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Despegar.com, Corp.
Despegar is an online travel agency that helps Latin Americans book flights, hotels, vacation packages, and rental cars.
Despegar is Latin America's big online travel agency — the place people across the region go to book a flight, reserve a hotel, bundle a vacation package, or rent a car. It works like a digital storefront for travel: you search, compare, and pay on its website or app, and Despegar takes a cut from the airlines, hotels, and rental companies on the other side of the booking.
The business runs on two brands. Despegar is the flagship for travelers in Spanish-speaking markets like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile, while its Viajes Falabella arm serves customers through a partnership with the Chilean retail giant Falabella. Despegar also handles corporate travel for companies and sells travel packages that bundle flights and hotels together — the bundles matter because they tend to be more profitable than selling a bare plane ticket, where margins are thin and competition is fierce. Its edge is local knowledge. In a region where paying online has historically been messy — currency swings, local payment methods, installment plans — Despegar built the plumbing to make travel buying work the way Latin Americans actually shop. That is harder than it sounds, and it is a big reason global players have struggled to dislodge it. It competes with other regional agencies and with giants like Booking Holdings and Expedia Group.
The company's public story ended recently. Despegar used to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, but it was taken private in a deal backed by the private equity firm Advent International, so its shares no longer trade publicly. The take-private reflects a bet that a travel platform with deep roots in Latin America can grow faster — and be run more flexibly — away from quarterly public-market pressure.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026