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I work at TripAdvisor and am quite enjoying myself. I'm happy to answer questions to the extent of my ability.

by sanj 12y ago

e15ctr0n 12y ago
The article implies that TripAdvisor is gearing up to take on Expedia and Priceline as OTAs and that "the two ways of doing business are converging." What is your take on this?
- sanj 12y ago
  We built instant booking to make booking easier for our visitors. If you look at the phone booking experience on most sites, it is miserable. We've got some phone expertise, and wanted to parlay that into a much better experience. Instant booking is a way for us to exploit that expertise to make a better experience for users, even as they book with one of our partners.
  - e15ctr0n 12y ago
    So TripAdvisor will continue to book with partners and not become an OTA itself?
    - sanj 12y ago
      As coldcode pointed out, "being an OTA" is a lot of work. I'm not involved in that side of the business, but I'd take our public statements at face value.
OrwellianChild 12y ago
Can you break down the commission structure that differentiates TripAdvisor from someone like Yelp? Stop me where I go off the rails: - TA collects reviews, good or bad, for free from users. - Then they set up commissioned links to someone like Expedia for the hotel. - Expedia pays them a commission for closing the sale. - Expedia then passes the reservation on to the hotel. - The hotel gets the booking, and pays Expedia for the lead. As long as there is enough money in the system to support two layers of outsourcing on BizDev, this sounds like a fairly stable relationship... ...If TA starts booking directly, however, it can do any of several things: - Charge lower rates than Expedia - Make more margin on the same booking - Provide bundling or other discounting not available from the existing Expedia arrangement - Start selling "preferred listings" which always float to the top of search results It strikes me that the only reason this relationship exists is that Expedia doesn't have a good review front-end... Because the spun it off as TA. Is there any back-end connection/relationship/ownership across Expedia and TA that would facilitate these two not eventually competing as described above? EDIT: Formatting.
- sanj 12y ago
  The way that I think about TripAdvisor is that we have become a location that aggregates traffic that is interested in booking a hotel (or restaurant, or attraction) better than anyone else. And this is a nice flywheel: more reviews means more value to users, which means better SEO traffic and brand awareness, which means that this the best place to write said reviews. Once the visitor is here, they peruse our content, photos, etc. and we direct them somewhere else to complete their transaction. Instant book is a way to streamline that transaction for our visitors. I can't comment on the whether or not we'll ultimately compete. Ultimately is a long time.

I work at TripAdvisor and am quite enjoying myself. I'm happy to answer questions to the extent of my ability.

by sanj 12y ago

I work at TripAdvisor and am quite enjoying myself. I'm happy to answer questions to the extent of my ability.

The article implies that TripAdvisor is gearing up to take on Expedia and Priceline as OTAs and that "the two ways of doing business are converging." What is your take on this?

sanj 12y ago
We built instant booking to make booking easier for our visitors. If you look at the phone booking experience on most sites, it is miserable. We've got some phone expertise, and wanted to parlay that into a much better experience. Instant booking is a way for us to exploit that expertise to make a better experience for users, even as they book with one of our partners.
- e15ctr0n 12y ago
  So TripAdvisor will continue to book with partners and not become an OTA itself?
  - sanj 12y ago
    As coldcode pointed out, "being an OTA" is a lot of work. I'm not involved in that side of the business, but I'd take our public statements at face value.

OrwellianChild 12y ago

Can you break down the commission structure that differentiates TripAdvisor from someone like Yelp? Stop me where I go off the rails: - TA collects reviews, good or bad, for free from users. - Then they set up commissioned links to someone like Expedia for the hotel. - Expedia pays them a commission for closing the sale. - Expedia then passes the reservation on to the hotel. - The hotel gets the booking, and pays Expedia for the lead. As long as there is enough money in the system to support two layers of outsourcing on BizDev, this sounds like a fairly stable relationship... ...If TA starts booking directly, however, it can do any of several things: - Charge lower rates than Expedia - Make more margin on the same booking - Provide bundling or other discounting not available from the existing Expedia arrangement - Start selling "preferred listings" which always float to the top of search results It strikes me that the only reason this relationship exists is that Expedia doesn't have a good review front-end... Because the spun it off as TA. Is there any back-end connection/relationship/ownership across Expedia and TA that would facilitate these two not eventually competing as described above? EDIT: Formatting.

sanj 12y ago
The way that I think about TripAdvisor is that we have become a location that aggregates traffic that is interested in booking a hotel (or restaurant, or attraction) better than anyone else. And this is a nice flywheel: more reviews means more value to users, which means better SEO traffic and brand awareness, which means that this the best place to write said reviews. Once the visitor is here, they peruse our content, photos, etc. and we direct them somewhere else to complete their transaction. Instant book is a way to streamline that transaction for our visitors. I can't comment on the whether or not we'll ultimately compete. Ultimately is a long time.