TripAdvisor Pushes for In-App Hotel Bookings But Faces Resistance
Skift Take
It is almost impossible to imagine that TripAdvisor wouldn't find an online travel agency partner for a Book TripAdvisor option within its mobile apps, but lots of the usual suspects are wary about TripAdvisor getting closer to the transaction part of the travel cycle, and getting even more powerful in the process.
It's going to get done eventually, but TripAdvisor is admittedly facing some resistance to achieving its self-described "key product focus in 2014" -- enabling travelers to book hotels within TripAdvisor's mobile apps.
TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer has been talking about such an "assisted booking" option since May 2013, and when I asked him about it during an interview in October 2013, it was clear from his reaction that TripAdvisor was working on it, although Kaufer said he had nothing to announce at that moment.
During the company's fourth quarter earnings call on February 11, 2014, Kaufer said TripAdvisor would launch what might be called a Book TripAdvisor mobile option sometime in 2014, and in answer to a question, he acknowledged that some online travel agencies -- probably the larger, import
