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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

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.

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.