Tripadvisor's New Subscription Service Edges the Company Toward Online Travel Agency Status

Can you imagine if Google were mimicking the way Tripadvisor is handling its new subscription program, Tripadvisor Plus? Pundits would be screaming that Google is becoming an online travel agency. Tripadvisor's new subscription program, Tripadvisor Plus, which is still in beta and slated to be rolled out to all U.S. users by the end of June, has Tripadvisor collecting credit card details on subscriber hotel bookings, and Tripadvisor is the contact point for customer service issues, although the hotel or online travel agency supplier is officially the merchant of record. Tripadvisor is already the merchant of record when users book its tours and activities so Tripadvisor has already dipped in, and some might say, is creeping toward online travel agency status. Like Tripadvisor in the past, Google has dabbled with handling hotel bookings through its own platform, but it hasn't been the merchant of record and hotels take on the customer service responsibilities for these bookings. The travel industry at large has been fearful that Google, with all its market power, might throw its weight around wily nilly, and become the next big online travel agency, crushing competitors in its exhaust fumes, but that hasn't happened to date. Prior to Tripadvisor acquiring tours and activities provider Viator for $200 million in 2014, Tripadvisor was purely an advertising/media site, merely sending customers to online travel agencies or hotel websites to complete their bookings. But today Tripadvisor is more of a hybrid entity, part advertising site, and part booking facilitator. With Tripadvisor Plus, subscribers complete their bookings on Tripadvisor, which handles customer service. The customer service aspect differentiates Tripadvisor Plus from the years when Trip