Articles tagged “trivago”

Trivago's CEO says his company bests Google in hotel search through brand marketing (meaning, Trivago Guy TV ads) and having a decentralized workplace (which speeds up innovation). But maybe Google's lackluster travel effort is actually due to its fear of alienating top advertisers like Priceline.

How do you stay efficient and maintain core values when your company scales from 700 to 1,100 employees within a year? You get rid of most job titles and fly everyone to Ibiza for the weekend, says Trivago's managing director Johannes Thomas.

Your eyes weren't fooling you. Late last year, Trivago really did spend more on its TV ads than ever before in many markets. In its first financial report as a public company, the price-comparison company says the ads are working.

Rectifying the difficulties in shopping for hotels online is a tremendously complex problem given travelers' fickle nature -- a business trip today, a romantic escapade tomorrow -- and varying quality levels from property to property even within a given brand. Trivago at least recognizes what one of the main problems is in matching a traveler's hotel preferences with the right hotel and hopes to address it with a heftier bank account after conducting its IPO.

Overall, the initial day of trading amounted to a modest success for Trivago. Its founders made a bundle, it generated a couple of hundred million dollars for expansion, and its valuation crossed the $4 billion threshold -- even though it had hoped for much more and was undoubtably disappointed about the manner in which it debuted. This is a long game; verdicts now are meaningless.

Trivago is saturating certain markets with TV advertising. Google Trends data suggest this may not be as effective as the company wants investors to surmise.

There's little question that Trivago is going to get very big in coming years. Whether it can turn on a profitability gene, and whether its stock price tanks or zooms after it goes public, will be up to the market to decide.

While the world is transitioning to mobile, there are still issues to work on when it comes to monetizing mobile search.

When you think of all the online travel companies constrained by a lack of marketing resources wipe Trivago out of your mind. The Germany-based hotel metasearch site spends a whopping 88 percent of its revenue on advertising. And, if it can pull off a successful initial public offering then Trivago will resupply its advertising war chest. The metasearch rich are getting richer.

The IPO that we all knew was coming is finally here.