TripAdvisor’s New Program Launch Will Bring In Small Hotels Like Never Before
Photo Credit: Independent hotels that participate in TripAdvisor Business Listings and work with an Internet booking engine can now use a TripAdvisor self-service auction platform to bid for position in hotel metasearch. TripAdvisor
Skift Take
The launch of TripConnect is a really big deal. In much the same way that Booking.com led the way in bringing on board apartment hotels, condos and villas, TripAdvisor will now enable that vast long-tail of smaller properties to participate and vie for direct bookings.
Booking.com, with its 354,000 hotels, has the largest collection of properties among booking sites, but TripAdvisor has launched a new program, TripConnect, that may enable it to attract a swath of small hotels, B&Bs and inns that even Booking.com hasn't reached.
With TripConnect, independent hotels that are subscribers to TripAdvisor's Business Listings and who work with one or several of 300-500 participating Internet booking engines, including Sabre Hospitality, Pegasus Solutions' Open Hospitality, TravelClick's iHotelier, will be able to enroll and use a self-service TripAdvisor auction platform modeled after Google AdWords, Facebook and LinkedIn to place their bids and participate in TripAdvisor's hotel metasearch, with the ability to change their bids every 24 hours.
Independent hotels won't have the money that large online travel agencies and hotel chains will bring to TripAdvisor's hotel metasearch, but perhaps the smaller properties will get a little more flexib
