TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor Inc.
Type of business Public
Traded as NASDAQ: TRIP
S&P 500 Component
Founded February 2000 (2000-02)
Headquarters Needham, Massachusetts[1], U.S.
Area served Worldwide
Owner Liberty Media (13.7%)[2]
Founder(s) Stephen Kaufer[3]
Key people Stephen Kaufer, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Industry Travel services
Products Hotel and flights booking, Vacation rentals, Restaurant finding, Travel guides
Revenue $1.492 Billion in 2015[4]
Employees 3,008 people as of Dec 2015 Q4 Report
Subsidiaries TripAdvisor LLC, TripAdvisor Holdings, LLC, etc.[5]
Website tripadvisor.com
Native client(s) on iOS, watchOS, Android, Windows, Windows Phone

TripAdvisor, Inc. is an American travel and restaurant website company that shows hotel and restaurant reviews, accommodation bookings and other 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 a hotel booking facility and an advertising business model.[6]

Description

TripAdvisor booth at ITB Berlin 2014

TripAdvisor, headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts,[1] is the largest travel website in the world, with more than 315 million reviewers (active and inactive) and over 500 million reviews of hotels, restaurants, attractions and other travel-related businesses. TripAdvisor Media Group operates 25 travel brands including TripAdvisor, Airfarewatchdog,[7][8][9] BookingBuddy, Citymaps, Cruise Critic, Family Vacation Critic, FlipKey, GateGuru,[10] Holiday Lettings, Holiday Watchdog, Independent Traveler, Jetsetter, lafourchette,[11] Niumba, OneTime, SeatGuru, SmarterTravel, Tingo, TravelPod, Tripbod, VacationHomeRentals, Viator,[12] and VirtualTourist.[1] TripAdvisor operates websites internationally.

History

TripAdvisor was founded by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka in February 2000.[13] Kaufer has stated that 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."[14] Original financing was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group, and private investors.[15]

In 2004, the company was purchased by IAC/InterActiveCorp.[3]

In August 2005, IAC spun off its travel group of businesses under the Expedia, Inc. name.[16]

Headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts

In April 2009, TripAdvisor launched its official site in China, 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.[17]

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.[18]

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.[19][20]

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."[21]

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.”[22]

In December 2011, TripAdvisor was spun off from Expedia in a public offering.[23]

TripAdvisor becomes the world’s largest travel site, with nearly 280 million unique monthly visitors.[24]

In April 2012, the company launched a connection to Facebook that lets users select reviews from people in their social graph.[25]

In October 2014, Trip Advisor released a new feature, "Just for you", offering tailored hotel recommendations based on the user's preferences and search history on the site.[26] This feature mirrored the "Tribes" feature launched on competitor site Gogobot in 2013.[27]

Acquisitions

In May 2007, TripAdvisor acquired Smarter Travel Media operator of SmarterTravel.com and BookingBuddy.com; SeatGuru.com; TravelPod.com; and Travel-Library.com.[28] Also in May 2007, TripAdvisor acquired The Independent Traveler, Inc., publisher of Cruise Critic.com and IndependentTraveler.com[29]

In February 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Holiday Watchdog, user-generated travel site in the U.K.[30] In July 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Virtualtourist, a travel website with reportedly over 1 million registered members and OneTime.com, a travel comparison site.[31]

In July 2008, TripAdvisor acquired a majority stake in FlipKey.com, a vacation-rental website.[32] In October 2009, TripAdvisor purchased Kuxun.cn, China’s second-largest consumer travel site and hotel and flight search engine.[33] Kuxun was later sold to Meituan.[34]

In June 2010, TripAdvisor acquired the United Kingdom's largest independent vacation rental website, holidaylettings.co.uk.[35]

In July 2011, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Where I've Been, a Chicago-based Travel Facebook app for an undisclosed sum.[36]

In October 2012, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Wanderfly, an NYC-based travel inspiration website for an undisclosed sum.[37]

In April 2013, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Jetsetter, an NYC flash sale site.[38]

In June 2013, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of GateGuru, an NYC-based flight and airport information mobile app for an undisclosed sum.[39]

In October 2013, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Oyster.com, an NYC-based hotel review and photography website, for an undisclosed sum.[40]

In May 2014 TripAdvisor acquired Vacation Home Rentals and Tripod.[41]

In May 2014, LaFourchette agreed to be acquired by TripAdvisor, for $140 million in an all cash deal.[42][11][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] In July 2014, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition.[50]

