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To: petal who wrote (71762)	12/18/2022 4:17:54 PM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78753

I described the "moat" to you in my previous post. It is the structure of the agreement between the major OTA's and the hotels that requires hotels to offer a minimum price to each OTA. Expedia takes 18% of that minimum price, while the other smaller OTA's may take a lower percent, but they only can show the customer the same minimum price. So we as customers don't see lower prices, we see the same price. But there must be more to it than that. The percentage amount that booking software takes out of the nightly housing / travel industry is too high. Expedia is just software, and not very complicated software at that. The charge paid by a hotel to the agent when a customer books a room should be 0.1%, not more than 10%.....

To: petal who wrote (71762)	12/18/2022 8:52:18 PM
From: Paul Senior	2 Recommendations Recommended By Lance Bredvold petal Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78753

"Okay, but there's some kind of moat there." So discussion is: should there be? Answer here seems to be no or maybe not. Will the moat be eliminated? Posters here, including me, don't see it happening. At least now. I see it this way: There's some kind of moat. Everybody I know (I don't know that many though -g-) somehow uses Expedia, Booking, and/or Airbnb. Perhaps one other service that I can't remember. "Uses" might mean they go there to make an assessment or decision, but they don't necessarily book with these firms, instead book directly. I see travel picking up if Covid issues remain "manageable" at this level. My assumption is leisure travel is a growth business. So then I come to this: If these companies have some kind of moat, how much am I willing to pay for that, and how long would I be willing to hold the stock(s) as revenues, maybe earnings, increase? I'm willing to buy some at current price, more if stocks fall in this market, with view to be holding five years. (Maybe less if a new, significant entrant emerges. -g-) As I said, I chose BKNB with just a small backup of ABNB. I'll pass on Expedia -- I like BKNB with its bigger European presence.