TripAdvisor boosts revenue for hoteliers with direct-booking feature

Travel agency giant to introduce a direct-booking feature to its Sponsored Placements service with a goal to help accommodation providers boost revenue

Launched in April 2018, Sponsored Placements allows hotels subscribed to TripAdvisor’s Business Advantage program to purchase sponsored listings that appear above search results and on nearby properties’ listings.

With the new feature, sponsored listings will now include a prominent link directly to a hotel’s website to facilitate a booking. Previously, listings linked through to an OTA.

Depending on where travelers click on the listing, they’ll be linked to the hotel’s website, its TripAdvisor page or an online travel agency’s booking page.

“This is the first time [hoteliers] can now drive direct traffic as well as visibility of their properties on TripAdvisor.

“It’s very much an open marketplace for hoteliers to play in at a destination level to increase their visibility and allow them to increase their market share and hopefully see direct bookings.”

—  Martin Verdon-Roe, Vice President of B2B hotels for TripAdvisor

Verdon-Roe says listings will only appear when a hotel has availability, which helps hotels both fill their properties as well as manage their advertising budget.

He adds that occupancy is determined at the hotel level, whereas before occupancy was driven off of what was given to an OTA.

“Now all of a sudden, this can operate for [hoteliers], when before it wouldn’t have shown. This gives them direct controlling of when they show up.”

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