TripAdvisor launches new paid premium subscription services for hotels and restaurants

Travel review website TripAdvisor is hoping to tempt restaurants and hotels to pay new premium subscription services, offering a range of new features to manage their presence on the site.

Firstly, TripAdvisor is enhancing its subscription product for hoteliers through the launch of Business Advantage. The main features of the service include:

• Favourite reviews: the opportunity to label a review Hotel's Favourite Review near the top of the accommodation's property page
• Favourite photos: the ability to highlight their best photos
• Cover photos: subscribers can select a photo to use as a cover to each one of their TripAdvisor albums
• Enhanced analytics suite: offering traveller, engagement, and competitor data to inform decisions about how to market to potential customers, enhance guest experiences and manage online reputation

In addition, the review site is also launching TripAdvisor Premium for Restaurants. Initially costing £64.99 a month (based on a 12-month subscription, or £69.99 per month if taken month to month), features available for subscribers include: a favourite review feature; access to analytics; phone support from customer support staff; and storyboard, enabling restaurants to turn photos and reviews into a dynamic visual presentation showcasing their best features.

However, prices for both the restaurant and hotel products vary according to the business, a spokesman for TripAdvisor explained: "The subscription price is designed to represent the value that Business Advantage delivers to each individual property, so it is tailored according to a variety of factors such as location, size, etc."

"Similarly, there isn't a one-size-fits-all price for the TripAdvisor Premium For Restaurants product. A restaurant's subscription cost is calculated based on the yearly sum of daily active users who view a restaurants page on TripAdvisor. In short, if a user views a restaurants page, menu, photos, etc. they are counted towards a daily active user. We then take the yearly total of these daily active users to determine the price the restaurant pays."

Robin Ingle, senior vice-president of global sales at TripAdvisor, said: "Providing a business with the opportunity to improve its content and customise its presence on TripAdvisor helps partners better understand and engage with their customers. We've designed these new subscription services to help our partners fully leverage the benefits that are possible when working with TripAdvisor."

Bertrand Jelensperger, senior vice-president of TripAdvisor Restaurant, added: "For the first time, 4.2 million restaurants on TripAdvisor can have more creative control and improved customer insights to maximise the value of their listing on our sites and apps."

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