Tripadvisor


Tripadvisor is an American company that operates online travel agencies, comparison shopping websites, and mobile apps with user-generated content.
Its namesake brand, Tripadvisor.com, operates in 40 countries and 20 languages, and features approximately 1 billion reviews and opinions on roughly 8 million establishments. The company's other brands include Bokun.io, Cruise Critic, FlipKey, TheFork, Holiday Lettings, Housetrip, Jetsetter, Singleplatform, Niumba, SeatGuru, and Viator. The company is headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts.
In 2023, Tripadvisor earned 25 percent of its revenues from Expedia Group and Booking Holdings and their subsidiaries, primarily for pay-per-click advertising.
Matt Goldberg is Tripadvisor's CEO and president.

History

2000-2009

Tripadvisor LLC was founded by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka in February 2000. Kaufer came up with the idea of such a company after being frustrated with planning a family vacation.
In September 2000, before the website was launched, the company obtained $2 million in financing. Seed money was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group, and private investors.
By 2004, the website had 5 million unique visitors a month. That same year, the company was acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp. In August 2005, IAC spun off its travel group of businesses under the Expedia, Inc. name.
In 2007, the company acquired Smarter Travel Media, operator of SmarterTravel.com; BookingBuddy.com; SeatGuru.com; TravelPod.com; Travel-Library.com; and The Independent Traveler, Inc., publisher of Cruise Critic and IndependentTraveler.com. In 2008, the company acquired Holiday Watchdog, a user-generated travel site in the United Kingdom; Airfarewatchdog; Virtualtourist, a travel website with reportedly about one million registered members; OneTime.com, a travel comparison site; and a majority stake in FlipKey, a vacation-rental website.
In April 2009, Tripadvisor launched in China. The company acquired Kuxun.cn, China's second-largest consumer travel site and hotel and flight search engine, in October 2009. In August 2015, Kuxun was sold to Meituan.

2010-2019

In June 2010, the company acquired holidaylettings.co.uk, the largest independent vacation rental website in the United Kingdom. In September 2010, SmarterTravel, part of TripAdvisor Media Group, launched SniqueAway, the first members-only site where each travel deal is endorsed by member reviews. In July 2011, the company acquired Where I've Been, a Chicago-based Facebook app.
In December 2011, Expedia completed the corporate spin-off of Tripadvisor into a public company, with shares trading on NASDAQ under the symbol TRIP.
The company acquired Wanderfly, a New York City-based travel inspiration website, in October 2012. In 2013, the company acquired Jetsetter, a flash sale site; GateGuru, a flight and airport information mobile app; and Oyster.com, a hotel review and photography website. In 2014, the company acquired Vacation Home Rentals; Tripod; LaFourchette, which became theFork, for $140 million; Viator for $200 million; Mytable; Restopolis; and Tripbod, a London-based travel community.
In 2015, the company acquired Iens, a Dutch restaurant review website; SeatMe, a Dutch table reservation website, ZeTrip, Inc., including its product Rove, a personal journal app; Portuguese startup BestTables, and Australian startup Dimmi for $25 million. In April 2016, the company acquired HouseTrip, a holiday rental marketplace based in London. In August 2016, Tripadvisor acquired Citymaps.com, which developed a social mapping site and cross-platform map engine based on OpenStreetMap data. In April 2018, the company acquired Icelandic startup Bokun, a provider of software for travel booking, and in November 2018, the company added DoorDash to its restaurant listings.
In December 2019, Tripadvisor acquired SinglePlatform, a platform that syndicates restaurant menus, from its parent company, Endurance International Group, for $51 million. The company also acquired BookATable from Michelin Guide.

