You can see Tripadvisor's priorities crystal clear in where its restructuring occurred. The Tripadvisor Core segment took the heaviest hit, and Viator was impacted the least.
Until now, Tripadvisor has emphasized growth for Viator, backed by ample marketing, at the expense of profitability. It appears as though the company will moderate that strategy for 2024.
The American Express GBTs of the world won't lose sleep over this. But Kayak's effort should be a wake-up call to the sector. Technologies like blockchain may be seeding more competition at last.
There will be many struggling companies that will be watching this Trivago experiment to go really big in brand advertising. Is a second time the charm?
Tripadvisor sees itself increasingly relying on a fast-growing but profit-challenged Viator, and a hotel metasearch business that big advertisers are less committed to than in the past. Tough stuff.
Trivago Guy Tim Williams' fate in Trivago commercials now lies in the hands of the numbers crunchers. No one ever said the travel business or the acting profession are for the meek.
Choosing how much to advertise with Google, and where and when, can have significant financial implications. Trivago didn't jump into a new Google ad format, and got burned.
Kudos to Google for bringing some diversity into the leadership of Google Travel. Left unanswered is whether the leadership changes portend any strategic shifts.
Get a preview of our latest output from our Hotel Tech Benchmark data product. In this update, Skift Research looks closely at the best uses of digital marketing and advertising tools.