Dennis Schaal, Skift
Booking sites' guests reviews on Google have been a highly charged issue for years. The latest is that Airbnb and TripAdvisor are willingly giving Google their guest reviews of vacation rentals, but they are busy figuring out how not to give away the store in the process.
4 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Many Airbnb hosts of the mom-and-pop variety — yes, there are a few left — feel aggrieved when they welcome guests into their homes and have to bear the consequences of hostile reviews penned with the worst intentions. Airbnb is trying to tip the balance back toward hosts — and is probably making neither party totally happy.
5 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
If you think protest is futile, then you're wrong. Petitioners didn't think TripAdvisor went far enough to promote traveler safety, and they got the travel website to take stock of itself and make additional reforms.
12 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
TripAdvisor's treatment of sexual assault allegations at hotels will not please people who would like to see these properties' listings pulverized. But for those travelers scoping out hotels for issues of concern, these feature changes are a modest, incremental, and positive step.
1 year ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
TripAdvisor still isn't crazy about Google emphasizing its own travel businesses ahead of those of competitors. Still, in the wacky world of online travel marketing, metas will advertise in other metas when the financials work in their favor. User experience? It isn't always the best.
2 years ago
Associated Press
Normally we'd say this is a typical congressional letter to a regulator that will come to nothing. After all, TripAdvisor has already started placing notifications above hotel listings where there are allegations of rampant crime. However, this is Trump's Federal Trade Commission, the one that will likely gut net neutrality rules. So all bets are off.
3 years ago
Patrick Whyte, Skift
Two deals in the space of a week show how serious Skyscanner is about improving the content it offers to customers. The days of it being a pure price-comparison site are definitely over.
3 years ago
Associated Press
TripAdvisor let down its users when it deleted reviews about rape allegations, although there has to be a balance between allegations and verified facts. We look forward to seeing TripAdvisor appending online badges next to hotels that are prone to violence and discrimination.
3 years ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
This is a decent exit for the investors in ReviewPro and a wake-up call to a Western hotel industry ignoring China's tech scene. But it is also a validation of ReviewPro's particular approach of giving hotels actionable analytics on guests for sales and marketing, and revenue management -- and not just monitoring TripAdvisor ratings.
3 years ago
Martin Soler and Daniel E. Craig, Skift
Google has fought and annoyed TripAdvisor and Yelp for years when it comes to user reviews. The search giant obviously has the scale to compete and is now putting new emphasis on its own user reviews, but it has to prove it has the focus to upend the review balance of power.
3 years ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Let's be clear: Not all hotel guests and review-writers are angels. But the solution is not dodgy hotel contracts and taking punitive actions against customers. Business owners, as well as consumers, should remember the wisdom of the crowds is pretty good at protecting from one-sided and impure reviewers.
4 years ago
Nicole Piper, Bloomberg
Yelp has a tremendous opportunity in local advertising but there is also intense competition. One big caution is that half of Yelp's traffic comes from Google and that makes it way too dependent on a company which isn't exactly a fan.
4 years ago
