Most Tripadvisor users choose Expedia

More than half of all internet users who visit Tripadvisor, a website offering candid hotel and holiday product reviews, then follow a link to Expedia’s website, according to figures from the web traffic analysis service, Compete.com for April 2008 . An additional 11 percent of visitors to Tripadvisor end up visiting hotels.com, which is actually another Expedia subsidiary. As such, Expedia clearly attracts more Tripadvisor visitors than any other internet-based travel booking service. Nevertheless, a small handful of other sites are also popular among those who enjoy browsing through reviews posted on Tripadvisor and searching through its hotel listings. These companies include Priceline, which attracts 5 percent of all visitors, and Orbitz, which is the first choice for 16 percent of users. Travelocity is also very popular, considering that fully 19 percent of all Tripadvisor visitors who attempt to book a hotel go on to visit one of Expedia’s main rivals.

It is, however, well worth remembering that this data only reflects the activities of American users, as similar information on UK visitors is not yet available. Those who have long been critical of Expedia tend to point out that the main reason why most Tripadvisor visitors go on to visit the parent company’s website is because it enjoys preferential treatment when it comes to advertising and has a clear advantage in terms of the firm’s prominence on the hotel review site. It is indeed clear that Expedia remains Tripadvisor’s main client when it comes to online advertising and this may have helped the firm to secure its position as the most popular place to visit for users looking to book a hotel after reading through several reviews.

For more information on this, please visit www.travolution.co.uk and http://competeinc.com

www.expedia.com