Tripadvisor’s New Subscription Service Edges the Company Toward Online Travel Agency Status
Photo Credit: Tripadvisor is trying to get hotels to try to sign up directly to participate in its new subscription program for consumers, Tripadvisor Plus. Until now, Tripadvisor has largely seeded the program with hotels through third-party aggregators. Tripadvior
Skift Take
Years ago, before it acquired Viator, Tripadvisor was purely an advertising/media company. Today, with its big bet on the Tripadvisor Plus subscription program, the company is becoming much more of a hybrid advertising/booking site. That is certainly one of the calculations that the hotel industry is considering.
Can you imagine if Google were mimicking the way Tripadvisor is handling its new subscription program, Tripadvisor Plus? Pundits would be screaming that Google is becoming an online travel agency.
Tripadvisor's new subscription program, Tripadvisor Plus, which is still in beta and slated to be rolled out to all U.S. users by the end of June, has Tripadvisor collecting credit card details on subscriber hotel bookings, and Tripadvisor is the contact point for customer service issues, although the hotel or online travel agency supplier is officially the merchant of record.
Tripadvisor is already the merchant of record when users book its tours and activities so Tripadvisor has already dipped in, and some might say, is creeping toward online travel agency status.
Like Tripadvisor in the past, Google has dabbled with handling hotel bookings through its own platform, but it hasn't been the merchant of record and hotels take on the customer service responsibilities for these bookings
