Basis of Presentation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of Business

Expedia Group, 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: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, Egencia®, trivago®, HomeAway®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com^TM, Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, Classic Vacations®, Traveldoo®, VacationRentals.com and SilverRail^TM. In addition, many of these brands have related international points of sale. We refer to Expedia Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries collectively as “Expedia Group,” the “Company,” “us,” “we” and “our” in these consolidated financial statements.

COVID-19

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was initially detected in China, and over the subsequent months the virus spread globally. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. Measures to contain the virus, including travel restrictions and quarantine orders, as well as limited operations for hotel and airline suppliers, have had a significant impact on the travel industry. This has contributed to unprecedented increases in cancellations and a decline in travel demand, which is having a material negative effect on our financial and operating results. It remains difficult to predict the duration of the impact from the virus, and when travel restrictions and quarantine orders will be lifted.

During this pandemic, Expedia Group has been working closely with our partners, and putting significant effort into taking care of our customers. For example, the Company has modified its cancellation policies. On near-term bookings with non-refundable rates impacted by COVID-19, customers have received refunds where hotels agree to make the booking refundable; otherwise, the customer received credit for a future booking. Recently, the Company started to allow customers eligible for a refund the ability to elect cash or credit for bookings impacted by COVID-19. Customers with certain non-refundable rates that are impacted by COVID-19 will continue to receive credit. Expedia Group continues to monitor the situation and adapt cancellation policies.

Due to the high degree of cancellations and customer refunds and lower new bookings in the merchant business model, the Company is experiencing unfavorable working capital trends and material negative cash flow. This is expected to continue until cancellations stabilize and travel demand begins to recover from current levels, at which time we expect merchant bookings and cash flow to increase. For a discussion on incremental credit losses and allowance impacts related to our accounts receivable and prepaid merchant bookings, see Note 2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies. For a discussion of goodwill and intangible asset impairments recognized in conjunction with this pandemic, see Note 3 – Fair Value Measurements. For a discussion of recent actions to strengthen our liquidity position in the current environment, see Note 11 – Subsequent Events.

Basis of Presentation

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, 2019, previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). 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; accounting for derivative instruments and provisions for credit losses, customer refunds and chargebacks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created and may continue to create significant uncertainty in macroeconomic conditions, which may cause further business disruptions and adversely impact our results of operations. As a result, many of our estimates and assumptions required increased judgment and carry a higher degree of variability and volatility. As events continue to evolve and additional information becomes available, our estimates may change materially in future periods.

Reclassifications

We have reclassified prior period financial statements to conform to the current period presentation. During the first quarter of 2020, we reclassified depreciation expense from within our operating expense line items on our consolidated statements of operations to be included with intangible asset amortization expense. The following table presents a summary of the amounts as reported and as reclassified in our consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2019:



	Three months ended March 31, 2019
	As reported		As reclassified
	(In millions)
Cost of revenue	$	513	$	490
Selling and marketing	1,535		1,521
Technology and content	429		297
General and administrative	191		184
Depreciation and amortization	52		228

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 alternative accommodations business. Historically, Vrbo 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 growth of our international operations, advertising business or a change in our product mix, including the growth of Vrbo, may influence the typical trend of the seasonality in the future.

Due to COVID-19, which impacted travel bookings made in the first quarter 2020 and led to significant cancellations for future travel, we do not expect our typical seasonal pattern for bookings, revenue and profit during 2020. In addition, with the lower new bookings and elevated cancellations in the merchant business model, our typical, seasonal working capital source of cash has been significantly disrupted resulting in the Company experiencing unfavorable working capital trends and material negative cash flow. This is expected to continue until cancellations stabilize and travel demand begins to recover from current

levels, at which time we expect merchant bookings and cash flow to increase. It is difficult to forecast the seasonality for the upcoming quarters, given the uncertainty related to the duration of the impact from COVID-19 and the shape and timing of a recovery.