How Expedia Group unified its travel data into one governed model
Across dozens of brands and systems, the same travel concepts meant different things. Expedia Group turned to give every team, and every model, one governed source of truth.
Challenge
Across brands and platforms, core travel concepts (properties, geographies, amenities, and rate plans) were defined differently in every system. Reference data was fragmented, catalogs disagreed, and the ML models behind search and recommendations couldn't rely on consistent meaning.
Solution
Expedia Group used TopBraid EDG to model its travel domain as a governed knowledge graph: unifying property, geography, and amenity reference data into shared taxonomies and ontologies, and governing every definition as it changes : all on open W3C standards.
Technical approach
Built entirely on open W3C standards, so the model stays portable, transparent, and enforceable as code.
- Built entirely on open W3C standards, so the model stays portable, transparent, and enforceable as code.
- Ontology & taxonomy modeling: properties, geographies, amenities, and rate plans modeled in RDF/OWL as one shared vocabulary.
- SHACL validation: shapes enforce consistency and data quality as the model scales across every brand.
- Reference data management: fragmented reference data mapped to governed, canonical definitions.
- Connectors & lineage: 200+ connectors ingest metadata across systems, with full lineage from source to model.
- SPARQL & APIs: governed context served to search, recommendations, and downstream AI.
Results
- One governed travel taxonomy across every brand.
- Property & geography reference data unified enterprise-wide.
- AI-ready context feeding search & recommendations.
- Audit-ready lineage from source to model.