• The travel review channel, TripAdvisor, now has an IAC / Liberty Media CEO and is moving to Nevada (although some shareholders are contesting the move).
• On its recent earnings call, TripAdvisor promoted its 1-billion-person base of users and broad travel review content, but didn't clarify how that content is protected against being crawled by other companies' generative AI, or how TripAdvisor might use its own large language model AI better than other AIs with TripAdvisor content.
• TripAdvisor has faced increasing competition from Google search and Google reviews and, post-COVID, is operating from a significantly lower cost structure.
• TripAdvisor again promoted its other channels, Viator and The Fork, although both are losing money.
• Viator provides travelers with attraction and experiences booking, a capability that is still largely offline, but migrating online rapidly. Although Viator is not profitable, Viator’s experience booking is a major traveler draw to come to TripAdvisor’s other services, and TripAdvisor drives business to Viator. Viator makes money by charging fees to attraction operators and by licensing its content to other online intermediaries. TripAdvisor would like to improve Viator’s economics to “where profitability does become a choice.” TripAdvisor is not focused on spinning out Viator to realize unappreciated value, but “we’re not removing anything from them around the possibility.” Viator has attracted competition from Amazon (briefly, in 2015), Booking (which acquired FareHarbor, but then outsourced the business to Musement / TUI), Google (whose things to do functionality required perpetual content licenses from Viator and GetYourGuide, for travelers who search on Google to book on or through the other sites), Expedia (which white labels Viator content), AirBnB and Hopper, with local experiences and an app-based focus.
• The Fork helps travelers and local users with European restaurant reservations. It is also money losing and not profitable, although it did receive a large French COVID subsidy.
• The new TripAdvisor management did not address prior management’s different initiatives and speculation about TripAdvisor’s other alternatives:
   
  • TripAdvisor Plus: A B2C annual subscription initiative like Costco’s that was initially supported by B2B supplier discounts (partially from TripAdvisor’s part-owner, equity firm Certares and partially from the trip.com joint venture), led to contractual rate parity issues for suppliers and did not attract significant participation even with a shift to the Vacation Funds post-trip cashback offers and in-trip amenities in lieu of upfront rate discounts, with costs to TripAdvisor offset by commissions paid by hotels. TripAdvisor Plus discounts or offers are behind non-searchable paywalls in a closed user group of TripAdvisor Plus paid subscribers. TripAdvisor Plus was marketed primarily to existing TripAdvisor users, without a significant outside marketing expenditure.
  • CPC payments by travel suppliers for traveler searches on TripAdvisor and/or traveler searches on search and metasearch engines that are clicked over to TripAdvisor to read reviews.
  • CPA payments for travelers that click over from TripAdvisor to brand sites to make a reservation or booking (and don’t simply book directly on brand sites and apps and/or through brand loyalty programs).
  • Instant Book, for travelers to book hotel reservations directly on TripAdvisor instead of being referred to the hotels’ own sites for bookings. Hotels preferred the direct traveler bookings without commissions that were more than free referrals or paid CPC or CPA referrals. TripAdvisor Plus was conceived as a replacement for the Instant Book initiative.
  • Reputation Pro, to help travel suppliers improve their TripAdvisor reviews.
  • A possible combination with Trivago, the travel search engine, to make more money selling keywords to travel providers and online travel agencies, while TripAdvisor continues to focus on inspiring travelers with its broad travel review content.
  • Spotlight business analytics for travel suppliers.
  • FlipKey, TripAdvisor’s vacation rental subsidiary and competition for AirBnB and for Expedia’s VRBO, is not receiving much attention.
  • The joint venture with China’s trip.com, which was followed by a Chinese ban on TripAdvisor in China.
  • The Considered Trip and One TripAdvisor, like Booking’s initiative The Connected Trip and like various Chinese superapps, a one-stop shop for everything a traveler needs in researching and booking a trip, and then staying connected with their bookings during their trip.  The goal was to have travelers dependent upon TripAdvisor for their whole trip experience, and to include fintech capabilities, or payment processing directly through the intermediaries’ apps. TripAdvisor wanted to provide inspiring comprehensive trips, not just travel search and booking. Like a traditional travel agent, or trip designer, from the consolidated view of the traveler, not the travel suppliers or the intermediaries.

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Larkin Hoffman is brand counsel to a wide variety of premier hotel and car rental brands worldwide, from elite brands, to focused brands, to  global multi-brand portfolios, in every area of practice including online booking, call center outsourcing focused on the hospitality industry, sales and group contracting, leisure contracting, hotel industry joint ventures, hotel technology contracting, compliance, vendor contracting, employee recruitment and training, litigation, real estate, labor and employment, intellectual property, information technology and franchising.

This newsletter is provided as a service to our clients and firm associates. While the information provided in this newsletter is believed to be accurate, it is general in nature and should not be construed as legal advice.