According to HeBS' Max Starkov, Tingo.com is another declaration of TripAdvisor’s misguided and confused anti-industry and pro-OTA business model. By failing to position itself as an industry friend, TripAdvisor is just after the bulk of advertising dollars in the hospitality industry, controlled at the property level.
On March 21, 2012, TripAdvisor subsidiary Smarter Travel Media launched Tingo.com, a new hotel-booking site. This new OTA site is an affiliate of Expedia.com, which means the site uses Expedia’s inventory feed and pricing and receives part of Expedia’s booking commissions. Tingo’s main value proposition and big selling point is that it will refund the difference to customers if the price of the room they have booked on Tingo.com actually drops after booking.
The press release announcing the launch of Tingo.com had the provocative title: “Travelers Overpaid Millions for Hotel Rooms in 2011: Tingo Comes to the Rescue.” It further proclaimed that “In 2011 alone, Americans could have saved nearly $314 million if they had had access to a site like Tingo.com.”
Read full story at: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/will_tingo_further_alienate_tripadvisor_from_the_hospitality_industry
