Constant Change, Underwhelming Leadership - Anonymous employee Expedia Group Employee Review

3.0
Nov 26, 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are plenty of wonderful people working at Expedia. They care about their work, and they treat each other well. And (at least in 2021) the work-life-balance is still prioritized to keep people motivated. There is a lot of ownership of work here, at least if you have a manager that empowers it. That means you get to decide what you do and how you do it, without constant micromanagement. The benefits are fabulous, and all the perks of working for a travel company are excellent (when it's not a pandemic).

Cons

Looking at some recent reviews, I'm very surprised the company is being scored so highly. There are some major issues within the business as a whole, and forums like Blind have our scores far lower than other tech brands. It's interesting to me that Glassdoor scores have been so high, as it doesn't reflect what I've seen or heard in other forums. Expedia deals with so much tech debt, which is compounded (perhaps caused?) by middle managers who've been allowed to sit over fiefdoms for years. It makes forward momentum so difficult, and it's present in nearly every team across the business. Credit where it's due - leaders who've been entrenched at Expedia for 15+ years are being removed left and right, and are being replaced with external candidates. But that brings culture shift issues with it, and all the problems that come when people are thrust into changing professional environments. Perhaps most frustrating of all is the business's inability to evolve for the future. Expedia will always be something of a middle-man between hotels and customers, but the company built a better mousetrap decades ago that allowed it to thrive as a premier OTA (at least domestically). I'm not sure there's been any innovation here since the inception of the company, and the business feels like a dinosaur that's surviving because it's so big... not because they offer anything technically compelling for the end user. Leadership's latest "innovation" is to consolidate all of Expedia's brands. But that's just a reshuffle. This company desperately needs true reinvention to thrive this decade, and personally I don't see it happening.

Explore other reviews about Expedia Group

5.0
Feb 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, good culture, great benefits

Cons

Tough to reach set goals

2.0
Mar 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Constant state of transformation is ripe environment for new hires and functional experts from big name tech companies

Cons

Pre-covid the culture was really special. Collaborative, engaging, people-centric, with a unifying mission to enable travel for the world. Since covid there has been a revolving door of executive leadership, and with each round, they throw out the current strategy to try something "new" without building from the current or past successes. Constant change, but no clear vision or strategy of what they are trying to change to. Lack of strategy and low risk tolerance leads to too many priorities with not enough investment to move the needle in anything. Quarterly layoffs, but executed quietly team by team so as not to make news. No psychological safety. Talent strategy since covid is to hire externally over internal promotions to gain "functional expertise" therefore difficult to grow your career. Siloed divisions not working towards common goal. Lacks operating model maturity needed for a company of this size likely do to revolving door of execs and priorities. A cash cow company with an identity crisis trying to be an AI innovator. Build vs buy mentality slows them down. Too many exec pet projects that aren't vetted with proper business cases.

4
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