In August 2014, TripAdvisor acquired Viator, Inc. for $200M.[51][52]

In October 2014, TripAdvisor acquired mytable and restopolis.[41]

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.[53][54]

In April 2015, TripAdvisor acquired Portuguese startup BestTables.[55]

In May 2015, TripAdvisor acquired Australian startup Dimmi for $25 million.[56] In October 2016, TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of Couverts, a Dutch restaurant review, a Dutch website for reserving seats in a restaurant. According to TripAdvisor, this is to stimulate growth in The Netherlands.[57][54]

In August 2016, TripAdvisor acquired New York City startup Citymaps.com, which developed a social mapping site and original cross platform map engine based on OpenStreetMap data.[58]

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.[59]

Approximately 30 hotels have been blacklisted by TripAdvisor for suspicious reviews, including a Cornwall hotel that bribed guests to leave positive reviews of the hotel.[60]

TripAdvisor has 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.[61] The website also allows the community of users to report suspicious content, which is then assessed by Tripadvisor staff.[62]

In September 2011, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched a formal investigation into TripAdvisor after receiving a complaint submitted by online investigations company KwikChex that its claims to provide trustworthy and honest reviews from travelers are false.[63] The ASA found that TripAdvisor "should not claim or imply that all its reviews were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted",[64] and as a result of the investigation, TripAdvisor was ordered to remove the slogan "reviews you can trust" from its UK web site.[65] 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.[66][67] 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.[68] The outcome of this case was called a "landmark victory", as the pursuer (plaintiff) secured two points of law in the UK:[69]

  • TripAdvisor conceded that it could be sued in the UK's jurisdictions (having previously claimed to be outside the remit of the Scottish legal system because it is based in Massachusetts);
  • TripAdvisor's terms of use constituted a contract, which was actionable/enforceable by the business being reviewed.

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.[70]

In May 2013, a fake restaurant was set up by a disgruntled businessman and reportedly had diners looking for the eatery in an alley filled with garbage cans. The fake listing went undetected on TripAdvisor for over 2 months until it was exposed by KwikChex.[71]

In March 2014, TripAdvisor's Chinese site came under scrutiny because KwikChex uncovered that a reviewer had reviewed 51 Parisian restaurants in one month, while also reviewing 50 Hotels in other countries.[72]

In December 2014, the Italian Antitrust Authority fined TripAdvisor €500,000 for improper commercial practices on the TripAdvisor website.[73][74][75] The Italian Authority stated that Tripadvisor and its Italian arm should stop publishing misleading information about the sources of the reviews. In June 2015, a fake restaurant created by a newspaper rose to the top of the site's rankings in Italy.[76]

An ex-hotel manager at Meriton says that guests were offered inducements to change ratings they left on the site.[77]

Dietmar Doering, a German hotelier based in Sri Lanka accused TripAdvisor of hosting malicious reviews of his resort The Cosy Beach in Marawila. He claimed he was compelled to take legal action for the estimated damages of US$500,000.[78]

In November 2017, TripAdvisor was cited in two reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel[79] and CBS News[80] that it was responsible for deleting numerous reviews that raised red flags of complaisant criminal responsibility by resorts in Playa del Carmen, a popular tourist resort in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. The reports cited that the company deleted reviews from two women who were raped at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya in separate incidents 2010 and 2015 respectively, one of which involved a hotel security guard. After assurances from hotel staff they would help out and contact the authorities but failed to take any follow-up action, the women took their advisories and warnings to TripAdvisor, which deleted their reviews. The first victim, Kristie Love, had her review eventually put back up on TripAdvisor's site successfully, while in the case of the second victim, Jamie Valeri, the company refused to budge after citing her report as "hearsay." The reports also highlighted at least a dozen other incidents at hotels and resorts across Mexico, including that of a 29-year-old man who was raped by a massage therapist at a resort in the same area, where reviewers had attempted to warn people through reviews on the company's site about criminal incidents that the resorts and local authorities had failed to pursue any criminal or legal action for, only to have those reviews either taken down or declined for posting by TripAdvisor.

