TripAdvisor’s New Smartphone App Is All About Metasearch

Today TripAdvisor took another step into the mobile hotel booking game with the relaunch of its apps for Apple’s iOS and Android. The app clearly demonstrates the split nature of TripAdvisor: Half booking tool, half travel guide.

The updated app captures nearly the entire TripAdvisor experience — hotel reviews, forums, airline bookings — for the first time, and integrates its metasearch tools to enable booking hotels, activities, and flights. Metasearch within the app is much smoother than the TripAdvisor’s previous pop-under-fueled experience online and keeps the booking experience fully framed within the app rather than launching new windows in a mobile browser.

TripAdvisor this year transitioned away from pop-under ads from online travel agencies to hotel metasearch, which it rolled out in mobile first before completing the online launch.

Outside of the hotel discovery and booking process, the updated app borrows elements of its city guide app to help users find a nearby restaurant, attraction, or activity. As with hotels, booking for the latter two is done with partners such as Viator.