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TripAdvisor advises against mobile apps for its hotel customers

Dennis Schaal

Photo Credit: TripAdvisor singles out the Nashville Music City website as one that effectively uses responsive design, altering its display based on the type of device a visitor is using.  Nashville Music City

Skift Take

TripAdvisor giveth and TripAdvisor taketh. It gives great advice to hotels, and it takes their advertising dollars. Good cop, bad cop (although not-so bad if it is driving hotel bookings) has long been known to be a very effective strategy.

TripAdvisor is advising its hotel customers that they should definitely fine-tune their mobile offerings, but should probably steer clear of mobile apps. "They can be expensive to create, so only develop an app if you have enough frequent travelers who’ll use it often enough," TripAdvisor says, referring to downloadable mobile apps, in a new TripAdvisor for Business guide to mobile marketing. "With an app, you ask a lot from travelers. First, they have to download the app. Then find it and log in. And then actually take the time to use it. So your app has to be helpful, easy to use and work well enough to justify all that effort." To be sure, TripAdvisor is not dispensing this mobile advice for large ch

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