Expedia, Inc., the global leader in online travel and the largest provider of hotel bookings worldwide, presenting at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) in Hong Kong today.

Expedia is today building on its exclusive partnership with Nectar by offering customers the chance to use their valuable points when booking a holiday online. Expedia is the UK’s largest online travel agent and the only travel company which offers customers the ability to collect and spend Nectar points with Expedia.co.uk.

A superior court judge in Seattle has ordered Expedia to pay consumers $184 million for hotel bookings made between February 2003 and December 2006 due to violation of the company’s terms of use on its website.The consumers successfully argued that the fees also included Expedia’s mark-up of net hotel rates. The judge ruled that they “correctly concluded that profits, not costs, are the subject matter of these service fees”.

Expedia Media Solutions has introduced a new behavioral marketing product called PassportAds, which gives advertisers an effective way to reach in-market travel consumers throughout the trip purchasing lifecycle.

Expedia has reported a loss of $2.76 billion in its fourth quarter due to a substantial writedown in the value of its assets, as well as a slump in revenue from airline and hotel bookings.The loss compares sharply with a profit of $65.4 million the year before and came in short of market expectations.

Expedia speaks to Breaking Travel News at World Travel Market 2008