TripAdvisor
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| Type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Travel services |
| Founded | February 2000 |
| Founder(s) | Stephen Kaufer |
| Headquarters | Newton, Massachusetts, United States |
| Area served | America, Africa, Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific |
| Key people |
• Stephen Kaufer, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer |
| Products | Hotel and flights booking, Vacation Rentals, Restaurants finding, Travel guides |
| Revenue | $486 million in 2010[1] |
| Employees | 1,172 people as of September 2011 |
| Website | TripAdvisor.com |
| References: more than 50m monthly UV, 20m members and over 50m reviews | |
TripAdvisor.com is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. TripAdvisor is an early user of user-generated content. The website services are free to users, who provide most of the content, and the website is supported by an advertising business model.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Description
TripAdvisor Media Group operates seventeen travel brands including TripAdvisor, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Cruise Critic, Family Vacation Critic, FlipKey, Holiday Lettings, Holiday Watchdog, Independent Traveler, OneTime, SeatGuru, SmarterTravel, SniqueAway, Travel Library, TravelPod, VirtualTourist and Kuxun.cn. TripAdvisor operates websites internationally, including in the U.S., the U.K., France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, The Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Turkey, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Greece, Indonesia, and in China under the brand daodao.com and kuxun.cn. TripAdvisor is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.[1]
[edit] History
TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000 by Stephen Kaufer. Original financing was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group and private investors.[2] The company was purchased by InterActive Corporation in 2004.[3] IAC spun off its travel group of businesses under the Expedia, Inc. name in August 2005.[4] In May 2007 TripAdvisor acquired Smarter Travel Media operator of SmarterTravel.com and BookingBuddy.com; SeatGuru.com; TravelPod.com; and Travel-Library.com[5] Also in May 2007, TripAdvisor acquired The Independent Traveler, Inc., publisher of Cruise Critic.com and IndependentTraveler.com[6]
In February 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Holiday Watchdog a user-generated travel site in the U.K.[7] In July 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Virtualtourist, a travel website with reportedly over 1 million registered members and OneTime.com a travel comparison site.[8]
In July 2008 TripAdvisor acquired a majority stake in FlipKey.com, a vacation-rental website.[9] In October 2009, TripAdvisor purchased Kuxun.cn, China’s second-largest consumer travel site and hotel and flight search engine.[10]
In April 20009 TripAdvisor launched its official site in China daodao. Since then it has indexed more than 20,000 hotels and restaurants information and customer reviews, and made all kinds of top lists, becoming one of the biggest travel websites as of now.[11]
In June 2010, TripAdvisor acquired the United Kingdom's largest independent vacation rental website, holidaylettings.co.uk. In September 2010, SmarterTravel, part of TripAdvisor Media Group, launched SniqueAway, the first members-only site where each travel deal is endorsed by the people.
In April 2011, it was announced that Expedia would split into two publicly traded companies by spinning off the TripAdvisor brand of travel sites. According to Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the move, "allows the two businesses to be pure plays and to operate with the proper amount of focus to grow respectively."[12]
In December 2011, TripAdvisor was spun off from Expedia in a public offering.[13]
[edit] Criticism and Legal Action
TripAdvisor has been criticized for allowing unsubstantiated anonymous reviews to be posted about any hotel, B&B, Inn or restaurant.[14] In September 2010 a group of over 420 hospitality operators considered taking TripAdvisor to court over unfounded and unedited reviews posted by the website’s visitors.[15] A number of hotels have been reported to somehow "pay" their guests in return of a positive review.[16]
TripAdvisor has stated that reviews are not posted to the website instantly, but are subject to a verification process which considers the IP address and email address of the author, and tries to detect any suspicious patterns or obscene or abusive language. [17] The website also allows the community of users to report suspicious content, which is then assessed by a team of quality assurance specialists. TripAdvisor also alerts the owner or manager of a TripAdvisor listed establishment whenever a negative review is posted about them on their listing.[18] A 'Guest Black Listing' service provided by Guestscan.co.uk has been set up whereby guests who fail to pay their bill, damage the Hotel or leave false reviews are blacklisted, thereby warning all other accommodation providers in advance.[19]
In September 2011, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched a formal investigation into TripAdvisor after receiving a complaint on behalf of thousands of hotels that its claims to provide trustworthy and honest reviews from travellers are false.[20] In response to investigation from the ASA, TripAdvisor amended its Hotel review section slogan to read 'Reviews from our Community', replacing the slogan used for many years of 'reviews you can trust'. However, TripAdvisor has stated that the branding change had been planned for some time and that changes had begun in June 2011, three months before the ASA investigation.[21]
