Comments on: Would you pay TripAdvisor $300 a year to list your phone & website?

By: Sweet Trevor

Sweet Trevor — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:35:46 +0000

If you can’t pay $300 for this, you have no business running a hotel.

By: Mihir Nayak

Mihir Nayak — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:34:48 +0000

I think the concept of paying to put your website and telephone number on TripAdvisor is a great one. While customers could Google your hotel once they like it on TripAdvisor, intuitively its always a good idea to reduce the number of clicks a customer needs to make.
But, and I think this is a big but, 600$ or even 300$ is a huge sum of money for a small hotel (10 rooms) like mine.
Instead, I would be very willing to pay for every click I received from TripAdvisor. Now thats a brilliant idea!

By: Carrie Hill

Carrie Hill — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:16:29 +0000

I’d pay it in a heartbeat – I know its something our clients ask about all the time! Makes me wonder if their revenue from Hotels.com/Expedia, etc is dropping if they’re looking for another revenue stream…

I also wouldn’t be surprised to see hotels/properties who do NOT use GDS services offered the opportunity first – as that’s not a lost revenue stream for TA.

Great article – will be interesting to see how it plays out.

By: Svetlio

Svetlio — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:59:39 +0000

Smart move! This is how I would call it. Considering the trafic TripAdvisor generates I think it is even better than many other initiativesl…. You (as a hotelier) have to consider it as part of the strategical positioning of the hotel, being visible on the right place (considering the trafic) and only for 25 USD/month… Difficult to calculate the rreturn, however 1 reservation per month would cover the 25 USD expence. How much do you earn by being visible at probably the most popular “advisor” site…. priceless…. I would go for it!

By: Josiah Mackenzie

Josiah Mackenzie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:09:49 +0000

I don’t know if I would call it unethical. It’s just saving people the hassle of searching for a hotel’s phone number. Guidebooks include this, why can’t a review site?

Good thoughts though.

Cheers

By: hhotelconsult

hhotelconsult — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:06:03 +0000

Would I do it? Possibly, if I could afford it.

But it is incredibly unethical because it marginalizes hotels that can *not* afford this service, and creates a lower class of people that aren’t able to utilize tools that were supposed to be democratizing across the board. I know TA needs to monetize, but they will be sacrificing some of their equity with people trusting that reviews, hotels, etc haven’t been shown special treatment, or created a blurry cloud between what’s legit, and what’s forced advertising, etc. I might be overthinking this, so I am going to lunch. =)

By: Josiah Mackenzie

Josiah Mackenzie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:36:39 +0000

Yes, good point…but I doubt TripAdvisor would want to remove this revenue stream.

By: JeePee

JeePee — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:04:47 +0000

Paying for your web address and phone number on TripAdvisor is ok, but only if they also remove the “Check Rates and Availability” option from the hotel review page when a visitor lands there by following the TripAdvisor widget on the hotel’s own webpage. You don’t want to loose your website visitor to a third party booking engine for which you have to pay commission.