TripAdvisor and Michelin brands partner after reservation site buy
This marks the start of a partnership between the review company and Michelin, which acquired the Bookatable brand in 2016.
A content and licensing partnership will mean that the restaurants and gastropubs identified by the Michelin Guide worldwide will be identified with ‘Star’, ‘Bib Gourmand’ and ‘Plate’ distinctions on the review site.
The 14,000 sites listed on Bookatable will join the 67,000 already bookable on TheFork, which the two brands said would create the largest online restaurant booking platform.
Neither company disclosed the terms or price of the acquisition.
Bertrand Jelensperger, senior vice-president at TripAdvisor Restaurants and chief executive of TheFork, said the deal meant it would be able to expand the business further across Europe.
He said: “We are happy to add Bookatable by Michelin to the TripAdvisor family.
“This agreement allows us to continue expanding our business geographically, while offering an even more valuable service to restaurants and diners alike.”
Increased visibility
Jelensperger added: “We’ll soon make Michelin-selected bookable restaurants more visible on our platforms to better serve our users and drive the right customers to each restaurant.”
Scott Clark, who is on the Michelin Group executive committee said the partnership would offer unprecedented visibility to the venues listed in the Michelin Guide selection.
He added: “By combining the Michelin Guide’s unique restaurant curation and selection criteria with TripAdvisor’s comprehensive travel planning platform, we will be able to make the Michelin Guide’s selections accessible to a much larger number of diners around the world.”
A Great British Pub of the Year finalist told The Morning Advertiser that customers do not understand the damage a bad review made an online site like TripAdvisor can have on a business, amid calls for the site to do more to combat false or petty reviews.
