TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor LLC
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: TRIP
S&P 500 Component
Industry Travel services
Founded February 2000
Founder Stephen Kaufer
Headquarters Newton, Massachusetts[1], United States
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Stephen Kaufer, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Products Hotel and flights booking, Vacation rentals, Restaurant finding, Travel guides
Revenue $1.246 Billion in 2014[2]
Number of employees
 2,793 people as of Dec 2014 Q4 Report
Website www.tripadvisor.com
Footnotes / references
nearly 280m monthly UV, 60m members and over 170m reviews

TripAdvisor LLC is an American travel website company providing reviews of travel-related content. It also includes interactive travel forums.

TripAdvisor was an early adopter of user-generated content. The website services are free to users, who provide most of the content, and the website is supported by an advertising business model.[3]

Description

TripAdvisor booth at ITB Berlin 2014

TripAdvisor Media Group operates 25 travel brands including TripAdvisor, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Cruise Critic, Family Vacation Critic, FlipKey, GateGuru,[4] Holiday Lettings, Holiday Watchdog, Independent Traveler, lafourchette, OneTime, SeatGuru, SmarterTravel, Tingo, Jetsetter, Travel Library, TravelPod, Viator, VirtualTourist and Kuxun.cn. TripAdvisor operates websites internationally, including in the U.S., the U.K., France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbia, India, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, The Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Turkey, Mexico, Austria, Norway, Poland, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Greece, Indonesia, and in China under the brand daodao.com and kuxun.cn. TripAdvisor is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.[1] According to its website,[5] TripAdvisor claims to be the largest travel site in the world, with more than 60 million members and over 170 million reviews and opinions of hotels, restaurants, attractions and other travel-related businesses.

History

TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000 by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, and several others. Stephen Kaufer says the original idea wasn't a user generated social media site to swap reviews. " We started as a site where we were focused more on those official words from guidebooks or newspapers or magazines. We also had a button in the very beginning that said visitors add your own review and boy did that just take off. Pretty soon the number of average consumer reviews far surpassed the number of "professional reviews". That is when the site really turned into this collection of what the normal traveller was saying whererever they were going. "[6] Original financing was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group and private investors.[7] The company was purchased by IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2004. IAC spun off its travel group of businesses under the Expedia, Inc. name in August 2005.[8]

In April 2009, TripAdvisor launched its official site in China, www.daodao.com. Since then it has indexed more than 20,000 hotels and restaurants information and customer reviews, and made top lists, becoming one of the biggest travel websites as of July 2011.[9]

In September 2010, SmarterTravel, part of TripAdvisor Media Group, launched SniqueAway (now Jetsetter) the first members-only site where each travel deal is endorsed by the people.[10]

In March 2011, TripAdvisor informed all registered TripAdvisor members that an unauthorized third party had stolen some of TripAdvisor's email list, and might use it to create spam messages. No passwords or other information was stolen. This happened shortly before many other companies reported similar thefts of the addresses on their email lists.[11][12]

In April 2011, it was announced that Expedia would split into two publicly traded companies by spinning off the TripAdvisor brand of travel sites. According to Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the move, "allows the two businesses to be pure plays and to operate with the proper amount of focus to grow respectively."[13]

According to a July 2011 PhoCusWright survey of 3,641 respondents, solicited at random through a pop-up invitation link on TripAdvisor.com and commissioned by Trip Advisor, “98% of participants found that TripAdvisor’s hotel reviews … accurately reflect the experience.”[14]

In December 2011, TripAdvisor was spun off from Expedia in a public offering.[15]

TripAdvisor states it is the world’s largest travel site with nearly 280 million unique monthly visitors.[16]

In April 2012, the company launched a connection to Facebook that lets users select reviews from people in their social graph.[17]

In August 2014, a survey found that TripAdvisor is the most widely recognized, used, and trusted travel website.[18]

In October 2014, Trip Advisor released a new feature "Just for you," offering tailored hotel recommendations based on your preferences and search history on the site.[19]

Acquisitions

In May 2007 TripAdvisor acquired Smarter Travel Media operator of SmarterTravel.com and BookingBuddy.com; SeatGuru.com; TravelPod.com; and Travel-Library.com.[20] Also in May 2007, TripAdvisor acquired The Independent Traveler, Inc., publisher of Cruise Critic.com and IndependentTraveler.com[21]

In February 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Holiday Watchdog, a user-generated travel site in the U.K.[22] In July 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Virtualtourist, a travel website with reportedly over 1 million registered members and OneTime.com, a travel comparison site.[23]

In July 2008, TripAdvisor acquired a majority stake in FlipKey.com, a vacation-rental website.[24] In October 2009, TripAdvisor purchased Kuxun.cn, China’s second-largest consumer travel site and hotel and flight search engine.[25]

