TripAdvisor

Recently started studying TripAdvisor. Key questions I plan on diving in to:

How is mobile impacting how people book travel?
What are trends in the competitive landscape?

  • OTA: Priceline, Expedia
  • Metasearch: Trivago, Kayak, C Trip, Hotels Combined
  • Large Online Search (basically meta-search): Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Facebook, Alibaba, Amazon
  • Restaurants: Yelp, OpenTable (Priceline)
  • Vacation Rentals (Airbnb, Homeaway (Expedia))

What are competitors saying about TRIP in their transcripts?
Also, use SimilarWeb Analysis here
Consider strength of UGC communities

  • Yelp (restaurants); Trip (travel); Zocdoc (doctors); Amazon (items)

Key metrics to analyze

  • Supply side: number of hotels, number of vacation rentals, number of restaurants, number of activities
  • Engagement indicators: number of reviews, candid traveler photos, places to stay, contributions per minute

What are the dynamics of hotel usage vs. alternative accomodations (Airbnb)

  • Easy booking with no human intermediaries

What is sustainability and dynamics associated with Priceline and Expedia partnerships?

  • Google Hotel Ads making significant inroads in TripAdvisor space; increasing ROI on lower CPC and better traffic

What is TripAdvisor’s core demographic? (this relates to the potential success of their TV campaign); How are they doing on Social Media? How do we analyze this? For now, use SimilarWeb and iSpotTV

How have online travel companies fared during economic downturns or after terrorist attacks?

  • We’ll analyze this on CapIQ

What has Stephen Kaufer said about his vision for the business?