Tripadvisor rolls out expanded sponsored placements

TripAdvisor has rolled out sponsored placements to all accommodation businesses across the globe, so long as they share live rates and availability with the site.

Sponsored Placements launched last year exclusively to accommodations with a Business Advantage subscription, and the global rollout now gives properties worldwide the opportunity to target the 490 million visitors browsing the site every month.

The news comes not long after Dick Smith’s viral video sparked enormous clap back against accommodations booking sites, with many claiming the sites create a disadvantage for small hotels and motels.

The global rollout also means new features and functionality. Sponsored Placements now allows owners to target their ads by weekday or weekend stays allowing advertising budgets to be better targeted than ever before.

TripAdvisor has also built more flexibility into the advertising product with a new ‘pause’ function, allowing hoteliers to schedule a date in the future for their campaign to automatically start.

“We have listened to feedback from early adopters of Sponsored Placements, and continue to invest in our advertising product for accommodation businesses with these recent enhancements”, said Martin Verdon-Roe, Vice President B2B Hotels, TripAdvisor.

“Sponsored Placements, when combined with Business Advantage, is proving to be a great way to help accommodation owners drive direct booking referrals and build customer loyalty.”

Tripadvisor revamped its site towards the end of last year, inviting travellers to create curated feeds and follow influencers and companies to personalise their travel experience.

“The new TripAdvisor provides its members with great content from the people, brands and influencers they rely on for travel and in-destination advice before and during their trip,” said Stephen Kaufer, president and CEO, TripAdvisor.

However, at the time the platform denied the brand and influencer involvement will lead to paid placements with the site.

“Right now, we are focused on making the experience the best it can be for travellers, businesses and influencers,” a TripAdvisor spokesperson told Travel Weekly.

“We don’t allow or accept reviews that have been paid for and will remove any review found to be in breach of this policy.”

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