2020-present

In February 2020, the company changed its name from TripAdvisor to Tripadvisor, using a lowercase "a".
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tripadvisor announced 600 layoffs in Canada and the United States and 300 more in other countries as part of a 25% reduction in workforce. The company also closed offices in downtown Boston and San Francisco. In July 2020, Tripadvisor sold 8 brands to Hopjump: Smarter Travel, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, OneTime, Oyster.com, Family Vacation Critic, What To Pack, and Holiday Watchdog.
On December 8, 2020, China blocked 105 apps, including Tripadvisor, from mobile app stores. The Cyberspace Administration of China stated that the apps were "illegal", and that public concerns were raised around "obscene, pornographic and violent information or fraud, gambling and prostitution".
In December 2020, the Tripadvisor.com website drew 90.2 million visits, and the Tripadvisor app was among the top 10 travel apps in 26 countries as of January 2021.
In May 2022, Matt Goldberg was announced as the new CEO of Tripadvisor, replacing Stephen Kaufer.
In April 2025, Tripadvisor completed a $430 million acquisition of its parent company, Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings.
In November 2025, Tripadvisor announced plans to merge Viator and Tripadvisor under one team to create a new 'experience-led' operating model. In the same month, the company launched an AI-powered Tripadvisor app within ChatGPT. Users logged-in to ChatGPT can use the app to plan vacations, read reviews, and ask questions. Users can also ask the app to help them plan a specific trip.

Controversies

Criticism of the review system

Tripadvisor has been the subject of controversy for allowing unsubstantiated anonymous reviews to be posted about any hotel, bed and breakfast, inn, or restaurant.
In May 2021, Tripadvisor was criticized for allowing an offensive review to be posted about the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in which a visitor described bringing a baby to the gas chambers. Tripadvisor initially stated the review complied with submission guidelines, but later removed it following backlash on social media.

Fake reviews

The common presence of fake reviews on Tripadvisor's website has led to criticism of the company. In March 2014, Tripadvisor's Chinese site came under significant public scrutiny when one particular user was found to have reviewed 51 Parisian restaurants in one month, while also reviewing 50 hotels in other countries. Separately, in November 2017, Oobah Butler, a journalist for Vice Media, claimed to have made money posting positive reviews for restaurants he never visited, in exchange for payment.
In September 2019, consumer organisation Which? said Tripadvisor was still failing to stop fake reviews. Its survey of nearly 250,000 reviews for the ten top-ranked hotels in ten popular tourist destinations around the world found that one in seven had "blatant hallmarks" of fake positive reviews.

Phantom establishments

In May 2013, a fake restaurant was set up by a disgruntled businessman and reportedly had diners looking for the eatery in an alley filled with rubbish bins. The fake listing went undetected on Tripadvisor for about two months.
In November 2017, journalist Oobah Butler used fake reviews to boost a nonexistent restaurant named The Shed at Dulwich to the top of Tripadvisor rankings for restaurants in London.

Reviews alleging crime

In November 2017, Tripadvisor deleted reviews by two women who were allegedly raped at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya in Playa del Carmen in separate incidents in 2010 and 2015, one of which involved a hotel security guard. The women said they received assurances from hotel staff that they would contact the authorities, but the staff failed to take any follow-up action. The women then posted advisories and warnings on Tripadvisor, but the reviews were subsequently deleted from the company's website. The review of the first victim, Kristie Love, was eventually reinstated, but the company claimed the review of the second victim, Jamie Valeri, was "hearsay" and it was not reinstated. The reports also highlighted at least 12 other such incidents at hotels and resorts across Mexico, including one of a 29-year-old man who was raped by a massage therapist at a resort in the same area, where reviewers had attempted to warn people through reviews on the company's site about criminal incidents that the resorts and local authorities had failed to pursue any criminal or legal action for, only to have those reviews either taken down or declined for posting by Tripadvisor.

Offers by Meriton of inducements to guests in exchange for reviews

In October 2015, an ex-hotel manager at Meriton said guests were offered inducements to change ratings they left on the site. In 2018, Meriton was fined AU$3 million by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission for misleading consumers.

Malicious reviews

In 2012, an action was brought in a Sheriff Court in Scotland by Richard Gollin, the owner of a guesthouse in the Outer Hebrides, who claimed damages for malicious statements. Tripadvisor first asserted that the Scottish courts lacked jurisdiction since it is based in the United States. However, it later conceded that it could be sued in the UK's jurisdiction. The court ruled that Tripadvisor's terms of use constituted a contract, which was actionable/enforceable by the business being reviewed. The case was found to involve issues relating to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act of 1977, and these issues were referred to a higher court in Stornoway. The plaintiff eventually dropped the case because he could not afford to pursue it.
In March 2015, Dietmar Doering, a German hotelier based in Sri Lanka, accused Tripadvisor of hosting malicious reviews of his resort, The Cosy Beach in Marawila. He claimed he was compelled to take legal action for the estimated damages of US$500,000.