Articles tagged “steve kaufer”

Subscriptions were supposed to be the next big thing in travel. It hasn't worked out that way. eDreams Odigeo's program seems to be doing well, but most of the others are struggling.

Tripadvisor co-founder Steve Kaufer has stepped down as CEO after 22 years, as expected, and Matt Goldberg took over.

There is a degree of irrationality in CEO pay on many levels, including the companies' relative performance. The pay disclosures also expose the wide disparity in employee pay at Booking versus Airbnb.

Given the challenges that Tripadvisor faces to better monetize its assets and to craft a new strategy, the company needed to woo a new CEO with a decent compensation package, which it did.

Tripadvisor CEO Steve Kaufer said Tripadvisor is "uniquely positioned as the world opens up again." Actually it isn't, as the company's first quarter performance shows. Yes, Tripadvisor has world-class traffic, and growing experiences and dining businesses, but it totally missed out on the short-term rental opportunity.

Tripadvisor likely had a difficult time to fill this role. Several potential candidates begged off. This will be a heavy lift as the team tries to figure out the best future options.

Less than a year ago, a Tripadvisor pitch deck about Tripadvisor Plus touted its "multibillion dollar revenue potential." Despite the company expressing confidence in Plus when it scrapped its business model in September, Tripadvisor admitted last week "we haven't found the product-market fit that we're looking for."

The dominos are falling over the dashed hopes for Tripadvisor Plus. Chalk up CEO Kaufer and Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Nelson as among the casualties with potentially more to come.

If the revamped Tripadvisor Plus turns out to be a flop — and it very well could be — don't put all of the blame on CEO Steve Kaufer. The board of the Liberty Tripadvisor-controlled company went along with the plan, despite obvious rate parity issues, every step of the way. Kaufer's successor will inherit the challenges.

Steve Kaufer had a great run at Tripadvisor, transforming a company with a small office over a pizza shop in Massachusetts 20 years ago into a global, household-name brand. The issue for Tripadvisor isn't necessarily who will replace Kaufer, but what innovations will it take to revive the company.