Web Travel Prepares for Long Road -- WSJ
August 10 2017 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Chris Kirkham
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (August 10, 2017).
Shares of Priceline Group Inc. fell Wednesday after the online
travel company cut forecasts for growth in hotel bookings.
TripAdvisor Inc. shares initially swooned after that company,
too, said revenue growth would slow, but rebounded by the end of
the trading day.
The reasons behind the reduced forecasts were very different for
the two companies as are the long-term implications, according to
analysts.
TripAdvisor was briefly down more than 4% and Priceline Group
fell by nearly 8% in midday trading. Priceline closed 6.9% lower
and TripAdvisor rose 2.5% on Wednesday.
Both companies make money in online travel, but TripAdvisor is
largely reliant on online advertising revenue associated with its
hotel listings and reviews. Priceline makes money through customers
booking on its sites.
TripAdvisor's revenue per hotel shopper was down 2% from a year
earlier, according to its earnings release Tuesday, and the company
cut revenue-growth expectations for the year. Executives pointed to
a faster-than-expected shift toward mobile devices, where
advertising generates less revenue than on desktop and laptop
computers.
Priceline Group is projecting slower growth in gross bookings
for the third quarter, about 9% to 14%, which compares to 15% to
20% growth for the same quarter last year. The decline Wednesday
was the largest for the company's shares in more than a year.
Analysts said Priceline's dip is likely a one-time blip driven
by the slower growth forecast, and the company has historically
been conservative in its estimates. For TripAdvisor, however, they
see a longer-term challenge as more customers shift to mobile
devices for shopping.
"A mobile shopper monetizes at less than a third of a desktop
shopper," said Shyam Patil, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial
Group. "More of your traffic is going to a channel where you're
making less money off the eyeballs."
The company said mobile accounted for more than 40% of its hotel
shoppers last quarter, which is up from about a third a year ago.
In prepared remarks, the company said the acceleration in mobile
hotel shoppers is a short-term challenge, though it may become a
benefit in the long run as people are likely to have more
opportunities to shop online.
"On the one hand, it highlights our increasing engagement on
this strategic platform," the company said. But less revenue per
shopper "exacerbates the near-term revenue growth headwind." The
company declined to elaborate on comments it made in the earnings
call.
TripAdvisor had been trying to shift more toward a booking model
in recent years where customers would find hotels, read reviews and
book through the site. Executives earlier this year said they were
de-emphasizing the approach after it failed to meet growth
expectations.
"The solution they had clearly didn't work and now they're kind
of left without a new solution," said Mr. Patil. "They're still in
the early stages of figuring this out."
On its earnings call Wednesday, executives pointed to the
non-hotel attractions segment of its business as a bright spot.
Stephen Kaufer, TripAdvisor's president and chief executive, said
the attractions space has "the biggest short-, medium- and
long-term upside for us."
Priceline Group said it is still seeing healthy demand for
global travel. On an earnings call Tuesday, Chief Executive Glenn
Fogel said the slower growth projections were "consistent with our
long-term trends and expectation for the business given our size
now."
TripAdvisor shares are down 14% since the beginning of the year,
while Priceline is up more than 28% over the same period.
Analysts said the slower projected growth for the third quarter
compares to a particularly strong quarter a year before. Mike
Olson, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., said some of the
slower growth may be because the company has reduced some of its ad
spending through third-party channels to grow more direct
business.
He doesn't expect the company's slide to be a long-term one.
"Some people will take a wait-and-see approach to how well
Priceline does with [third-quarter growth]," Mr. Olson said. "If
they're able to see upside in bookings and room night growth, then
that will show this was kind of just a blip on the radar."
Write to Chris Kirkham at chris.kirkham@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 10, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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