agency business model.

Under the merchant model, we facilitate the booking of hotel rooms, airline seats, car rentals and destination services from our travel suppliers and we are the merchant of record for such bookings.

Under the agency model, we pass reservations booked by the traveler to the relevant travel supplier and the travel supplier serves as the merchant of record for such bookings. We receive commissions or ticketing fees from the travel supplier and/or traveler. For certain agency airline, hotel and car transactions, we also receive fees through global distribution systems (“GDS”) that provide the computer systems through which the travel supplier inventory is made available and through which reservations are booked.

Under the advertising model, we offer travel and non-travel advertisers access to a potential source of incremental traffic and transactions through our various media and advertising offerings on trivago and our transaction-based websites.

Our HomeAway business facilitates vacation rental bookings and provides listing and other ancillary services to property owners and managers.

The nature of our travel booking service performance obligations vary based on the travel service with differences primarily related to the degree to which we provide post booking services to the traveler and the timing when rights and obligations are triggered in our underlying supplier agreements. We consider both the traveler and travel supplier as our customers.

Lodging. Our lodging revenue is comprised of revenue recognized under the merchant, agency and HomeAway business models.

Merchant Hotel. We provide travelers access to book hotel room reservations through our contracts with lodging suppliers, which provide us with rates and availability information for rooms but for which we have no control over the rooms and do not bear inventory risk. Our travelers pay us for merchant hotel transactions prior to departing on their trip, generally when they book the reservation. We record the payment in deferred merchant bookings until the stayed night occurs, at which point we recognize the revenue, net of amounts paid to suppliers, as this is when our performance obligation is satisfied. In certain nonrefundable, nonchangeable transactions where we have no significant post booking services (primarily opaque hotel offerings), we record revenue when the traveler completes the transaction on our website, less a reserve for chargebacks and cancellations based on historical experience. Payments to suppliers are generally due within 30 days of check-in or stay. In certain instances when a supplier invoices us for less than the cost we accrued, we generally reduce our accrued supplier payable and the supplier costs within net revenue six months in arrears, net of an allowance, when we determine it is not probable that we will be required to pay the supplier, based on historical experience. Cancellation fees are collected and remitted to the supplier, if applicable.

Agency Hotel. We generally record agency revenue from the hotel when the stayed night occurs as we provide post booking services to the traveler and, thus consider the stay as when our performance obligation is satisfied. We record an allowance for cancellations on this revenue based on historical experience.

HomeAway. HomeAway’s lodging revenue is generally earned on a pay-per-booking or pay-per-subscription basis. Pay-per-booking arrangements are commission-based where rental property owners and managers bear the inventory risk, have latitude in setting the price and compensate HomeAway for facilitating bookings with travelers. Under pay-per booking arrangements, each booking is a separate contract as listings are typically cancelable at any time and the related revenue, net of amounts paid to property owners, is recognized at check in, which is the point in time when our service to the traveler is complete. In pay-per-subscription contracts, property owners or managers purchase in advance online advertising services related to the listing of their properties for rent over a fixed term (typically one year). As the performance obligation is the listing service and is provided to the property owner or manager over the life of the listing period, the pay-per-subscription revenue is recognized on a straight-line basis over the listing period. HomeAway also charges a traveler service fee at the time of booking. The service fee charged to travelers provides compensation for HomeAway’s services, including but not limited to the use of HomeAway's website and a “Book with Confidence Guarantee” providing travelers with comprehensive payment protection and 24/7 traveler support. The performance obligation is to facilitate the booking of a property and assist travelers up to their check in process and, as such, the traveler service fee revenue is recognized at check-in. Revenue from other ancillary vacation rental services or products are recorded either upon delivery or when we provide the service.

Merchant and Agency Air. We record revenue on air transactions when the traveler books the transaction, as we do not provide significant post booking services to the traveler and payments due to and from air carriers are typically due at the time of ticketing. We record a reserve for chargebacks and cancellations at the time of the transaction based on historical experience. In certain transactions, the GDS collects commissions from our suppliers and passes these commissions to us, net of their fees. Therefore, we view payments through the GDS as commissions from suppliers and record these commissions in net revenue. Fees paid to the GDS as compensation for their role in processing transactions are recorded as cost of revenue.

Advertising and Media. We record revenue from click-through fees charged to our travel partners for leads sent to the travel partners’ websites. We record revenue from click-through fees after the traveler makes the click-through to the related travel partners’ websites. We record revenue for advertising placements ratably over the advertising period or upon delivery of advertising impressions, depending on the terms of the contract. Payments from advertisers are generally due within 30 days of invoicing.

