Team Overview
Travel Partnerships & Advertising (TPA) helps partners — including lodging providers, airlines, and destination organizations — deliver excellent traveler and B2B experiences. We drive growth for our partners and for Expedia Group by building competitive supply, powering a leading advertising and travel media network, and enabling affiliate solutions. This role sits within the New Partners Acquisition team, focused on bringing high‑quality, strategically relevant lodging supply onto the platform.
Role Summary
The Business Development Associate assists with the set‑up and onboarding of conventional lodging properties within an assigned territory. You will drive outreach to prospective partners, educate them on Expedia Group’s unique value proposition (UVP), and convert qualified leads into successful partnerships. Working closely with teammates, you will ensure partners are configured for launch success and early production while strengthening your market, product, and commercial acumen.
Key Responsibilities
- Drive new business through proactive outreach (e.g., cold calling, email, events) to engage hotel partners that have not yet collaborated with Expedia Group, clearly presenting our UVP.
- Convert outreach into partnerships by qualifying opportunities, handling objections, negotiating standard terms, and completing contracts and onboarding checklists.
- Ensure partners are set up for success at launch by maximizing listing quality, available inventory, competitive pricing, and adoption of recommended offers and programs.
- Build and maintain a pipeline aligned to territory goals; execute a territory plan and manage activities in CRM with strong pipeline hygiene and cadence.
- Develop awareness of industry and market trends, competitor offerings, and partner needs; share observations and learnings with the team.
- Gather and interpret data/insights to identify opportunities that improve partner performance and time‑to‑value; propose next best actions.
- Collaborate with cross‑functional colleagues (e.g., Operations/Integrations) to remove onboarding blockers and accelerate time‑to‑live.
- Seek and apply coaching from peers and managers; participate in enablement sessions and contribute to playbook refinements.
Experience
- 1–2 years of B2B sales, business development, or market development experience; marketplace or travel/hospitality exposure preferred.
Education
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
Languages
- Fluency in Albanian, English, and one additional language.
Skills
- Proficient communicator with strong discovery and objection‑handling skills.
- Commercial and growth mindset with discipline in activity management and follow‑through.
- Analytical storytelling: turns data into clear recommendations that influence partner actions.
- Familiarity with CRM usage, territory planning, and basic sales forecasting.
Success Metrics (indicative)
- Qualified meetings held and conversion to contract.
- Time‑to‑live and launch quality (content, inventory, pricing, program adoption).
- Early‑life production and activation of recommended offers.
- Pipeline coverage and stage conversion versus targets.