Expedia Group to Acquire CarTrawler in Second B2B Deal of 2026

Expedia Group announced on May 19 that it has entered into an agreement to acquire CarTrawler, the Dublin-based B2B platform that powers car rental, ground transport, and insurtech solutions for more than 300 travel brands — including over 70 airlines. The deal is valued at approximately $350 million, according to reports, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to customary regulatory conditions.

What CarTrawler Brings

CarTrawler's Connect Platform links 550+ car rental suppliers and 500+ mobility providers with airline and travel brand partners, enabling them to offer ground transport as an ancillary product alongside flight bookings. The company has built a strong position in airline ancillary revenue — a segment that generates outsized margins relative to the base ticket.

Adding CarTrawler gives Expedia's Rapid API (its B2B distribution engine) native car rental and ground transport capability, expanding the platform beyond lodging into a more complete travel supply stack. Expedia says the goal is to become the "most complete B2B travel platform."

Fitting a Pattern

This is Expedia Group's second B2B acquisition in 2026. The company acquired Tiqets, an activities-and-attractions distribution platform, earlier in the year. The strategic logic is consistent across both deals: Expedia is building out the Rapid API so that any travel company — airline, loyalty program, fintech, or non-travel brand — can bolt full-service travel booking capability onto its own product with a single integration.

At the Explore 26 partner conference (May 19, Las Vegas), CEO Ariane Gorin framed the B2B expansion as a structural shift: Expedia is positioning itself not just as a consumer OTA but as the infrastructure layer for third-party travel commerce.

Competitive Context

The timing is notable. Airbnb announced the same day that it is launching car rentals directly within its consumer app — a Tier 1 signal that ground transport is becoming a core OTA battleground, not an add-on. Expedia's move to own B2B car infrastructure is a different play from the same trend: rather than competing for the consumer directly, it is embedding car rental supply into partners who will.

Booking Holdings, through its Kayak and OpenTable tentacles, has its own adjacency play. The CarTrawler acquisition means Expedia is moving faster to lock in the transport supply side of the B2B stack.