Other. Other primarily includes transaction revenue for booking services related to products such as car, cruise and destination services under the agency business model. We generally record the related revenue when the travel occurs, as in most cases we provide post booking services and this is when our performance obligation is complete. Additionally, no rights or obligations are triggered in our supplier agreements until the travel occurs. We record an allowance for cancellations on this revenue based on historical experience. In addition, other also includes travel insurance products primarily under the merchant model, for which revenue is recorded at the time the transaction is booked.

Packages. Packages assembled by travelers through the packaging functionality on our websites generally include a merchant hotel component and some combination of an air, car or destination services component. The individual package components are accounted for as separate performance obligations and recognized in accordance with our revenue recognition policies stated above.

As described in Note 9 – Segment Information, our reportable segments are Core Online Travel Agencies (“Core OTA”), trivago, HomeAway and Egencia. Our Core OTA segment generates revenue from the merchant, agency and advertising and media business models as well as all service types. trivago segment revenue is primarily generated through advertising and media. All HomeAway revenue is within the lodging service type. Our Egencia segment generates revenue from similar business models and service types to Core OTA applied to the corporate traveler with the majority being agency revenue.

Deferred Merchant Bookings. We classify cash payments received in advance of our performance obligations as deferred merchant bookings. At January 1, 2018, $3.219 billion of cash advance cash payments was reported within deferred merchant bookings, $2.687 billion of which was recognized resulting in $391 million of revenue during the six months ended June 30, 2018. At June 30, 2018, the related balance was $5.443 billion.

Travelers enrolled in our internally administered traveler loyalty rewards programs earn points for each eligible booking made which can be redeemed for free or discounted future bookings. Hotels.com Rewards offers travelers one free night at any Hotels.com partner property after that traveler stays 10 nights, subject to certain restrictions. Expedia Rewards enables participating travelers to earn points on all hotel, flight, package and activities made on over 30 Brand Expedia websites. Orbitz Rewards allows travelers to earn Orbucks^SM, the currency of Orbitz Rewards, on flights, hotels and vacation packages and instantly redeem those Orbucks on future bookings at various hotels worldwide. As travelers accumulate points towards free travel products, we defer the relative standalone selling price of earned points, net of expected breakage, as deferred loyalty rewards within deferred merchant bookings on the consolidated balance sheet. In order to estimate the standalone selling price of the underlying services on which points can be redeemed for all loyalty programs, we use an adjusted market assessment approach and consider the redemption values expected from the traveler. We then estimate the number of rewards that will not be redeemed based on historical activity in our members' accounts as well as statistical modeling techniques. Revenue is recognized when we have satisfied our performance obligation relating to the points, that is when the travel service purchased with the loyalty award is satisfied. The majority of rewards expected to be redeemed are recognized within one to two years of being earned. At January 1, 2018, $619 million of deferred loyalty rewards was reported within deferred merchant bookings, $324 million of which was recognized as revenue during the six months ended June 30, 2018. At June 30, 2018, the related balance was $663 million.

Deferred Revenue. Deferred revenue primarily consists of HomeAway's traveler service fees received on bookings where we are not merchant of record due to the use of a third party payment processor, unearned subscription revenue as well as deferred advertising revenue. At January 1, 2018, $326 million was recorded as deferred revenue, $230 million of which was recognized as revenue during the six months ended June 30, 2018. At June 30, 2018, the related balance was $460 million.

Practical Expedients and Exemptions. We have used the portfolio approach to account for our loyalty points as the rewards programs share similar characteristics within each program in relation to the value provided to the traveler and their breakage patterns. Using this portfolio approach is not expected to differ materially from applying the guidance to individual contracts. However, we will continue to assess and refine, if necessary, how a portfolio within each rewards program is defined.

We do not disclose the value of unsatisfied performance obligations for (i) contracts with an original expected length of one year or less and (ii) contracts for which we recognize revenue at the amount to which we have the right to invoice for services performed.

Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents

Restricted cash includes cash and cash equivalents that is restricted through legal contracts, regulations or our intention to use the cash for a specific purpose. Our restricted cash primarily relates to certain traveler deposits and to a lesser extent collateral for office leases.

Fair Value Measurements

We classify our cash equivalents and investments within Level 1 and Level 2 as we value our cash equivalents and investments using quoted market prices or alternative pricing sources and models utilizing market observable inputs. Valuation of the foreign currency forward contracts is based on foreign currency exchange rates in active markets, a Level 2 input.

Derivative instruments are carried at fair value on our consolidated balance sheets. We use foreign currency forward contracts to economically hedge certain merchant revenue exposures, foreign denominated liabilities related to certain of our loyalty programs and our other foreign currency-denominated operating liabilities. Our goal in managing our foreign exchange risk is to reduce, to the extent practicable, our potential exposure to the changes that exchange rates might have on our earnings, cash flows and financial position. Our foreign currency forward contracts are typically short-term and, as they do not qualify for hedge accounting treatment, we classify the changes in their fair value in other, net.