Online travel portal, TripAdvisor has launched TripConnect - a self service platform for the hospitality sector. Through this new service, owners of hotels and Bed & Breakfast (B&B) will need to place a bid that reflects their budget. Business Listings subscribers can bid for a favourable position in the Hotel Price Comparison rankings by choosing the amount per click they wish to pay.

The company claims that the service has been designed with and tested by hoteliers. TripConnect complements the recent launch of Hotel Price Comparison, which allows visitors to TripAdvisor sites to see real-time room rates and availability from various booking partners at the same time. The visitors can now click on the search results link of their choice and make a reservation.

Jean-Charles Lacoste, Vice President of Direct Connect Solutions at TripAdvisor, said, “We are delighted to bring to market a service that fills a need for the hoteliers in the industry. It’s a unique way we can use technology to level the travel accommodation landscape, placing small and independent properties on an equal footing with large hotels and Online Travel Agencies.  Clearly TripConnect is fulfilling a need, as evidenced by the significant number of Internet booking engines working with us to provide this platform to their customers. TripConnect is designed to help independent owners drive more direct bookings and increase revenues, as well as collecting more reviews and tracking performance.”

TripConnect is a cost-per-click solution, which means that participating hoteliers only pay when a traveller clicks through to their website’s reservation page. This is likely to increase the number of ‘click-throughs’ to the property and therefore likely to increase bookings.  This user interface has been designed to save property owners’ time in their marketing efforts.  It also provides a better user experience for travellers.