In November 2017, Oobah Butler, a journalist for Vice Media, used fake reviews to boost a nonexistent restaurant named The Shed at Dulwich to the top of Tripadvisor rankings for restaurants in London.[81][82][83] When questioned about its fraud-prevention systems, TripAdvisor responded that this type of fraud was not generally seen, because unlike artificially good reviews for a real restaurant, creating good reviews for a non-existent restaurant is not profitable.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About TripAdvisor". TripAdvisor.com. TripAdvisor. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  2. ↑ "TripAdvisor INC (TRIP)". Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  3. 1 2 Schaal, Dennis (2016). "The Definitive oral history of online travel". Skift. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  4. ↑ "Annual Report" (PDF). TripAdvisor LLC.
  5. ↑ "Subsidiaries of TripAdvisor, Inc". Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  6. ↑ "Fact sheet". TripAdvisor LLC. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  7. ↑ "TripAdvisor adds meta search engine".
  8. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires airfarewatchdog.com - 2008-04-01 - Crunchbase". Crunchbase.
  9. ↑ "Smarter Travel Media Acquires Airfarewatchdog.com, a Leading Airfare Deal Site".
  10. ↑ "TripAdvisor Buys Flight Information App Provider GateGuru". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. 1 2 "Restaurant Reservation Service LaFourchette Gobbled Up By TripAdvisor For ~$140M".
  12. ↑ Chowdhry, Amit. "Travel Site TripAdvisor To Acquire Viator For Approximately $200M".
  13. ↑ Morris, Cheryl (2 November 2010). "Boston Tech-Mafia Mondays: TripAdvisor – Pioneers in Online Travel". BostInno. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  14. ↑ "Interview with Stephen Kaufer". BBC Radio 4: The Bottom Line. October 16, 2014.
  15. ↑ "IAC Acquires TripAdvisor, Inc". Flagship Ventures. 2004-03-16. Archived from the original on 2011-02-25. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  16. ↑ "IAC Completes Spin-Off of Expedia, Inc". Expedia, Inc. 2005-08-09. Archived from the original on 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  17. ↑ "about daodao.com". daodao.com. 2011-07-01. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  18. ↑ "Places to go in Milan". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  19. ↑ "TripAdvisor hacked, member emails stolen". Financial Post. 2011-03-24. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  20. ↑ "More Information".
  21. ↑ "Expedia plans to split into two companies". Reuters. 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  22. ↑ Dennis Schaal (November 22, 2011). "Expedia readies TripAdvisor spinoff citing hotel review reliability". Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  23. ↑ "A weak Wall Street welcome for Newton-based TripAdvisor - Business". The Boston Globe. December 22, 2011.
  24. ↑ "TripAdvisor is now the world's largest social travel website". Traveltradejournal.com. 2012-03-17. Archived from the original on 2013-01-20. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  25. ↑ "TripAdvisor unveils next phase of Facebook tie-in, friends of friends included in reviews". Tnooz. 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  26. ↑ Sawers, Paul (October 27, 2014). "TripAdvisor introduces 'Just for You,' hotel recommendations based on search history and feedback]". TheNextWeb.
  27. ↑ "Gogobot goes niche, offering users contextual search aligned to specific interests called Tribes". Tnooz. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  28. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires five travel communities". HotelMarketing.com. 2007-05-09. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  29. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Cruise Critic, Leading Cruise Community". PR Wire. 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  30. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Holiday Watchdog". Reuters. 2008-02-14. Archived from the original on 2008-11-02. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  31. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires VirtualTourist and OneTime". TripAdvisor LLC. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
  32. ↑ "TripAdvisor Takes FlipKey Majority Stake". Xconomy. 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  33. ↑ "TripAdvisor Expands to China with Kuxun". bnet. 2009-10-31. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  34. ↑ "TripAdvisor sells Kuxun brand and revises China strategy". 2015-08-19. Retrieved 2015-08-19.
  35. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires vacation rental site HolidayLettings.co.uk". TripAdvisor. 2010-06-10.
  36. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires Where I've Been". TripAdvisor. 2011-07-11.
  37. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Wanderfly". TripAdvisor. 2012-10-02. Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2012-10-02.
  38. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires Jetsetter.com". TripAdvisor. 2013-04-09.
