Booking.com finally says yes to TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor has finally laid its hands on Booking.com, as the brand joins in on TripAdvisor’s instant booking platform.

TripAdvisor has been busy ramping up hotel bookings on its own sites and apps, while Priceline Group and Expedia have been dancing around and playing hard to get.

But all that has changed, as Priceline’s Booking.com becomes the first major online travel agency to get involved with TripAdvisor’s Instant Booking.

Booking.com’s participation is a game changer for the industry, with sister brands Priceline.com and Agoda likely to follow suit in time.

TripAdvisor and the Priceline Group’s strategic partnership is lending some of its online travel brands to the travel review giant, and TripAdvisor president and CEO Stephen Kaufer is calling it a “huge win” for travellers.

“Having The Priceline Group join the instant booking platform is a huge win for travellers and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have them as our first strategic, global online travel agency partner,” Kaufer said.

“Millions of TripAdvisor users coming to the site to plan, compare prices and book their trip will be able to instantly book options from The Priceline Group’s global hotel inventory in addition to the 235,000 properties that are already instantly bookable on TripAdvisor.”

The Priceline Group’s president and CEO Darren Huston added that the relationship is one that continues to evolve for the good of the traveller.

“TripAdvisor has been a long-time partner of The Priceline Group and today’s announcement is part of the continued positive evolution of that relationship,” he said.

“Our mission is to help people experience the world, and we are constantly innovating how and where we engage with consumers to help them do this.”

“We now believe this branded channel can help introduce more customers to our brands and the experiences we provide.”

The announcement comes as Expedia celebrates its 10th birthday, where CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said “business is doing nicely in Australia.”

Expedia brands globally have about 3% of the $1.3 trillion global travel market, and Khosrowshahi said it’s all about getting consumers “to make the best travel decisions”.

“100 million consumers now visit our sites on a monthly basis. In a week we do the business that we did in that entire first year,” he added.

When it comes to the competition in the market, Khosrowshahi believes “different brands have different value propositions”.

“We don’t pretend to be too smart and we play to our strides of great technology, no fees and the fact that we power a lot of travel agencies offline. The traditional travel agency for us is one of the fastest growing channels.”

“It’s a constant evolution. We invented online travel but we need to be agile and watch out,” Expedia’s MD for Australia and NZ Georg Ruebensal added.

In June, TripAdvisor stated that about one third, or 235,000, of the hotels that are viewable on TripAdvisor could be booked on the site without having to navigate to a third-party hotel or online travel agency site.

Although there is a lot of duplication, TripAdvisor expands the global reach of Book on TripAdvisor as Booking.com brings with it some 436,000 hotels.

Development work has already begun to support the integration of Priceline Group hotel properties, which are expected to be available on the instant booking platform soon.

How it will work with Priceline Group Inventory

With instant booking, travellers will be able to see Booking.com-branded hotel listings and can simply click on the “Book Now” button to book on TripAdvisor directly.

TripAdvisor will let consumers know that their hotel booking is being powered by Booking.com, and Booking.com representatives will handle all of the customer care related to the transaction.