The big business of rating holidays
TripAdvisor has changed vacation planning by engaging travellers to rank venues
Kosta’s Pizza and Seafood has received high marks from TripAdvisor reviewers. The diners rave about the baked haddock, pita bread and pizza. But none of the commenters acknowledge the historic significance of the Boston-area restaurant.
In 2000, a software engineer and some pals created an axis-shifting travel website above the Needham business. Appropriately, TripAdvisor.com came to life in a room smelling of Italy.
A lot has changed since the hatchling days above the pizzeria. Back then, co-founder Steve Kaufer and his wife searched in vain for independent reviews of resorts in Mexico, the vacation that inspired the site. The couple relied on glossy brochures supplied by a commission-driven travel agent. Today, the Kaufers, plus millions of other travellers, can sift through 250 million unvarnished reviews and opinions, including 160 new submissions a minute.
Recently TripAdvisor moved into splashy headquarters less than five kilometres from its birthplace. Nearly 900 employees work in the $120-million building, which will eventually accommodate hundreds of new hires. It also owns or manages more than two dozen travel media businesses, such as Cruise Critic, SeatGuru, Jetsetter and FlipKey.
Without question, TripAdvisor has become a monster, a helpful beast that accompanies countless travellers on their vacations.
“Travellers are much better off today than they ever have been,” said Adam Medros, the company’s senior vice- president of global product. “The traveller is empowered to make their trips amazing and not ‘ohit-was-OK.’ ”
This summer, the annual study Portrait of American Travelers, by travel marketing company MMGY, highlighted the barrelling trend of user-generated content. Forty-one per cent of about 2,800 respondents said they visited a travel review site for destination information, up seven per cent from last year. Only 37 per cent said they relied on friends and family for trip ideas. In addition, more than half of the participants said they trust review sites over ratings by such established opinionators as AAA and Forbes.
“TripAdvisor has freed me from dependence on any individual or company that wants to profit from my choices,” said Ginny Cunningham, who has used the site for more than a decade. “Frommer’s, Fodor’s and travel agents are great, but they’re exceedingly limited in the real-life feedback they offer.”
New headquarters
TripAdvisor HQ sits in an office park in Newton, Mass. The brick building with a soaring glass wall doesn’t scream New Media Lives Here, but telltale signs abound. A drone hovered overhead. A row of parking spots was reserved for job applicants. Two guys in floppy shorts played Frisbee near a Roman-style amphitheatre that hosts bands.
The lobby, a playful space with vintage luggage used as shelving includes a tower of Rubik’s cubes and a world map made of travel photos. In the background, a TV touted the company’s benefits: happy hours, free lunches, summer-casual Fridays.
“We wanted it to feel like a hotel reception,” said Matthew Gabree, director of global office experience.
Staying on- theme, Gabree showed me TripAdvisor’s version of the hotel gym, a bright workout facility, and introduced me to a virtual trainer named Wellbeats — for when you only have 20 minutes to squeeze in your kick-boxing training.
In the building’s atrium, stadium- style seating rose like Machu Picchu. At the peak, “embalmed” vegetation mimicked green walls, an eco-update of plastic vines. In the game room, Gabree pointed out the diversions including Atari, pingpong, craft brew taps and a wallsize mural of superheroes.
In the Hungry Owl (see company logo), the kitchen staff prepares a global-cuisine-ofthe-day; last Wednesday was Germany. There is also a grill station, nine-metre salad bar and gas-fired pizza station, a nod to the company’s origins. Snack hubs provide all-day fixes of cereal, chips and coffee.
In the more traditional workspaces, I saw pods of employees glued to their computers and hunched over laptops. One worker typed with a dog on his chest. No loud voices (or barks) broke the deep concentration.
Every floor is named after a continent (Europe) or region (the Americas). The furnishings, artwork and even the decorative plants all capture the flavour of the destination.
Executive Adam Medros’s early memories date from 2004, the year he joined the company and three years after the first guest submission, a four-bubble review of Captain’s House Inn in Chatham, Mass., appeared on the site. That solo review seems so quaint now: The site added nearly as many reviews and opinions last month as it did in all of 2010.
For Medros, one of TripAdvisor’s greatest contributions to travel is lifting the opaque curtain on reviews of hotels, restaurants and attractions.
Last year, the company introduced a points system that helps users better know the commenters. Members earn points through written submissions, photos, videos, forums and ratings. Brad Reynolds (user name: BradJill), for example, is the site’s most prolific reviewer. The Level 6 contributor has earned more than 2.1 million points and 106 badges in such categories as Hotel Expert, Helpful Reviewer and Top Contributor.
Credibility
Because anyone can post, the personal information adds a layer of credibility to a platform susceptible to fraud. Overly gushy or vindictive comments ring alarms that a business has orchestrated its own good press or sullied a competitor’s reputation. Firms also approach property owners and offer to write glowing remarks for a fee.
For security reasons, Medros said, he couldn’t describe the company’s anti-fraud detection program in detail, but said they use 50 or so filters and algorithms to pick up on “behaviour that looks different.” A team of inspectors investigates the claim, and if their suspicions are verified, TripAdvisor may affix a red badge to the hotel’s listing that could scare away business.
Medros says fraud appears in only a tiny fraction of reviews.
Over the past few years, TripAdvisor has been expanding. Travellers can now compare prices from different booking services and reserve hotel rooms without leaving the site. The company is expanding its attraction and restaurant categories and introducing app features.
Another focus: personalization. With Just for You, TripAdvisor offers hotel suggestions based on the user’s predilections and research on the site.
Response to reviews
Nearly every workday, David Bueno starts his morning by reading the latest batch of TripAdvisor reviews. The manager at the Jefferson, the upscale Washington hotel, and his marketing manager tackle the comments one by one.
“It does take a lot of time,” he admitted, “but the guests take their time to post reviews.”
The pair try to respond within 24 hours. If the comment is positive, they can post a reply lickety-split. If the review mentions a flaw or dissatisfaction, however, his staff will confirm that the reviewer was indeed a guest and will investigate the problem so they can provide a proper explanation, if not a solution.
TripAdvisor has more than 84 million reviewers, and their critiquing styles vary wildly. Balanced and tempered. Highly observant and specific. Overly enthusiastic. Nitpicking and negative. Yet despite the disparate voices, the contributors share a similar purpose: giving back to the TripAdvisor community.
All reviewers start their TripAdvisor careers as readers. When looking for accommodations, most devise culling strategies. They might focus on the top-ranked listings in that city, or search by property type or number of stars. When scanning reviews, they note patterns and look for a consensus, sampling the best and worst and several in-between.
“If there are 100 reviews and 25 say their room was dirty,” said Denise Mills, who has written about 15 critiques, “then chances are the hotel is not careful about cleanliness.”