Hotwire.com

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title: "Hotwire.com" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["expedia-group", "american-travel-websites", "american-companies-established-in-2000", "transport-companies-established-in-2000", "internet-properties-established-in-2000", "2003-mergers-and-acquisitions", "online-travel-agencies", "companies-based-in-san-francisco"] description: "Travel booking website" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotwire.com" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Travel booking website ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Hotwire
logo	Hotwire Logo.svg
type	Subsidiary
foundation
founders	Karl Peterson
Eric Grosse
Gregg Brockway
Spencer Rascoff
location_city	San Francisco, California
location_country	United States
products	Airline travel
Car rental services
Hotel reservation
Vacation packages
revenue	US$ 35 million (2018)
num_employees	300+
parent	Expedia Group
homepage
::

| name = Hotwire | logo = Hotwire Logo.svg | type = Subsidiary | foundation = | founders = Karl Peterson Eric Grosse Gregg Brockway Spencer Rascoff | location_city = San Francisco, California | location_country = United States | products = Airline travel Car rental services Hotel reservation Vacation packages | industry = | revenue = US$ 35 million (2018) | num_employees = 300+ | parent = Expedia Group | homepage =

Hotwire is a travel website that offers airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and vacation packages. It operates by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Hotwire, Inc. is an operating company of the Expedia Group.

History

Hotwire was launched in 2000, by Karl Peterson, Eric Grosse, Gregg Brockway, and Spencer Rascoff. Initial funding came by founding partner Texas Pacific Group (TPG), a leading private equity firm that Karl Peterson used to work for, that invested an initial $75 million into Hotwire. Hotwire first offered tickets from six major airlines, that also invested into Hotwire's launch: American, Northwest (now Delta), Continental (now United), America West (now American), United, and US Airways (now American). Prior to its formal launch, Hotwire was codenamed Purple Demon.

In September 2003, IAC/InterActiveCorp, which had acquired Expedia in 2001, announced its acquisition of Hotwire.com for $663 million. In 2004, an internet research firm estimated that through cross-advertising between Hotwire and Expedia, IAC was able to reach a total of an additional 1.5 million unique visitors to both websites monthly.

Company affairs

Leadership

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Henrik_Kjellberg,_President,Hotwire&_Chairman,eLong(14006320194).jpg" caption="Henrik Kjellberg, 2014"] ::

Karl Peterson, one of Hotwire's four founding members, served as Hotwire's first CEO. In 2006, Hotwire was overseen by Founder and CFO (2004-2006) Eric Grosse. In January 2009, Eric Grosse became President of Expedia Worldwide and Clem Bason took over as President of the Hotwire Group.

References

References

1. Rosenbloom, Stephanie. (2015-02-25). "Booking Flights and Hotels: Online Agents or Direct?". The New York Times.
2. "Washington Post: The frugal traveler's essential list of budget travel hacks". [[The Washington Post]].
3. (September 8, 2000). "Hotwire Launch to Provide Yet Another Way to Offload Cheap Inventory". World Airline News.
4. Wade, Betsy. (2000-11-12). "TRAVEL ADVISORY; New Web Site Offers Discounts on 6 Airlines". The New York Times.
5. Schaal, Dennis. (2016). "The Definitive oral history of online travel".
6. (July 5, 2000). "Can purple demon avoid Orbitz errors?".
7. "InterActiveCorp to Buy Hotwire, As Online-Travel Push Continues".
8. Tedeschi, Bob. (2004-07-05). "E-Commerce Report; InterActiveCorp is finding ways to cross-promote its properties and increase its customer base.". The New York Times.
9. "Management team".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::