One hotelier, Deborah Sinclair, is sparring with TripAdvisor, claiming that an inaccurate review has caused loss of revenue,[22] while TripAdvisor states that the hotelier is trying to subvert its listing system by posting positive reviews about themselves and negative reviews about competitors.[23]
Trip Advisor has been ordered to change its marketing claims following claims from the Advertising Standards Authority that consumers could be fooled by the fraudulent claims made in reviews, which are made without any form of verification. [24]
[edit] Sponsorships
TripAdvisor sponsors the livery of Mega Global Air's aircraft.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "About TripAdvisor® Media Group". TripAdvisor LLC. http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/about_us.html. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
- ^ "IAC Acquires TripAdvisor, Inc.". Flagship Ventures. 2004-03-16. http://www.flagshipventures.com/about/news/iac-acquires-tripadvisor-inc. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ^ "TRIPADVISOR SHOWS SMALL FIRMS THE WAY TO SUCCESS". The Boston Globe. 2005-01-17. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-7885683.html. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
- ^ "IAC Completes Spin-Off of Expedia, Inc.". Expedia, Inc.. 2005-08-09. http://press.expediainc.com/index.php?s=43&item=22. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
- ^ "TripAdvisor acquires five travel communities". HotelMarketing.com. 2007-05-09. http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/article/070509_tripadvisor_acquires_five_travel_communitites/. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ^ "TripAdvisor Acquires Cruise Critic, Leading Cruise Community". PR Wire. 2007-05-23. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-163789809.html. Retrieved 2009-07-116.
- ^ "TripAdvisor Acquires Holiday Watchdog". Reuters. 2008-02-14. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS130749+14-Feb-2008+PRN20080214. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ^ "TripAdvisor Acquires VirtualTourist and OneTime". TripAdvisor LLC. 2008-07-01. http://www.tripadvisor.com/PressCenter-i191-c1-Press_Releases.html. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "TripAdvisor Takes FlipKey Majority Stake". Xconomy. 2008-08-21. http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2008/08/21/tripadvisor-takes-flipkey-majority-stake/. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
- ^ "TripAdvisor Expands to China with Kuxun". bnet. 2009-10-31. http://industry.bnet.com/travel/10003953/tripadvisor-expands-to-china-with-kuxuncn/. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- ^ "about daodao.com". daodao.com. 2011-07-01. http://www.daodao.com/pages/about_us.html. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
- ^ "Expedia plans to split into two companies". Reuters. 2011-04-08. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/08/uk-expedia-idUSLNE73700O20110408. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
- ^ http://bostonglobe.com/business/2011/12/22/weak-wall-street-welcome-for-newton-based-tripadvisor/8hzGHDB5yWPmsge8fp6StI/story.html
- ^ Dodson, Sean (2007-07-21). "Best of the net: Tripadvisor - the great divide". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/jul/21/saturday.travelwebsites. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
- ^ "Is TripAdvisor a holiday headache?". The Guardian. 2010-09-14. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/sep/13/tripadvisor-holiday-headache. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
- ^ "Tripadvisor bribes: Hotel owners offer free rooms in return for glowing reviews". The Daily Mail. 2011-07-11. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2013391/Tripadvisor-Hotel-owners-bribe-guests-return-good-reviews.html. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
- ^ Caterer and Hotelkeeper interview – Christine Petersen, TripAdvisor. Caterersearch.com. 10 Nov 2011. Last accessed 05 Dec 2011.
- ^ Travel: TripAdvisor CMO Barbara Messing. Adweek. 27 Oct 2011. Last accessed 05 Dec 2011.
- ^ "Worst Hotel guests to be Blacklisted". Daily Mail.co.uk. 2011-10-01. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1316821/Worst-hotel-guests-unveiled-blacklist-website.html.
- ^ "ASA to Investigate TripAdvisor". Guardian.co.uk. 2011-09-02. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/02/tripadvisor-asa-investigation-reviews.
- ^ "TripAdvisor removes 'reviews you can trust' slogan from its website". Daily Mail.co.uk. 2011-09-13. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2036846/TripAdvisor-removes-reviews-trust-slogan-website.html.
- ^ "Hotelier sues Trip Advisor". Daily Mail.co.uk. 2011-10-25. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053221/Hotelier-sues-TripAdvisor-accusations-wrote-fake-positive-reviews-causes-revenue-plummet-75.html?ito=feeds-newsxml.
- ^ Evesham hotelier protests as TripAdvisor 'red flags' her business. Caterersearch.com. 30 Sep 2011. Last accessed 05 Dec 2011.
- ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16823012 | title=Trip Advisor rebuked over 'trust' claims by ASA | publisher=BBC and ASA | date=2012-02-01
[edit] External links
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