Expedia to Provide Services for Rival Company Travelocity

Two online travel websites, Expedia and Travelocity, will begin working together next year, according to USA Today. Expedia will provide content, customer service and technology to Travelocity.

This new arrangement will allow Travelocity to access the listing of hotels and flights on Expedia, allowing users more options.

Many media analysts have described the partnership as an unofficial merger. Travelocity will, however, continue to run as a separate entity run by Sabre. The company also says it's still in competition with Expedia, regardless of the fact that they will be sharing resources.

"We continue to compete with Expedia," Joel Frey, the spokesman for Travelocity, told USA Today. "If you think about mergers and acquisitions, one brand takes the other one over and brand b goes away.

"Travelocity's brand is not going away," Frey continued. "Travelocity's brand will continue to live on and continue to be a great option for consumers to shop and book and think about their travel plans."

The changes are not likely to be noticed by consumers making travel plans. According to Frey, Travelocity will continue to offer its own travel deals and pricing that differs from Expedia. Basically, he says the searches won't give users the same results.

"If we want to have a back to school sale or a fall travel sale we will do that," Frey said. "We'll even have our own search algorithms so when a consumer does a flight search, the way the content is presented to them may look different than if you were to shop Expedia, so the presentation of offers, that's where we're going to compete."

Analysts still state that Expedia is for practical purposes, absorbing Travelocity.

"It really is a virtual merger between the two companies," Henry Hartveldt, a travel analyst, said. "It's as if the Boston Red Sox outsourced players, and the team operations to the New York Yankees but the Yankees said, it's okay, you can still play in Boston and still call yourselves the Red Sox."