09 May 2018

TripAdvisor encouraged by 2018 start, boosted by attractions and restaurants

TripAdvisor’s share price was up 20% after its earnings for the first quarter of 2018 came in ahead of expectations.

The company says its hotel profitability improved for the second quarter running and that its non-hotel business (experiences, restaurants) continues to grow.

TripAdvisor reported a 2% increase in consolidated revenue to $378 million with non-hotel revenue up 36% to $79 million, which it says more than offsets a 5% dip in hotel revenue to $299 million.

Unsurprisingly the company’s investor call was dominated by questions about Bokun. TripAdvisor announced its acquisition of the Iceland-based tours and activities software platform in April.

CEO Steve Kaufer said Bokun’s software should, and would, be made available worldwide to make it easier and affordable for experience providers to get their products in front of consumers.

He added that the plan is to integrate Bokun and then “accelerate it organically”.

When asked about whether attractions would be included in TripAdvisor’s TV push, Kaufer said that as they were part of the whole trip that the company feels it offers, attractions would be part of the marketing plan going forward.

Kaufer also commented that the Bokun acquisition is one of a number of things the company is doing in terms of investing in its experiences business. He said the company wants to make it easier and faster for providers to get online but also more convenient for consumers to find experiences with ongoing conversion work being carried out on both TripAdvisor and Viator.

TripAdvisor said in Q4 2017 earnings that it planned to increase its TV investment to somewhere between $100 and $120 million this year – the company invested $74 million in TV advertising in 2017.

No doubt Booking Holdings will face similar questions from analysts this week about its acquisition of FareHarbor and how it sees the tours and activities market.