TripAdvisor's Instant Booking, dead or alive?
Aug 14, 2017
TripAdvisor "very aggressively" de-emphasized Instant Booking in the last quarter, first on the desktop, then on mobile, only offering the Instant Booking option to customers in "very specific" cases, such as if they had previously used Instant Booking.
Douglas Quinby, senior vice president of research with Phocuswright, said that TripAdvisor has been "signaling this awhile -- de-emphasizing Instant Booking and refocusing on metasearch. I think the challenge is conversion, convincing customers that [TripAdvisor] is a booking site, not a review site. ... The key question is: How best can they monetize their enormous user base as the marketplace migrates to mobile?"
Brian Hoyt, TripAdvisor's senior director of corporate communications, said Instant Booking continues to be an option for users, but it will likely appear more prominently for users who have already demonstrated a propensity for using the service.
"We continue to be focused on helping the consumer book the right hotel for them, and should they choose to use our Instant Booking channel, it is available," he said.
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