Articles tagged “metasearch”

In some ways, Trivago and TripAdvisor find themselves in similar situations, although TripAdvisor has more upside because of its global brand awareness and the breadth of its offerings. But both need time to play the long game. In Trivago's case, it is now seeing alternative accommodations as a potential life line.

Beyond all the financial razzmatazz, TripAdvisor's core hotel business is still under pressure while the much smaller experiences and restaurant businesses are growing nicely — although not profitably at this point. If TripAdvisor can hang on while these non-core businesses mature, then its outlook would be much brighter.

Metasearch is hard, and comparison-shopping for vacation rentals and apartment shares is even harder. Tripping and others are having a hard time building their brands in the face of competition from larger players with more ample resources.

We come in peace, a top Google executive essentially said while addressing the travel industry on Thursday at Skift Forum Europe in Berlin. One possible industry response might be: "Trust, but verify."

Hotels — 10,000 of them — have voted with their feet, or advertising budgets, that is, and are trying out TripAdvisor's new sponsored listings program. The bottom line is the success or failure of the program will depend on how it impacts advertisers' bottom lines.

Trivago views Google Hotels as a separate channel from Google AdWords, and it is testing participation now that sites such as its own are no longer banned. Then comes the question of how profitable using Google Hotels would be, and whether Trivago wants to spend a lot of money in a competitive product.

It has become harder to find the online travel agencies with the lowest prices in Google's metasearch. The apparent change this week implicitly favors travel giants, which can afford to dominate ad auctions for online search.

Airbnb has sold investors on a growth story based, in part, on adding flights and other products. But selling flights is extremely complicated.

Wego got its start in 2005. But it only found a path to scaling up recently when it shifted its focus from Asia to the Gulf States.

As a sage songwriter once said, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." Trivago CFO Axel Hefer knows that, and he said current headwinds are obviously harder to manage than tailwinds. But if Trivago can work its way out of the mess it's in, it may emerge as a stronger company.