The Priceline Group was the first of giant online travel agencies to participate in the Instant Booking programme when it signed an agreement in October last year.
Instant Booking allows users to search and select a hotel on metasearch principles but secure the reservation on-site (the supplier or OTA retains the merchant of record rights).
Expedia Inc’s Aaron Price, senior vice president of global marketing, says the partnership with TripAdvisor will give it a chance to “see how we can drive additional customer acquisition given the product and customer experience enhancements instant booking has made”.
TripAdvisor says there are currently 70 partners on the Instant Booking initiative, including a number of other online travel agencies (for example, GetARoom) and some of the major hotel chains such as Marriott, Accor, Best Western and Wyndham Worldwide.
Still, two-and-a-half years on from the original launch (and the start of a gradual global roll-out) of Instant Booking, TripAdvisor has consistently acknowledged that the project has faced some difficulties, not least with what president and CEO Steve Kaufer called a “monetisation leak”.
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