by Todd Lucier on October 20, 2010
Act Fast, TripAdvisor offer for business listings (which has never been offered at a regular undiscounted rate!) is now 20% off. If you remember when the service; which allows accommodations providers to list their phone number and provide a direct link to their Web property first launched, the service was offered at 50% off. The big threat was that after January the cost would skyrocket. One year later, that offer looks like it was only a 37.5% discount!
Is it legal to offer a 50% discount that, well, isn’t?
Too Expensive
TripAdvisor knows it is outrageously expensive to advertise on business listings. That’s why they have never asked anyone to pay full price. Instead of removing the cash grab altogether as they do for restaurants and attractions, TripAdvisor now offers hoteliers the option of making monthly payments for their listing! Sounds like death by a thousand little cuts to me.
ROI – Is a Business Listing worth the cost?
When I first started marketing I used the cost of a new customer as a way to determine the relative value of my investment.
Using Trip Advisor’s math, I only need to earn six new clients directly from TripAdvisor to profit from the arrangement.
Sorry, a customer acquisition cost of $200 doesn’t allow much room for profit.
. . . and of course that’s if things go as well as Tripadvisor promises…..
What does TripAdvisor have to do to profit from the arrangement?
Income: $1200 (in the example sent me)
Expenses incurred:
- invoicing and accounting for the income generated.
- flipping the switch that turns on contact info like TripAdvisor already does for restaurants and attractions at NO COST.
Looks like a great deal for TripAdvisor, but for the accommodation sector in tourism, this cash grab is more than annoying. It would be great if TripAdvisor could share some beaming hotelier success stories from business listings.
by Todd Lucier on July 31, 2010
For travelers, getting advice from someone who has been there, done that has become second nature with traveler advice sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp!, Google Maps and others. But most of the time, we have no idea who those people are that are giving the advice.
Social Networking should be smarter
Is it someone like me? or are they someone with different values, interests and attitudes. I know I’ve seen reviews for places I’ve stayed that in no way reflect my experience.
It’s a foggy area that can make it difficult to interpret the relevance of travel reviews for me. I want to know how much I have in common with the person leaving the reviewbefore assigning any level of credibility, validity or relevance.
The ideal travel review site would be a little more like LinkedIn and Twitter.
LinkedIn uses business connections to help me find people who are connected to people I know and easily network with people in my industry. Folks I’m connected to there have more in common with me than most, but the nature of my work, doesn’t fully define my interests and attitudes.
Twitter probably does the best job of finding people like me:
I’ve found quite a few people on Twitter, that I’ve later met in person and hit it off with from the get-go. I could have followed almost any early adopter on twitter and I would certainly have found a kindred spirit in the tech area, but these sort of connections clearly aren’t so easy for the non-techie. Twitters new “Suggestions of Users to Follow” tool may be a step in the right direction toward finding people who are a lot like me. Until now, twitter searches, twitter lists, Follow Friday advice has given me really neat, interesting people to follow, but it can be a lot of work. I wonder if Twitters algorithm, using people you follow and the people they follow as a starting point will offer users access to more people who are a lot like themselves.
Facebook integration with Travel Reviews
Many Facebook users I’m connected with have credibility and I trust their opinions because I already know most of the folks I follow there personally. User profiles, photos, uploads, status updates and activities give me a good overall picture of any Facebook user’s interests and attitudes.
Wouldn’t it be great to connect my trusted sources to my upcoming trips? Having my Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections offer travel advice would be much more valuable than a collection of reviews whose credibility is in question.
As if in answer to this half-written blog post, along comes TripAdvisor TripFriends and Bootsnall Traveler Connect app. Both connect with Facebook to enhance travel experiences. TripFriends helps me connect with my Facebook friends to get advice from people I already know. As Steve Kaufer, TripAdvisor founder says, “Get great travel advice from your friends before you go.” Traveler Connect helps me find other travelers going to the same place I am, or connect with locals living there. According to Bootsnall founder Sean Keener, “I can ask travel questions, arrange to meet for a drink, and create some unique experiences not found in a guidebook.”
What’s Next for Travel Review sites?
I see a future where I’ll be able to get travel advice exclusively from people who share my outlook on the world. Connecting all my social networks to travel reviews will take time, but these two projects are a great start. Over time, I’ll be able to quickly bring into focus the 10% of travel reviews that really mean something to me.
Have you seen any social network that comes closer to finding people like you than Twitter or LinkedIn? Seen anything to rival the new TripAdvisor TripFriends and Bootsnall Traveler Connect projects?
