Major Booking Sites Still Won't Allow Purchases in TripAdvisor's App
Skift Take
The all-powerful TripAdvisor has been unable to convince its largest online travel agency partners to facilitate hotel bookings right within TripAdvisor apps. Oh, to be a fly on the wall for those conversations.
TripAdvisor announced that Best Western will become partner in a feature that enables users to book a hotel on TripAdvisor without leaving its apps, but that is essentially cover for the larger trend: Major online travel agencies have been unwilling to sign up.
The feaure, Instant Booking, is a key part of TripAdvisor's hotel metasearch strategy because users convert from lookers into bookers at a higher rate when they can book right in the app without having to navigate away to a hotel site to complete the booking.
That also would mean TripAdvisor would be able to collect higher costs per click and attract additional revenue. When major online travel agencies boycott participating in the feature, that limits its comprehensiveness in terms hotels that can be booked right in the TripAdvisor app.
"OTAs (online travel agencies) expressed