  39. ↑ "TripAdvisor Buys GateGuru App". Zacks Investment Research. 2013-06-20. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  40. ↑ "TripAdvisor Acquires Oyster.com". TripAdvisor. 2013-10-15.
  41. 1 2 "TripAdvisor Q4 2014 Results / page 26" (PDF). files.shareholder.com. TripAdvisor. February 2014. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  42. ↑ Trefis (29 May 2014). "TripAdvisor Enters Online Restaurant Reservation Space With Acquisition Of LaFourchette".
  43. ↑ "Google Translate". translate.google.com.
  44. ↑ https://www.thefork.com/
  45. ↑ "Increase your restaurant's revenue simply and effectively. TheFork Manager". LaFourchette.
  46. ↑ "Current Openings - LaFourchette". https://www.workable.com. External link in |website= (help)
  47. ↑ https://www.serenacapital.com/lafourchette/
  48. ↑ "Homepage - Partech". www.partechventures.com.
  49. ↑ Seyfert, Robert; Roberge, Jonathan (2016-10-04). Algorithmic Cultures: Essays on Meaning, Performance and New Technologies. ISBN 9781317331810.
  50. ↑ Team, Trefis. "Why Online Travel Companies Are Buying Restaurant Reservation Operators".
  51. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (August 11, 2014). "TripAdvisor Completes $200 Million Acquisition of Viator". Skift. Skift. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  52. ↑ "Company Overview of Viator, Inc". Bloomberg Research. Bloomberg. January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  53. ↑ "TripAdvisor maakt overname Iens bekend". Archived from the original on 2015-04-03.
  54. 1 2 Wokke, Arnoud (8 January 2015). "TripAdvisor neemt Nederlandse restaurantsite Iens over". Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  55. ↑ "TripAdvisor comprou uma startup portuguesa. A BestTables". Observador.
  56. ↑ "TripAdvisor acquires Australian restaurant bookings site Dimmi". Sydney Morning Herald.
  57. ↑ "TripAdvisor maakt overname couverts bekend".
  58. ↑ "TripAdvisor scoops up social mapping service Citymaps".
  59. ↑ Dodson, Sean (2007-07-21). "Best of the net: Tripadvisor - the great divide". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  60. ↑ "Cornwall hotel bribes guests to write good reviews on TripAdvisor.com". Mirror Online.
  61. ↑ Petersen, Christine (November 10, 2011). "Caterer and Hotelkeeper interview - TripAdvisor". Caterersearch.com.
  62. ↑ Hall, Richard (September 12, 2011). "TripAdvisor removes its 'reviews you can trust' slogan". The Independent. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  63. ↑ Sweney, Mark (2011-09-02). "ASA to Investigate TripAdvisor". London: Guardian.co.uk.
  64. ↑ "TripAdvisor rebuked over 'trust' claims on review site". BBC News. 2012-02-01.
  65. ↑ "Trip Advisor rebuked over 'trust' claims by ASA". BBC and ASA. 2012-02-01.
  66. ↑ "TripAdvisor removes 'reviews you can trust' slogan from its website". London: Daily Mail.co.uk. 2011-09-13.
  67. ↑ Oliver Smith (13 Sep 2011). "TripAdvisor removes 'reviews you can trust' slogan from website". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  68. ↑ "Guesthouse owner sues travel website Tripadvisor over negative review". STV News.
  69. ↑ "Tiny B&B deals blow for TripAdvisor as it wins landmark victory after visitors posted bad reviews". Daily Mail. London. 2012-10-11.
  70. ↑ Martin, Hugo (2012-07-13). "TripAdvisor fined for violating airfare advertising rule". Los Angeles Times.
  71. ↑ "Fake restaurant on TripAdvisor sends diners to alley filled with garbage cans". Fox News. 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  72. ↑ Attwool, Jolyon (14 March 2014). "TripAdvisor's China website comes under fire". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  73. ↑ "Tripadvisor fined by Italian competition regulator". BBC News.
  74. ↑ Francesca Melchiorri. "PS9345 - Mezzo milione di multa a Tripadvisor". agcm.it.
  75. ↑ "Italian Authorities Look Into Tripadvisor For Improper Commercial Practices". Finnbay. 2014-05-20. (Registration required (help)).
  76. ↑ Fenton, Siobhan (2015-06-30). "TripAdvisor denies rating system is flawed, after fake restaurant tops rankings in Italy". The Independent. London.
  77. ↑ "Meriton allegedly prevents guests from giving negative reviews, bribes them to improve ratings on TripAdvisor". ABC News.
  78. ↑ "TripAdvisor's misleading reviews damage Sri Lankan resort's global image". Daily FT. 27 March 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  79. ↑ "TripAdvisor removed warnings about rapes and injuries at Mexico resorts, tourists say". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 1 November 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  80. ↑ "TripAdvisor accused of deleting reviews that raised red flags". CBS News. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  81. ↑ "Writer 'tricks' TripAdvisor into making his shed top London restaurant".
  82. ↑ Low, Valentine (7 December 2017). "Prankster Oobah Butler tricks TripAdvisor into thinking his shed is London's best restaurant" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  83. ↑ "The Shed At Dulwich". Vice.

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