Expedia would like to incorporate the millions of user reviews gathered by sister company TripAdvisor into its own website. Dermot Halpin, Expedia president in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said content from the review website, which Expedia parent-company Interactive Corp bought in 2004, had so far not been included because of “technology integration issues”. Admitting…
Expedia keen to use TripAdvisor content
Expedia would like to incorporate the millions of user reviews gathered by sister company TripAdvisor into its own website.
Dermot Halpin, Expedia president in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said content from the review website, which Expedia parent-company Interactive Corp bought in 2004, had so far not been included because of “technology integration issues”.
Admitting he would “love” to see a combination of TripAdvisor’s massive inventory of user generated content within its own consumer reviews section, Halpin also said discussions were ongoing between the two organisations.
The massive rise in popularity of TripAdvisor has raised a number of questions about how third party sites may use its content. The acquisition by Expedia in 2004 has accelerated speculation as to when or how the content would be fed into the OTA’s site.
TripAdvisor is understood to have been in discussions with various organisations about allowing its content to be fed into other sites, but so far no significant deals have materialised.
A significant factor in any discussions would probably rest on TripAdvisor’s desire that all reviews of a property must be included – a problem for some sites as a high number of hotels and destinations have upwards of a 1,000 individual reviews.
TripAdvisor currently has over 5 million reviews of around 220,000 hotels and destinations worldwide and has attracted praise from the across the industry and with consumers.
It also attracts around 20 million unique users each month across its dot-com and UK domains.
Speaking at the PhoCusWright conference in Brussels this week, Halpin said user-generated content will become even more powerful in the online travel industry in the future.
He also suggested – echoing comments made in his column in the September edition of Travolution – the travel industry would be unlikely to experience a seismic event over the next ten years similar to the impact the internet has had since the mid-1990s.
Dermot Halpin column – Expedia is here to stay
