Trivago Lays Off Staff in Strategy Shift to Emphasize Profitability Over Growth
Photo Credit: Trivago CEO Rolf Schrömgens said the company needs to rebalance itself, emphasizing profitability over growth. Trivago / Trivago
Skift Take
A lot of Trivago's problems, including an advertising diss from Booking Holdings, are beyond the company's control so it is doing what it can, namely reducing advertising spend and headcount in an attempt to get into the black. Speaking of Booking Holdings, Trivago may need a dot-com-like Priceline comeback to right the ship.
Trivago is making less money for every dollar booked as advertisers, including Booking Holdings, tamp down spend, so the Germany-based hotel-shopping engine changed strategy in the second quarter to emphasize profitability instead of growth.
As a result of this drop in revenue from "commercialization," as officials put it, Trivago reduced its own advertising spend 17 percent to $266.3 million in the second quarter, which means you likely saw fewer of those previously omnipresent TV commercials and digital ads. Until Trivago ran into trouble in 2017, when Booking Holdings backed away from its previous spending levels in Trivago, the company had been known for its outsized marketing spend to spur growth.
Booking Holdings accounted
