Expedia compliance index

An Overview of Expedia:
Expedia, an international travel services provider, facilitates the needs of travelers worldwide. They provide a portal where individuals can book hotels, flights, cruise trips, rental cars, and other travel-related services. Established in 1996, they have been a digital lead in the travel industry, streamlining the process of booking vacations and work trips.

The History of Expedia:
Expedia was established in 1996 as a small division within Microsoft and under the leadership of Rich Barton. The initial concept was to use the internet's growing potential to offer a new, user-friendly and easy-to-navigate travel booking experience. In 1999, Expedia was spun off into a public company to flourish in its stride. Today, it spans across more than 70 countries and has various subsidiaries under its umbrella such as Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, and Trivago.

Data Processed by Expedia:
As an online travel booking service, Expedia processes various types of data, primarily related to its users' travel needs. This typically includes personal identifiers like name, contact information, payment details, travel preferences, and demographic data. In addition, they also process data related to the booking details like destination, hotel preferences, flight preferences, and other associated details like reviews and ratings.

Expedia's Operations:
Expedia operates on a global scale, with a presence in over 70 countries. Their expansive reach includes the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Australia and many more. With such a broad global footprint, Expedia aims to offer comprehensive travel booking services catering to varied travel needs of its worldwide user base.

Key Features of Expedia:
Expedia comes with a raft of key features designed to make the travel booking process as seamless as possible. These include extensive travel booking options (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc), global accessibility, user-friendly interface, real-time availability and pricing, guest reviews and ratings for informed decision making, travel insurance, loyalty rewards program, and excellent customer support.

Importance of Monitoring and Comparing Expedia:
Monitoring and comparing vendors like Expedia is crucial from a data compliance perspective. In the data-driven age, businesses need to ensure that they are sharing their client's information with vendors that respect and uphold data privacy laws. The extensive geography that Expedia covers means that they have to comply with various regional and international data governance regulations. Thus, it's important for businesses to be aware of Expedia's data governance standards and compliance measures to maintain trust and integrity with their own clients.