|
|
This article may contain unsourced peacock terms that merely promote the subject without imparting verifiable information. Please remove or replace such wording, unless you can cite independent sources that support the characterization. |
|
|
This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (August 2008) |
TripAdvisor.com is a free travel guide and research website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting opinions of travel related issues and engaging in interactive travel forums. TripAdvisor branded sites reportedly have over 25 million unique monthly visitors, 11 million registered members, 30 million reviews and opinions and 2 million candid traveler photos. TripAdvisor.com is part of the TripAdvisor Media Network, operated by TripAdvisor, LLC. TripAdvisor is an example of consumer generated media. The website services are free to users, who provide most of the content, and the website is supported by an advertising business model.[1]
Description
TripAdvisor Media Group operates 14 popular travel brands including TripAdvisor, Virtual Tourist, Cruise Critic, Seat Guru, TravelPod, Airfare Watchdog, Booking Buddy, FlipKey, Holiday Watchdog, Independent Traveler, Onetime, Smarter Travel, Frequent Flier, and Travel Library. TripAdvisor operates websites internationally, including in the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy and Spain, and is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.[1]
History
TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000 by Stephen Kaufer. Original financing was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group and private investors.[2] The company was purchased by InterActive Corporation in 2004.[3] IAC spun off its travel group of businesses under the Expedia, Inc. name in August 2005.[4] In May 2007 TripAdvisor acquired Smarter Travel Media operator of SmarterTravel.com and BookingBuddy.com; SeatGuru.com; TravelPod.com; and Travel-Library.com [5] Also in May 2007, TripAdvisor acquired The Independent Traveler, Inc., publisher of Cruise Critic.com and IndependentTraveler.com [6] In February 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Holiday Watchdog a user-generated travel site in the U.K. [7] In July 2008, TripAdvisor acquired Virtualtourist, a travel website with reportedly over 1 million registered members and OneTime.com a travel comparison site.[8] In July 2008 TripAdvisor acquired a majority stake in FlipKey.com, a vacation-rental website.[9] And in October of 2009, TripAdvisor purchased Kuxun.cn, China’s second-largest consumer travel site and hotel and flight search engine.[10]
Criticism
TripAdvisor has been criticized for allowing reviews to be posted by anyone about any hotel, without needing supporting evidence.[11] In response, they claim that all reviews are screened by their staff,[12] and they have algorithms to detect abuse.[13]
Website features
- TripAdvisor Flight Search with Fee Estimator: Offers travelers live availability and price information (including estimated fees) to help travelers understand the true cost of a flight in a single display. Fees estimator calculates and compares the entire cost of a domestic flight, including ticket price, fees for checked luggage and even anticipated in-flight food service and entertainment, based on the traveler’s needs. TripAdvisor’s flight search also includes airline seating maps from SeatGuru with user reviews, real-time seat availability charts, and TripTip! Alerts when business class or first class tickets are available for a price close to the coach fare.
- Reviews: Hotel, restaurant and attraction rankings found on the site are based largely on user-generated reviews.
- Traveler Articles: A wiki (based on a clusterized version of XWiki) in which users can add information on destinations as a way to aid potential visitors. Topics include transportation, activities and dining guides.
- Candid Photos: Asks site users to contribute their own snapshots to “behind-the-scenes” view of hotels around the world.
- Video: A way to post vacation videos and for travel marketers to showcase their properties by featuring their videos on TripAdvisor at no cost to them. Videos can be as long as 10 minutes each, and can be uploaded in AVI, Quicktime, Windows Media or MPEG4 formats.
- Hotel Popularity Index: Dynamically ranks hotels worldwide based on the popularity of a given hotel, as measured by both the quantity and quality of content written about the hotel on TripAdvisor and across the Web.
- Top Values Index: A way to sort hotels around the world by a combination of price and quality factors, permitting site users to try to find higher quality and lower prices at the same time.
- Quick Guides: Gives travelers downloadable and printable guide that lists the top-rated hotels, restaurants and attractions for 13,000+ of the most-visited destinations in the world.
- goLists: Lists of places and activities compiled by users and usually on travel "themes", such as must-see attractions, stops on a walking tour or ideas for a rainy day.
- Traveler Network: Helps users identify travel experts they may already know in order to base travel decisions on those who share similar travel tastes, and brings to the fore the reviews and opinions based the reviewer's relevance.
- Maps: A hotel map mashup combining TripAdvisor's hotel popularity index with Google Maps.
- Forums: Message boards where travelers ask and answer destination and interest based travel-related questions.
- Restaurants: Information on more than 551,000 restaurants in 24,000 cities with more than 2 million ratings and reviews as well as maps, filters and links to make reservations. Travelers can sort and search restaurants by price, cuisine type and “recommended for” to find their preferred eatery.
- Gas Tank Getaways: Provides travelers with vacation destination options that are a tank of gas or less away from home. Based on the travelers’ starting location and how much gas they want to use for their trip, the tool then provides up to five destination suggestions within the chosen fuel range, showing the places that are the most highly rated by TripAdvisor travelers.
- Inside Pages: Allows travelers to view, contribute to and edit travel guide books available on more than 33,000 destinations worldwide, using wiki functionality.
- TripWatch: Offers customized e-mail alerts on the specific hotels, attractions and cities requested by the traveler, in a personalized, time-sensitive e-mail newsletter for trip planners.
- Weekend Getaway Guides: Personalizes travel research in a free, weekly e-mail guide based on a user’s specific zip code, giving subscribers suggestions for weekend getaways within a short drive of their hometown.
- Vacation Rentals: Users can now search for Vacation Rentals as well as hotels as a result of a partnership with FlipKey.
- Content Distribution: Allows hoteliers, restaurateurs and other travel businesses to instantly publish TripAdvisor reviews on their own web sites.
- Saves: Personalizes trip planning by allowing travelers to save hotel, restaurant, or attraction reviews to personal “My Trips” folders. Travelers can customize and expand their plans by adding maps, photos, their own notes and travel plan details.[1]
References
External links
