{"id":3876,"date":"2017-02-26T12:24:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T17:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/building-an-integrated-digital-travel-platform-tripadvisor-vs-google\/"},"modified":"2017-02-26T12:24:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T17:24:37","slug":"building-an-integrated-digital-travel-platform-tripadvisor-vs-google","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/building-an-integrated-digital-travel-platform-tripadvisor-vs-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Building an Integrated Digital Travel Platform: TripAdvisor vs. Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Disclaimer: My fianc\u00e9 currently works for TripAdvisor and has\u00a0previously\u00a0worked for Google.<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u2019s attempted to plan a vacation is familiar with the problem of actually figuring out how to get it all done. You\u2019re looking to book an epic trip around the world \u2013 3 weeks across 3 continents. You check TripAdvisor for reviews of different hotels and then go to Booking.com to grab your hotel. Next you\u2019re on Kayak and Google Flights to determine the optimal multi-city route. Finally, you use OpenTable and your hotel concierge to book dining and the experiences you want. After countless hours a prospective traveler wonders why no company has figured out how to integrate all of these experiences.<\/p>\n

This seems to be the holy grail of digital travel platform companies. For example, Expedia\u2019s 10-K states that:<\/p>\n

\u201cExpedia, Inc. is an online travel company, empowering business and leisure travelers through technology with the tools and information they need to efficiently research, plan, book and experience travel.\u201d (From December 2015 10-K)<\/p>\n

and TripAdvisor\u2019s 10-K reads similarly, stating:<\/p>\n

\u201cTripAdvisor, our flagship brand, is the world\u2019s largest travel site, and its mission is to help people around the world plan, book and experience the perfect trip.\u201d (From December 2016 10-K).<\/p>\n

Different companies have differed in their approach to building such a platform. Expedia and Priceline have perhaps realized that customers are resigned to acting as their own integrators, and thus has focused on growing revenue by acquiring other booking and reservation sites. Since 2012, Expedia has spent $7.3 billion acquiring brands like Orbitz and HomeAway and Priceline has spent $5.4 billion acquiring Kayak and OpenTable.<\/p>\n

TripAdvisor and Google however are focused on building an integrated platform. Think back on your last trip \u2013 before you knew what you wanted to book you wanted to figure out where to go and what to do. Indeed, \u201c\u201cAccording to a commissioned survey conducted by PhoCusWright, more than 50% of [travelers] didn\u2019t want to make a booking until they had read reviews and found out what other travelers thought\u201d (http:\/\/marketrealist.com\/2016\/09\/how-does-google-trips-compare-to-tripadvisor\/<\/a>). The emerging competition between these platforms leads me to some interesting questions, findings and predictions.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Opportunity \u2013 Utilizing its Rich Proprietary Apps Environment and Data to Attack the End to End Experience<\/u><\/p>\n

In October 2016, I visited Google\u2019s offices and attended a presentation by the Product Management team for Google Travel. We heard about the recent launch of the Google Trips app and marveled at a beautiful new app that promised to automate the creation of a personalized travel guide based on deep integration with 性视界, Maps, Mail, and other Google Services. From a personal perspective, the beautiful app truly seemed like it would take the stress out of planning a trip. From a business perspective, I wondered about the impact of the app on TripAdvisor \u2013 indeed TripAdvisor\u2019s stock price was down 3% on the day Google announced its efforts.<\/p>\n

TripAdvisor\u2019s Response \u2013 Growing Instant Book and Improving the Mobile Experience<\/u><\/p>\n

While Google\u2019s Trips effort is fairly recent, TripAdvisor has been focused on the integrator question for a few years. This process began in June 2014, when TripAdvisor launched InstantBook to allow partners to move directly from reviews to reservations. InstantBook requires partnerships with reservation partners who hold hotel inventory, and recently the pace of partnerships has accelerated with the addition of Expedia and Hilton in Fall 2016 and Winter 2017. Additionally, TripAdvisor is focused on its mobile platform, recognizing there is a gap since in 2016 less than half of TripAdvisor\u2019s traffic was on mobile. TripAdvisor earnings call on February 16, 2017, the very first question from the audience was about mobile, and CEO Stephen Kaufer admitted they were working on \u201cimproving the revenue per shopper on mobile\u201d.<\/p>\n

Will the strength of the TripAdvisor\u2019s reviews and brand be enough to stave off competition from Google?<\/p>\n

Takeaways and Conclusions<\/u><\/p>\n