Talk:Trivago

trivago N.V., marketed with lowercase styling as trivago, is leading global hotel search platform focused on reshaping the way travelers search for and compare hotels and alternative accommodation. The American travel company Expedia Group owns a majority of the company's stock.

Trivago was the first hotel search engine in Germany.[2] It became one of the fastest growing companies in Germany,[3] with profitability doubling from 2008 to 2012.[4]

History request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=1

The company was founded in Düsseldorf, Germany, in January 2005. Seeing an opportunity in the hotel search space, the founding team developed Germany's first hotel search engine. Shortly after launch, Stephan Stubner decided to pursue another passion of his, becoming a professor (where today he still sits, as rector of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management), but Rolf Schrömgens remains as CEO. Initially, trivago received €1.4 million from investors, including the Samwer brothers,[who?] Florian Heinemann, and Christian Vollmann.[5] In 2010, Insight Venture Partners acquired 27.3% of the equity ownership of trivago for €42.5 million. Expedia acquired 63.0% of the equity ownership in trivago in 2013, purchasing all outstanding equity not held by founders or employees of trivago for €477 million and subscribing for a certain number of newly issued shares. Expedia subsequently increased its shareholdings slightly in the second quarter of 2016 through the purchase of shares held by certain employees who had previously exercised stock options. In December 2012, Expedia, an American travel company, announced that it would acquire a 61.6% stake in Trivago for $632 million.[8][5] The deal was completed in 2013. In December 2014, trivago acquired 100% equity interest in mobile app product and development company Rheinfabrik. After the acquisition, Rheinfabrik remains independent from Trivago in its work. In 2015, Andrej Lehnert[10] and Johannes Thomas (Hotel Sales, Business) joined trivago as part of the management team.[11] In 2015, trivago reported more than US$500 million in revenue,[12] and said its revenue had doubled every year from 2008 to 2015.[4] In August 2015, trivago completed the acquisition of a 52.3% equity interest in base7booking.com Sarl (“base7”), a cloud based property management service provider based in Switzerland. trivago integrated Base7Booking’s property management system which provided access to the company’s workforce and the “know-how” regarding base7’s all-in-one property management system which creates opportunity to enhance trivago’s direct marketing. In July 2015, trivago completed the acquisition of a 61.3% equity interest in myhotelshop GmbH (“myhotelshop”), a marketing manager, for total purchase consideration of €0.6 million consisting of cash and the settlement of pre-existing debt at the closing of the acquisition. The acquisition provides trivago direct relationships with independent hotels through the myhotelshop portal. myhotelshop has since been deconsolidated at the end of 2017 In August 2017, trivago acquired the assets of tripl (winner of ITB's Start-Ups Battle 2016), a machine learning travel start-up from Hamburg. The acquisition enhanced trivago's product with personalization technology which uses both Big Data and a customer-centric approach. In May 2018, trivago announced the acquisition of TripHappy, a US travel startup that leverages artificial intelligence to highlight relevant location and neighborhood information during the hotel search and discovery process. This acquisition follows trivago's continued efforts to improve the traveler search experience by delivering personalized results through technology and product innovation.

In April 2016, Trivago reached 1,000 employees and began building a new campus in Düsseldorf.[14] The campus opened in 2018.

On December 16, 2016, trivago became publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol TRVG.[15][16][17] At the closing of the offering, Expedia retained 64.7% of voting rights and 59.7% of economic rights in trivago.[18]

Operations request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=2

trivago is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany where the international operations are conducted and 90% of the company's employees work.[5] In 2013, trivago opened new offices in Leipzig and Palma de Mallorca. There are also offices in Amsterdam and Shanghai.[5]

Business model request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=3 As a hotel price comparison website, trivago makes money from advertising partners primarily using a cost-per-click (CPC) business model. An advertiser is charged when a user clicks on an advertised rate and is referred to that advertiser’s website where the user can complete the booking. By clicking on a given rate, an individual user is referred to that advertiser’s website where the user can complete the booking. The key difference between trivago and an online travel agency, is that while travelers search for and chose their ideal hotel on trivago, they are then redirected to book that hotel with one of the advertisers. Trivago also offers free and fee-based versions[11] of its Hotel Manager product, which hoteliers use to market their facilities on the Trivago site.[20] The site includes over 190 million hotel ratings and 14 million photos, and reports over 120 million visitors per month. Since their majority shareholder is Expedia, the effort is to direct bookings to their sites by way of various "adjustments" to how other sites' rates are perceived. They also offer rates through many sites reselling for travel wholesalers, where rooms may or may not be available at time of booking.[citation needed]

Products and features request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=4 Hotel searchrequest edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=5 trivago's hotel search engine was the first of its kind in Germany[2] and has websites in 50+ countries.[5] As of March 31, 2019, trivago offered access to more than 3.0 million hotels and other types of accommodation including over 1.8 million units of alternative accommodation, such as vacation rentals and private apartments, in over 190 countries. trivago's search tool scans hotel booking sites for prices, availability, images and reviews within seconds. When users choose a hotel, they are redirected to a partner website to complete the booking.[21]

trivago app request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=6 trivago offers a free app for its Hotel Search product on both iOS and Android.[22] In addition to the hotel search feature, the app provides interactive maps and displays accommodations in close proximity to the user's current location.[23] The trivago app has been listed in Mashable's 25 Apps to save you money,[22] USA Today's 10 best apps for booking your stay,[24] Independent.IE in Ireland as an app to save time and money[25] and Australia's News.com.au as one of the top apps to take on holiday.[26]

trivago Hotel Manager request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=7 Hotel Manager is trivago's B2B platform that allows hoteliers to market their facilities on the trivago site. The platform gives hotels and chains customer data to attempt to secure more bookings and increase business.[27] Hoteliers can monitor their performance, for example seeing the amount of profile views, clicks and bookings they receive.