In June 2010, TripAdvisor acquired the United Kingdom's largest independent vacation rental website, holidaylettings.co.uk.[26]

In July 2011, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Where I've Been, a Chicago based Travel Facebook app for an undisclosed sum.[27]

In October 2012, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Wanderfly, a NYC based travel inspiration website for an undisclosed sum.[28]

In April 2013, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Jetsetter, a NYC flash sale site.[29]

In June 2013, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of GateGuru, a NYC based flight and airport information mobile app for an undisclosed sum.[30]

In July 2014, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Viator for approximately $200 million.[31]

In January 2015, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Iens, a Dutch restaurant review website and SeatMe, a Dutch website for reserving seats in a restaurant. According to TripAdvisor, this is to stimulate growth in The Netherlands.[32][33]

In April 2015, TripAdvisor acquired Portuguese startup BestTables.[34]

Controversy and Fraudulent Reviews

TripAdvisor has been the subject of controversy for allowing unsubstantiated anonymous reviews to be posted about any hotel, B&B, inn or restaurant.[35]

Around 30 hotels have been blacklisted by TripAdvisor for suspicious reviews, including a Cornwall hotel that bribed guests to leave positive reviews of the hotel.[36]

TripAdvisor have stated that reviews are not posted to the website instantly, but are subject to a verification process which considers the IP address and email address of the author, and tries to detect any suspicious patterns or obscene or abusive language.[37] The website also allows the community of users to report suspicious content, which is then assessed by a team of quality assurance specialists. TripAdvisor also alerts the owner or manager of a TripAdvisor-listed establishment whenever a review is posted on their listing.

In September 2011, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched a formal investigation into TripAdvisor after receiving complaints that its claims to provide trustworthy and honest reviews from travellers are false.[38] The ASA found that TripAdvisor 'should not claim or imply that all its reviews were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted',[39] and as a result of the investigation, TripAdvisor was ordered to remove the slogan "reviews you can trust" from its UK web site.[40] It changed its hotel review section slogan to 'reviews from our community.'

TripAdvisor stated that the branding change had been planned for some time and that changes began in June 2011, before the ASA investigation.[41][42] ASA commented that "it was concerned that consumers might be fooled by fraudulent posts since the entries could be made without any form of verification," but recognised that TripAdvisor used "advanced and highly effective fraud systems" in an attempt to identify and remove fake content.

In 2012, an action was brought in a Sheriff Court in Scotland, by a guesthouse owner who claimed damages for malicious statements. TripAdvisor asserted that the Scottish courts lacked jurisdiction.[43] The outcome of this case was called a "landmark victory", as the pursuer (plaintiff) secured two points of law in the UK:[44]

The case was found to involve issues relating to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act, 1977: these issues were referred to a higher court in Stornoway.

In 2012, TripAdvisor was fined $80,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation for violating new fair trading regulations requiring taxes and fees to be shown for prices quoted for airfares.[45]

In March 2014, TripAdvisor's Chinese site came under scrutiny because a Chinese research firm uncovered that a reviewer had reviewed 51 Parisian restaurants in one month, while also reviewing 50 Hotels in other countries.[46]

In December 2014, the Italian Antitrust Authority fined TripAdvisor €500,000 for improper commercial practices on the TripAdvisor website.[47][48][49] The Italian Authority stated that Tripadvisor and its Italian arm should stop publishing misleading information about the sources of the reviews.

