Expedia Amazoned Hotel Rooms

This piece argues that powerful online intermediaries have turned into predatory monopolies that raise prices across entire markets. Amazon captured affluent shoppers via Prime and forces sellers to pay enormous fees - claimed here as 51-60% of a seller’s revenue - and to adopt "most favored nation" pricing, which compels sellers to match higher Amazon prices everywhere. Amazon’s paid-search auctions push expensive, advertiser-backed listings to the top (the top result averages 29% higher than the best match), extracting over $80B a year. Expedia replicated and intensified that model in travel: it controls roughly 80% of hotel bookings by dollar value, auctions search placement via a "VIP listing" that increases bookings ~42% (the first ten results get 62% of clicks), and requires participating hotels to raise their prices on non-Expedia sites by 10-25% indefinitely.

The economic effects are concrete: average US hotel rates rose 58% from $103/night in 2020 to $162/night in 2025, with a 5% increase last year - double headline inflation - while Expedia’s margins and stock soared. Hotel chains have consolidated (Hilton, Marriott, Choice International dominate), service has been degraded, and workers have suffered wage and staffing cuts. The solution proposed is systemic: shopping around won’t fix a market where platforms have buy-side and sell-side capture; only strong regulatory remedies - up to breaking these platform monopolies - will restore competitive pricing and working conditions.