Trivago Predicts That It Now Knows How To Out Smart Google

The Ceo for Trivago stated that his company can now beat google in hotel search, due to their innovative ways that they handle their brand marketing efforts, and how they operate their overall work place. In addition, while answering questions since going public, he mentioned not worrying too much about other competitors such as TripAdvisor, kKayak, which is owned by Priceline, or the even the Chinese travel search engine Ctrip.com. However, in a Recode Podcast that was released by Kara Swisher, the same CEO said at that time, he felt the only real competitor, was Google. Therefore, continue reading to learn how this travel search site, got an upper hand over the big “G”.

Trivago’s CEO first recalled that they faced a big issue over competing with Google, back in 2008 for several reasons. That said, they quickly noticed that they relied heavily on all their referral traffic coming in via the google search engines, and realized that this form of traffic could be stopped very quickly by Google itself, and at any time. Therefore, they decided back then to start focusing more on building up their own branding efforts, through extensive marketing efforts, and they started doing so with Germany first off.

In addition, by doing these types of marketing efforts, they have been able to notice extensive changes in the way that their customers are now reaching their websites overall. Moreover, Schrömgens mentioned in that same public speaking meeting that for every three out of four hotel bookings that the site has, it is solely due to clients coming directly to their travel search site, via typing their name into their own browsers, and not by using the Google Search engine to reach them. Furthermore, how the company handles their everyday operations for their employees, also has helped the company to better understand how the hotel travel search functions, and how to easily take a part in the practices to help consumers with their needs easily.

That being said, that was not always the case, as the CEO recalls one of their employees asking how are they going to even compete with Google’s new hotel Finder during one of their company meetings back in 2010, and why even bother to continue on with their own company efforts. Now with those questions, it sparked the CEO to handle those issues head on. Nevertheless, fast forward now to 2017, and Trivago now sells more hotel bookings on their travel searches, over Google, and that is even in spite of Google’s popularity. Furthermore, the reason this is possible the CEO states is due to the way that google handles their searches to the general public, and how they do things a bit different.

Moreover, while Google provides one search fits everything approach, Trivago predicts that it will be more about a platform of vertical searches, and that it will better be tailored more for consumers needs overall. When Swisher went on to ask the CEO about Airbnb, he replied back with saying “that with vertical search, it will not be splitting categories up for example into hotels, and then have a home sharing section, and then yet another one for whole home vacation rentals for example”. Instead, there would be an overall theme to the way search data was presented, like for instance “an ideal place for the consumer to stay”.

Having said that, while Trivago does not currently provide Airbnb listing in their rental sections, they do currently provide private lodging rentals. In addition, Schrömgens predicts that Airbnd will soon be professionalized, and stop being self managed via individuals, but in its place be done by property managers instead in the near future. Moreover, he went on to explain that the consumer should think of it like how E-bay got its start when it first became available, and that you had hobby sellers on there to begin with.

However, fast forward to how E-bay is functioning today, and you will notice that more items are now being offered by full time retailers on there, and that is the direction he predicts Airbnb will be handled with too in the upcoming future. In addition, the CEO also stated within that Recode Podcast that “countries that now fear immigrants, would also be killing innovation ideas, and that they truly are leaving themselves open to startup-style disruption if they continue on that path”.

In closing, when it comes to competitors within the travel search, Trivago predicts that they have now come up with a better way to beat Google in the travel search data areas easily. Moreover, while in the past they had to rely on the big”G”, fast forwarding to the way they handle their overall brand marketing efforts, and their companies practices, has better helped them to over come this obstacle better. Finally, if you would like to read more in depth how Trivago dealt with these issues, you can hear the entire Podcast HERE, and or read the full transcript HERE.