On Monday, TripAdvisor announced it would be rebranding itself by year’s end into a social platform that builds upon its almost 20-year success capitalizing on peer reviews of hotels, geographical areas and experiences. HOTELS spoke with Chicago-based social media expert Benji Greenberg, CEO of BCV, a tech-enabled social media management and strategy company, on what the move means for both hotels and TripAdvisor users.
HOTELS: So, the new TripAdvisor-slash-social media platform. Can they pull this off and does anyone actually want it?
Benji Greenberg: From TripAdvisor’s perspective, they’ve just morphed into such an OTA that when you go there, reviews were sort of hidden away. It wasn’t the default anymore when you would search for a destination. It was really about optimizing, when someone lands on the site, how do they book their hotel the quickest with the fewest amounts of clicks. It’s that authenticity behind TripAdvisor – hotels still look at that TripAdvisor rank as being a super important metric and I think the idea of individuals and hotels getting deeper into this pot makes sense as they’re already so invested in it. Hotels are already managing business pages and I can’t see them backing away from this new channel but rather looking at it as a very large opportunity to hopefully influence that TripAdvisor ranking or to just be able to get to customers who are searching likewise destinations.
H: But do individuals want to invest the time and energy in yet another social channel? Are we going to see people using this the way TripAdvisor hopes they will?
BG: I think TripAdvisor’s betting on the idea that all these people already have accounts with them. And they’re just giving people more tools to get deeper into that ecosystem. At the same time, I see that it does kind of look like a hodgepodge of a bunch of other social networks and there’s not a ton that’s very unique or different. So, it will be a question of whether or not people have the stamina for it. I do think TripAdvisor has some pretty unique tools around planning a trip and collaborating on there, which nobody has really solved in a large way yet, so I think that’s an opportunity there.
H: Clearly this move heads them directly into personalization, which is where everything is heading across so many industries.
BG: They’re reading the signs. People want to know: when they read a review, how much is that reviewer like me? Will I feel the same as them? So, the idea of personalizing what a user sees so it’s more relevant to them, I think that’s a win-win for them and for the customer. But the idea of influencers and brands putting out content, to me this is probably the most important thing for TripAdvisor because right now they’re not a destination for you to discover anything. There’s no content selling you besides price and offers. Hopefully these new offerings will really give hotels an opportunity to really be discoverable on this platform.
H: Why now with this move?
BG: TripAdvisor really were, not just an OTA, but they had the real reviews and apparently that wasn’t enough to keep people coming back. Google has transitioned to these really short reviews, with Facebook it’s just recommendations, so I think they’re trying to keep up with that to some degree. I think one of the biggest headaches is whether Facebook is going to be a part of this, collaborating with it, not a part of this? Just because they used to have such a tight integration.
H: One of the strongest advantages TripAdvisor may have over Facebook with this new iteration is this idea that experiences aren’t getting lost in the feed. And not only are they not getting lost, there’s an instantly bookable element to them.
BG: You can save stuff on Facebook and on Instagram you can save collections you’ve created, but you’re right, they’re both very weak attempts to curate a trip or something like it. That is where TripAdvisor could really have the advantage. Because if you’re able to save all this content about what you see and what your friends are doing and what looks interesting to you, and then you’re able to share it with who you’re traveling with, that could be a huge win for everybody.
TripAdvisor’s always had social components, their mobile app is pretty darn good and their ability to start planning a trip is one of the best ones out there. But TripAdvisor has to nail this on mobile and that, to me, is really gonna be the big question mark.