Articles tagged “restaurants”

Don't miss the forest for the trees: TripAdvisor is evolving into a well-rounded travel planning AND booking site. If hotel bookings on TripAdvisor eventually fall short of expectations it would be a big blow, but then tours and activities, restaurant reservations, vacation rentals, hotel metasearch and reviews can all play a role in taking up some of the slack.

Engineering geeks like big, tough problems and the coders at Kayak are attempting to take on the challenges of comparing diverse restaurants in a city and also the attributes of this hop-on hop-off Beverly Hills tour versus a competitor's. And you thought comparing various flights with bag fees was tough?

Hoteliers know that both travelers and locals alike are tired of stuffy dining rooms and interminable multi-course meals. They're bringing in a wider swath of customers through experimentation and partnerships with skilled restauranteurs.

Hoteliers are embracing travelers who want hotels to reflect local character and looking to move away from the bland experience of homogenous big box hotels. But hotels are still playing catch up on many restaurant trends that are becoming common across the globe.

As is the case with the Priceline Group's handling of Kayak, it is clear that Priceline isn't doubling down on investing in OpenTable. With Booking.com the parent company's overwhelming priority, the international growth of OpenTable will take place at a measured pace, opening opportunities for others.

Restaurants, attractions and vacation rentals are just 12 percent of TripAdvisor's revenue but that number is going to get a lot bigger in the future.

The OpenTable redesign is meant to counter the dreaded commoditization curse. There's a lot more money and value in being an integral part of the dining experience for consumers and widening the business relationship with restaurants than merely being a reservations platform.

Booking.com and now TripAdvisor are getting deeper into the B2B side of the hotel business. That leaves Expedia as the holdout that so far is maintaining its focus on hotel distribution and is sticking to its proverbial knitting.

TripAdvisor wants to establish itself as the leading restaurant reservations platform in Europe before OpenTable gets around to showing up in earnest.

Among Certify's clients, at least, It's a battle between Hampton Inn and Marriott for the most expensed brands in terms of hotel spend. The fact that business travelers spent less at Hampton in terms of average cost could be one of the reasons why it took over the top spot in the third quarter as road warriors may have found more value there.