Expedia Partnership Renewal Leads to New Restructuring at Hopper

Montréal-based travel booking platform Hopper has recently undertaken a significant round of staff cuts, impacting approximately 10 percent of its workforce, which equates to around 60 to 65 employees. The layoffs, which have primarily affected the company’s direct hotel team, are seen as part of a broader restructuring effort following the renewal of its relationship with travel giant Expedia, a partnership that had been strained in the past. While a Hopper spokesperson confirmed the layoffs, they did not provide further specifics, instead offering a general statement that the restructuring was part of the company’s strategic goal to align its resources with long-term growth objectives. This restructuring aims to enable the company to focus its investments on areas that are critical to its future success.

The move comes at a time when Hopper is increasingly leaning on its B2B (business-to-business) offerings, which now account for two-thirds of its revenue. This shift toward a more B2B-centric business model has influenced the company’s decision-making regarding its workforce and organizational structure. Despite the reduction in staff, Hopper remains committed to its long-term vision, and according to the spokesperson, the layoffs are intended to help the company better focus on growth areas that are essential for its sustained success in a highly competitive market.

Hopper’s president, Dakota Smith, had shared in an August interview that the company employed approximately 720 people, excluding those in customer service roles, with around 200 employees working directly on the hotel team. With the recent layoffs, this figure is now reduced to about 660 employees, signaling the company’s ongoing adjustments to its staffing needs in response to market conditions.

The staff reductions and restructuring are also closely tied to changes in Hopper’s business strategy, particularly concerning its hotel inventory. In July 2023, Hopper’s partnership with Expedia, a major player in the online travel agency space, hit a major snag when Expedia announced it would no longer provide hotel inventory to the platform. The split was due to concerns raised by Expedia over Hopper’s features, which the company claimed exploited consumer anxiety and resulted in customers purchasing services they didn’t fully need or understand. This move left Hopper needing to rely more heavily on its direct hotel team to secure inventory and maintain its offerings.

However, in a significant turnaround, Expedia’s new leadership decided to renew the partnership with Hopper in November 2024. This restored relationship is expected to lessen Hopper’s reliance on its direct hotel team, thereby easing some of the pressure on that part of the business and allowing the company to realign its focus on other aspects of its service offering. With this change, Hopper is now better positioned to shift its resources and workforce away from the direct hotel business and towards other areas of its B2B operations, which have become the dominant source of its revenue.

Hopper’s decision to restructure and lay off staff comes as the company continues to face the challenges of an evolving travel industry and rapidly changing consumer expectations. The company’s move to reduce reliance on Expedia for hotel inventory and pivot towards B2B partnerships reflects a broader trend in the travel tech space, where companies are increasingly seeking more sustainable revenue streams and scalable business models. The restructuring efforts, although painful in the short term, are viewed as necessary for Hopper to maintain its competitiveness and ensure that it remains agile in a fast-moving market.