Expedia and TripAdvisor agree Instant Booking deal

Expedia and TripAdvisor agree Instant Booking deal

TripAdvisor shares jumped as much as 7.1 % – the biggest one-day rise since March – after a new partnership with Expedia was unveiled yesterday. The agreement will see Expedia join the online travel review and planning site’s “instant booking” … Continue reading

TripAdvisor shares jumped as much as 7.1 % – the biggest one-day rise since March – after a new partnership with Expedia was unveiled yesterday.

The agreement will see Expedia join the online travel review and planning site’s “instant booking” programme.

This will allow TripAdvisor users to book selected hotels through TripAdvisor’s desktop website. The transaction and customer service will be managed by Expedia.

Expedia global marketing senior vice president Aaron Price said: “With this new agreement, we are interested to see how we can drive additional customer acquisition given the product and customer experience enhancements instant booking has made.”

A TripAdvisor spokesman declined to comment on how many of Expedia’s hotels the deal would initially include. TripAdvisor was spun off from Expedia in 2011.

TripAdvisor introduced out its instant booking feature in 2014 in order to monetise traffic from its travel sites without needing to redirect visitors to an external website and avoid going into head-to-head competition with these online travel agencies, which are among its best customers, the Financial Times reported.

Current partners include Best Western International and Hyatt Hotels as well as booking site Priceline.