Dietmar Doering, a German hotelier based in Sri Lanka accuses TripAdvisor for its malicious reviews of his resort The Cosy Beach in Marawila where a Singaporean guest commented that "none of the rooms have a sea view" while in fact 11 rooms have an undisturbed direct sea view. The guest also noted, "The long swimming pool has been replaced by an octagonal shape swimming pool which does not allow much swimming except for cooling off."[50] But according to Doering his hotel never replaced a pool with another one and the existing pool is 25 years old and is 15 meters in diameter allowing people to swim in all directions. Doering and his Board of Directors have decided to file legal action against TripAdvisor for the estimated damages approximately $500,000.[51]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About TripAdvisor". TripAdvisor.com. Retrieved Dec 31, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Annual Report" (PDF). TripAdvisor LLC.
  3. ↑ "Fact sheet". TripAdvisor LLC. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  4. ↑ "TripAdvisor Buys Flight Information App Provider GateGuru". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ↑ http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/PressCenter-c4-Fact_Sheet.html retrieved 2012-07-28
  6. ↑ BBC Radio 4 interview with Stephen Kaufer "The Bottom Line" first broadcast 16-10-2014
  7. ↑ "IAC Acquires TripAdvisor, Inc.". Flagship Ventures. 2004-03-16. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  8. ↑ "IAC Completes Spin-Off of Expedia, Inc.". Expedia, Inc. 2005-08-09. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  9. ↑ "about daodao.com". daodao.com. 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  10. ↑ "Places to go in Milan". Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  11. ↑ ((cite web|url=http://business.financialpost.com/2011/03/24/tripadvisor-hacked-member-emails-stolen/ |title=TripAdvisor hacked, member emails stolen |publisher=Financial Post|date=2011-03-24 |accessdate=2013-10-29))
  12. ↑ ((url=http://www.tripadvisor.ca/vpages/more_information.html))
  13. ↑ "Expedia plans to split into two companies". Reuters. 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  14. ↑ Dennis Schaal (November 22, 2011). "Expedia readies TripAdvisor spinoff citing hotel review reliability". Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  15. ↑ A weak Wall Street welcome for Newton-based TripAdvisor - Business - The Boston Globe
  16. ↑ "TripAdvisor is now the world’s largest social travel website". Traveltradejournal.com. 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  17. ↑ "TripAdvisor unveils next phase of Facebook tie-in, friends of friends included in reviews". Tnooz. 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  18. ↑ http://www.ljresearch.co.uk/tripadvisor-tops-travel-brand-awareness-index/
  19. ↑ Sawers, Paul October 27, 2014 TheNextWeb. "TripAdvisor introduces ‘Just for You,’ hotel recommendations based on search history and feedback"
  20. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires five travel communities". HotelMarketing.com. 2007-05-09. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  21. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Cruise Critic, Leading Cruise Community". PR Wire. 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  22. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Holiday Watchdog". Reuters. 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  23. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires VirtualTourist and OneTime". TripAdvisor LLC. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
  24. ↑ "TripAdvisor Takes FlipKey Majority Stake". Xconomy. 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  25. ↑ "TripAdvisor Expands to China with Kuxun". bnet. 2009-10-31. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  26. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires vacation rental site HolidayLettings.co.uk". TripAdvisor. 2010-06-10.
  27. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires Where I've Been". TripAdvisor. 2011-07-11.
  28. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Wanderfly". TripAdvisor. 2012-10-02. Retrieved 2012-10-02.
  29. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires Jetsetter.com". TripAdvisor. 2013-04-09.
  30. ↑ "TripAdvisor Buys GateGuru App". Zacks Investment Research. 2013-06-20. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  31. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2014/07/25/travel-site-tripadvisor-to-acquire-viator-for-approximately-200m/
  32. ↑ "TripAdvisor maakt overname Iens bekend".
  33. ↑ Wokke, Arnoud (8 January 2015). "TripAdvisor neemt Nederlandse restaurantsite Iens over". Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  34. ↑ http://observador.pt/2015/04/09/tripadvisor-compra-portuguesa-best-tables-nao-mexer/
  35. ↑ Dodson, Sean (2007-07-21). "Best of the net: Tripadvisor - the great divide". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  36. ↑ Cornwall hotel bribes guests to write good reviews on TripAdvisor.com - Mirror Online
  37. ↑ Caterer and Hotelkeeper interview – Christine Petersen, TripAdvisor. Caterersearch.com. 10 Nov 2011. Last accessed 05 Dec 2011.
  38. ↑ Sweney, Mark (2011-09-02). "ASA to Investigate TripAdvisor". London: Guardian.co.uk.
  39. ↑ "TripAdvisor rebuked over 'trust' claims on review site". BBC News. 2012-02-01.
  40. ↑ "Trip Advisor rebuked over 'trust' claims by ASA". BBC and ASA. 2012-02-01.
  41. ↑ "TripAdvisor removes 'reviews you can trust' slogan from its website". London: Daily Mail.co.uk. 2011-09-13.
  42. ↑ Oliver Smith (13 Sep 2011). "TripAdvisor removes 'reviews you can trust' slogan from website". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  43. ↑ http://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/113661-guesthouse-owner-sues-travel-website-tripadvisor-over-negative-review/
  44. ↑ "Tiny B&B deals blow for TripAdvisor as it wins landmark victory after visitors posted bad reviews". Daily Mail (London).
  45. ↑ Martin, Hugo (2012-07-13). "TripAdvisor fined for violating airfare advertising rule". Los Angeles Times.
  46. ↑ Attwool, Jolyon (14 March 2014). "TripAdvisor’s China website comes under fire". Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  47. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30583483
  48. ↑ http://www.agcm.it/stampa/comunicati/7365-ps9345-mezzo-milione-di-multa-a-tripadvisor.html
  49. ↑ "Italian Authorities Look Into Tripadvisor For Improper Commercial Practices". Finnbay. 2014-05-20. (registration required (help)).
  50. ↑ http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g612379-d2433752-r237219541-The_Cosy_Beach-Marawila_North_Western_Province.htm|accessdate=28 March 2015
  51. ↑ "TripAdvisor’s misleading reviews damage Sri Lankan resort’s global image". 27 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.

External links