Trivago Hotels - In the 21st century, traveling is not as exclusive and uncommon as it was in the past. Almost everyone has a chance to plan a trip, but we still must remember about the right preparation. If you plan some-thing more serious than a one-day trip, then using an accommodation service is a must. Don’t put your comfort and life at risk and always remember to find the proper place to spend the night. But how to choose good accommodation? Don’t worry. You can always use a traveler-friendly type of software that will help you with planning the trip. Trivago is probably the most popular of the metasearch websites targeting hotel deals. But do we really know how it works and why it’s so effective? Here we present to you a couple of secrets behind Trivago that will make you realize what this portal is and how it works.
What is Trivago?
Trivago compare hotel prices worldwide, the aim of which is to make booking accommodation easier. What is a metasearch for hotels? It’s a platform that uses the content of various websites and displays it via its own interface. The same searching system may be used for segregating lists of restaurants or job advertise-ments. It’s natural that when you are hungry and you want to learn about a restaurant near you, you don’t feel like spending hours looking for it. It holds the same for looking for the right accommodation option. What Trivago does is facilitate this process.
How Trivago works?
Are you a tourist? Maybe you need to plan a business trip or there is a concert of your favorite rock star in another country. It doesn’t matter why you travel. You still need accommodation, so you decide to look for various offers to check what suits you most. You may be wondering which search engine you should use, Booking.com or Expedia? Maybe Agoda? Fortunately, you don’t have to choose, because thanks to Trivago you have access to listings from all of those platforms on one website. Its original mobile app is also waiting for you. Showing listings is not the only option that Trivago has in store. It also facilitates finding the right offer by allowing its users to filter their queries. It’s possible due to typing given criteria such as price range, hotel stars or ratings. When you need to attend some event, it’s more convenient for you to find a ho-tel near you, so reading offers of distant hotels is a serious waste of time. By filtering narrowly you can be sure to have a list of only those options that suit your needs.
Machine learning algorithms
Such metasearch engines as the one offered by Trivago utilize machine learning algorithms. Thanks to them, the system is capable of “learning” how to find the best li¬stings and then recommending them to those who look for them.¬¬ The purpose of machine learning is to collect data and then process them. Such a processed dataset is then subject to classification, which makes it possible to adjust the selec-tion of data to the user. A metasearch engine is an example of a system, where machine learning is ap-plied. To some people it may look like a science-fiction theme but such tools are available today and they facilitate many complex procedures. Thanks to this, Trivago can help you organize your holiday, taking your preferences into account.
How is Trivago different from its competitors?
You know other service providers that offer you online booking such as KAYAK or Booking.com. In some way, they are similar, but there is one loud difference. While other companies diversify their busi-ness and invest into various branches, Trivago sticks to its essence – hotel deals. The competitors have chosen diversification because of such market giants as Google. Once the biggest search engine in the world found a way to start using their own listing systems, other engines began to lose their stability. That’s why they are constantly widening their offers to be still attractive on the mar-ket. Trivago, however, chose another strategy. Instead of diversifying, the company’s marketing experts decided to focus solely on one branch. Such a decision aims to learn as much as possible about the ho-tel industry and cope with all of its trends. They believe that it’s the best way to be strong enough to resist the domination of Google. Surprisingly, this idea was the key to success, because Trivago is far from retirement.Obviously, nobody can predict the future and the trends must be changing. If the necessity comes, Trivago will also have to adjust to them, but now it's powerful enough to play according to its own rules.
How does Trivago make money?
Using Trivago is free, so you don’t have to pay any extra fee to find the right accommodation service. If it doesn’t get money directly, then how does it make it? It uses the two main channels which are sub-scriptions and clicks. How do they work? By clicking on a hotel, Trivago gets a commission from the OTA (Online Travel Agent).
Subscriptions
This stream of income is related to what is offered by Trivago for hotel owners. The option for hoteliers is known as “Business Studio” and we may frankly say that the true aim of this PRO package is to domi-nate the competitors. The company offers functions that are unavailable in other portals, making the “Business Studio” package appeal to businessmen involved in the hotel industry. What functions are we talking about? After purchasing this premium package, hoteliers can upload their listings and manage them on their own later. They are also capable of tracking clicks and impres-sions on their listings as well as having an insight into guest ratings. What’s more, it provides an effec-tive tool for collecting and analyzing data regarding clients’ needs.
CPC – Cost Per Click
The system that allows Trivago to make money through clicks is known as Cost Per Click (CPC). To put it simply, whenever you click on a listing posted by an advertiser, Trivago earns. In the company’s finan-cial statements it’s listed as Referral Revenue, which constitutes most of its income. The amount of such earned money is based on the deal with an advertiser. When someone wants to post an adver-tisement, they must use their own listing and bid on chosen keywords. Such keywords are for example names of the travel destinations such as “New York” or “Madrid”. It works in the following way: a user is wondering where to stay during their trip to Madrid. They type the words “Madrid” and there is a high likelihood that on the top, there’ll be an advertiser’s listing. But how high is this likelihood exactly? It depends on how much the advertiser bade on the keyword. Now you know why advertiser’s listings are located on the top of searching results, but in what way does the money come to Trivago? The company who wants to advertise their listing sets an ad budget at the beginning, but Trivago doesn’t get this money immediately. Only when somebody clicks on the advertiser’s offer, its value is deducted from the set budget.
What are “our recommendations”?
If you use Trivago, you must have seen the section with recommendations, but do you know how they are chosen to suit your needs? The search engine collects the data that are used by special algorithms then. What data are these? Mostly your search criteria are taken into account. If you have some favor-ite parameters that you type when you book a hotel room (e.g. you look only for hotels with swimming pools), they are “learned” by the searching system. Other factors such as the average price of offers you browse are also important. Apart from typing, it matters what you click on. On the basis of these data, the algorithm tries to assess what your needs are and then recommend the offers that overlap with them.
How do alternative soft filters work?
It’s natural that comfort and safety are of great significance to you, that’s why you treat booking ac-commodation seriously. Sometimes typing your preferences or browsing through the list of recommen-dations may be not enough. If you don’t find it satisfying, Trivago offers alternative soft filters that al-low you to combine your preferences with recommendations created by algorithms. How does it work? Now you know that the searching engine collects your data and use it to make special lists exclusive for you. But did you know that you can take part in adjusting these lists for yourself as well? Once you see the “our recommendation” section, you’ll be able to combine it with your personal criteria. When you choose such combinations as “distance & recommended” or “rating & recommended”.
No more intrusive advertisements
It’s probable that you’ve experienced such a situation, in which you looked for one item or one specific option and even when you found it, you still saw an advertisement related to it. Such advertisements are based on similar algorithms to those used by Trivago, which is why the company’s programmers looked for the solution and found it. Thanks to alternative filters you don’t need to feel frustrated by unwanted recommendations offered to you automatically by the system. Instead, you can manipulate them to achieve the results that will really satisfy you.
