Skift Take
While Tripadvisor has transitioned over the years away from hotel metasearch in a big way — largely because of Google's incursions — Trivago is just starting to dabble with diversification. That tilt could lead to more significant changes in the future.
In a modest way, its recent acquisition of Weekend.com gets Trivago into the online travel agency arena. That's because instead of sending customers to other sites to complete their bookings, Trivago is the merchant of record in Weekend.com holiday packages.
The twist in business models, and Trivago's desire to diversify beyond classic metasearch, is noteworthy although the level of its online travel agency-like bookings is very small, especially during the midst of the pandemic's second wave in Europe and elsewhere.
In a Skift interview immediately following Trivago's fourth quarter earnings call Wednesday, CEO Axel Hefer said that with the new holiday package offering plus a major product launch of local trips in the next couple of months, Trivago is offering customers s
