Skift Take
TripAdvisor's Kaufer can be testy, but he's apparently happiest when testing a new product, and following the company's mantra, "speed wins." Discount restaurant vouchers via mobile devices are somewhere on TripAdvisor's busy agenda.
On a nondescript businesses estate in a Boston suburb, the fortunes of hoteliers and restaurateurs worldwide are won and lost. This is the modest headquarters of TripAdvisor, the travel reviews website that in little more than a decade has gathered an unmatched library of more than a hundred million reviews from ordinary people online and in doing so has revolutionised the hospitality and tourism industries.
Clever hotels and restaurants now pay close attention to their reputation on TripAdvisor. With more than 200 million visitors a month planning trips based on its recommendations, a run of good or bad reviews can mean make or break, and there are consistent grumbles that the website is growing too powerful.
For Steve Kaufer, the software engineer who founded TripAdvisor in 2000 and remains in charge today, complaints from disgruntled business owners are par for the course. In the next few years he aims to massively increase the proportion of travellers who plan their trip on his website, which he currently claims is 10 per cent. Hotels and restaurants can adapt or die.
"At the beginning the impact of what was said on TripAdvisor was relatively small," he says. "Today what is said absolutely impacts many, many businesses around the globe.
"That means the restaurateurs and hoteliers pay a lot more attention to it. So what you see in the press tends to be the hotelier who is upset by the bad review. That's not new - hotels have always had complaints - but now the complaint is aired very publicly.
"It's all in the name of transparency and we think we've done a very good service to the hospitality industry by letting value and customer service level the playing field."
"If you're bad you'll be at t
