Interview: TripAdvisor CEO on What Instant Booking Means to Its Future
Photo Credit: The lobby of the swanky new TripAdvisor headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts. Skift
Skift Take
From hotel reviews, to pop-up advertising, metasearch, restaurants and now hotel bookings, TripAdvisor has gone through many incarnations. CEO Stephen Kaufer has driven many of the changes and plans to be around for quite some time longer to seize on a huge opportunity ahead.
There's an argument making that rounds that Google's moves to implement a Book on Google feature, where consumers would book hotels in Google search or maps, is a lot of hype, or even a non-event, because Google would never want to alienate its largest travel advertisers: online travel agencies such as the Priceline Group and Expedia.
In an interview with Skift at TripAdvisor's swanky new headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts, CEO Stephen Kaufer was having none of that.
"We watch [Google] fairly carefully," Kaufer said. "We know from experience that these things tend to take a while to catch on, both from the supply side, as well as the demand side, and the customer side. I take their entry into the space with this booking flow very seriously. I think it is clearly an event versus a non-event.
"So I will disagree with those [who see Google's entry as a non-event]. It may not have a lot of volume at the moment, but I don't think Google would be shy about ... Or the argument th