Hotel Manager Pro request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=8 Hotel Manager Pro is the fee-based version of trivago's Hotel Manager platform. The Pro version enables hoteliers to update and customize their own listings, as well as access analytics about competitor rates. trivago says that up-to-date listings, including images and amenity information, help properties increase their rankings on the site.[11]

Rate Connect request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=9 Rate Connect is a feature that allows individual hotels to update their current rates and availability directly via the trivago Hotel Manager tool.[28]

Indices and rankings request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=10

Trivago Rating Index (tRI) request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=11 The tRI is a comprehensive and reliable index of hotel ratings. The tRI takes available rating sources from across the web and uses an algorithm to aggregate them, providing a dependable and impartial score trivago Hotel Price Index (tHPI)request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=12 The trivago Hotel Price Index (tHPI) displays the average overnight accommodation prices for the most popular cities worldwide. Prices are based on the cost of a standard double room, taken from over 2 million daily price inquiries over the past month.[12]

Marketing request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=14 trivago focuses on online marketing (SEM and display advertising), public relations and brand marketing (TV).[37] The company has historically entered new countries using predominantly television advertising.[38] When Facebook expanded its Dynamic Ads product to cover travel brands, trivago was one of its two initial launch participants.[39] The "trivago guy" request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=15 When the company aired its first U.S. TV advertisement in 2012, the ad's spokesman inspired a trending twitter hashtag, #trivagoguy, based on his unusual look.[40] According to Rolling Stone, trivago "wanted someone real, approachable and genuine" when it chose actor Tim Williams to star in the ad. The trivago guy became an unexpected celebrity, with some people noting his unbuttoned shirt and creepy vibe, while others found his scruffy appearance and deep voice "inexplicably sexy".[41] trivago responded to the comments by launching a contest that invited people to give the trivago guy a makeover.[42] The trivago guy inspired parodies, fan fiction and a large gay following.[43] Many commenters asked why trivago chose not to have the actor wear a belt. According to the actor, that was an accident. "Unfortunately none of the belts fit the belt loops that I had on," Williams said. "I think that was probably the best break we could have gotten."[40] Following the large response for the U.S. trivago guy, the company decided to create French and Spanish trivago guys.[40] From 2016 until June 2017, the French actor Mehdi Nebbou was the German trivago guy. The "trivago girl" request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=16 In the UK, trivago's advertisements are fronted by Australian actress and musician Gabrielle Miller.[44] In Germany, the trivago girl is German actress and model Anna Puck (since June 2017). In Japan, trivago is represented in their TV commercials by singer/songwriter Natalie Emmons, who uses the pseudonym "Strae" in the United States.[45] In Malaysia, actress and TV host Dahlia Shazwan has starred in trivago's advertisements.[46]

Work environment request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=17 trivago states that it attempts to recruit tech and business employees that are "willing to cross borders".[2] trivago's first employees were hired via Skype interview from Spain, Italy and Canada, and today 90% of its staff is recruited internationally.[5] The company operates with virtually no hierarchies or titles,[2] instead using a model called swarm intelligence. It also does not have fixed working hours, and offers employees a four-day surprise holiday each year and one month working in Mallorca.[47] At some point in time,[when?] Trivago said that it was receiving around 50,000 applicants per year.[2]

Employees request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=18 The average age of a trivago employee is 26 years old[2] and it has 70 nationalities working in its main office. It is not unusual to see flags dotting the office space above the desks of employees who have ties with the nation represented.[48]

New campus request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=19 On February 2, 2016, trivago announced its plans to build a global campus in Düsseldorf, designed to accommodate over 2,000 people. Construction was completed in early June 2018, and on June 18th, 2018, trivago moved itsc. 1700 employees to the new Campus.[12] The six-story building was designed by SOP Architekten in Düsseldorf. The new campus is located on the docks of Kesselstraße in the Düsseldorf "Media Harbour", close to the Neuer Zollhof buildings designed by Frank Gehry.[12]

Legal issues request edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trivago&action=edit&section=20 In August 2016, Buckeye Tree Lodge and Sequoia Village Inn, LLC filed a class-action lawsuit in California accusing the company and its partners of "brazen deceit" by coordinating with internet search engines and social media institutions to return false results on lodging entities in favor of those affiliated with their websites, in violation of the Lanham Act. As of January 2017, the case remained pending.[49][50] In August 2018, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged in a court case brought against trivago in the High Court of Australia that the company has misled consumers on their website and in their television advertising. It was alleged that search results were ordered in preference to the highest paying "cost per click" advertisers, rather than outright cheapest prices. It was also alleged that the company's television advertising misled consumers by purporting to be "impartial and objective", when it fact it wasn't. [51]The penalties for engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, under the Australian Consumer Law, can be up to $1.1 million per breach. As of August 2018, the case is still on-going.