What Will Tripadvisor Look for In Its Next CEO?

A deal with Trivago? A CEO who's a better storyteller? A company that isn't changing strategies willy nilly?

As Tripadvisor began what it said is an internal and external search to find a successor to CEO Steve Kaufer, who will be leaving his post next year after a 22-year run, Skift asked analysts and online travel veterans what’s next for Tripadvisor, and what should the board look for in his replacement.

A couple of people pointed to the potential for, and the logic of, some kind of deal with lodging search company Trivago.

Citing his view that there are too many travel metasearch companies already, Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke argued that a “soft consolidation” between U.S.-headquartered Tripadvisor and Germany-based Trivago, both of which offer lodging advertising auctions for hotels and online travel agencies as part of their businesses, would make sense. 

As a case in point, Trivago now powers Chinese smartphone company Huawei’s hotel search business, obviating the need for Huawei to hire staff and deploy resources to sign up hotels. 

There’s a school of thought that a Tripadvisor-Trivago alliance, if not an even deeper transaction, could have Trivago focusing on its back-end auction technology and conversion capabilities at the bottom of the proverbial travel funnel when consumers are ready to transact, while Tripadvisor, one of the largest travel sites in the world, could concentrate on its more upper-funnel travel inspiration and trip-planning acumen.

In this way, according to an online travel source, Tripadvisor could improve its commercialization by