TripAdvisor's CEO dumps on Expedia reviews and worries about Apple

The Harbus: Who’s your biggest competitor? What’s your strategy for gaining market share?

TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer: TripAdvisor is in a number of different verticals: hotels, flights, vacation rentals, etc. We make almost all our money in the hotel vertical. I know lots of people who rely on Yelp for local and TripAdvisor for trips, even though both have local and travel. We’re firmly travel, and Yelp is firmly local.

When I think of competitors, I think upstream: What’s the site most people go to when they start to plan a trip? Google.  Next up: Expedia in bookings, because they have a ton of reviews. We like to think their reviews aren’t as good as ours, but if all you’re looking for is the comfort that 100 people already stayed somewhere and rated it 4 stars, that might be enough. The wild cards could be Apple, Samsung, or Facebook.