Goodbye Amadeus...Bonjour TripAdvisor

This is no secret that I don't only work as a blogger on Hotel Blogs for more than 4 years but I have also been a full time employee at Amadeus working for the UK office in Crawley (South London if you've never heard about the place before). For the last 3 years and a half, I was fulfilling the challenging role of business development manager for UK and Ireland working alongside travel management companies, business and leisure agents making sure Amadeus was not only used for Air bookings but also for Hotels.

 

When I moved from Active Hotels / Booking.com to join Amadeus in 2006, it was an interesting career move as I was a total stranger to the GDS world. I have learnt a lot in recent years. The acronyms, the pressure on TMCs to compete with HBAs more effectively when making corporate hotel bookings, the complexity of the electronic distribution channels... I have also met great people inside and outside Amadeus. Too many to mention but you know who you are. One of my last assignments was to organize and moderate a roundtable about the issues that corporate and hoteliers will face in 2010 regarding RFP, rates, billback, reviews.

It's now time to move on to another challenge and to join a company that I have admired for many years: TripAdvisor.

I heard about the company the first time back in my Active Hotels days where we were trying things out with their affiliate programme. Very quickly, I was seduced by the voice of people that this company was translating into hotel reviews. Today, TripAdvisor - part of Expedia Inc - is without a doubt a success story where consumers go and check reviews to find the best hotels for their next trip.

So you might ask me why this long to join such a respectable and innovative company. I was waiting for the right role...More importantly the right mission to be part of the ongoing growth of TripAdvisor.

With the Business Listings new initiative launched earlier this year, I thought I could be part of the launching team and therefore I am very excited to join Nathan Clapton's team in London to cover the EMEA region and to lead different areas such as Business Development, Marketing and Communication.

For those of you who have never heard about the Business Listings, TripAdvisor allows hoteliers to feature their phone number, URL of their website and email address on the dedicated hotel page like this one so that potential customers can click and book directly with the hotel. TripAdvisor in return asks for an annual fee starting at £360 per year if you have less than 10 rooms. Until the 28th February, you can benefit from an introduction offer of 50% of the normal yearly rate. If you want to join the Business Listings, find more information here. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment below this post.

 

 

Comments

[house in abu dhabi]

have a great start

[marmaris hotels]

good luck man on your new career path, might be a great and better opportunity for you!

[Rome Italy Hotels]

Congrats Gillaume!I think you have choose the right site for your new carrier as we all how big & popular trip advisor is.

[osage beach mo hotels]

first of all congrats!

second..this is the first i've heard of business listings. Any more info?

[surtrek]

i don't understand why we want trip advisor in traveling? can any body tell me in detail?

[Guillaume Thevenot]

@ Antonio: Great to hear from you. Thanks for your kind words. Haven't met with Helen yet. Will see you at ITB?

@ Guido: Thanks. How's life at The Hague?

@ Remy: merci. Ca promet d'etre tres interressant.

[Remypastel]

Félicitations Guillaume et bon courage dans tes nouvelles fonctions.

[Happy Hotelier]

As always I'm behind with reading. Congrats my friend.

[Antoniobonanno]

Congrats Guillaume! So something has been cooking for the last months mh? :P
I just met Helen Edgan at ENTER2010, introducing me to the world of Business Listings :) Hope to have the chance to do business with you in the future!

[Guillaume Thevenot]

@ Velit - Thanks. You can count on me to be innovative :-)

@Martin - will do if there is anything to talk about. Should I talk about the failed IPO of Travelport?

@ Thibault - C'est un choix partagé entre moi et TA. Mais j'aurais l'occasion de blogger sur les platformes de TripAdvisor. Donc wait and see

[Thibault]

Excellent, well done!
dommage que tu ne veuilles plus bloguer sur TripAdvisor: tu aurais surement un pov tres interessant pour les passionnés de d'etourisme ;-).

[Martin]

have a great start at TA - lookin' forward to your insights on GDS developments :D

[Velit Dundar]

Hi Gillaume,

I would like to wish you all the best luck in your new role. TripAdvisor is a great choice and it seems we will continue seeing innovative ideas and services from it again. Keep the good work!

Regards - Velit

[Guillaume Thevenot]

@ Martin - Thanks. Me too. How's the new job going?

@ Tim - Of course. But I won't blog on Expedia and any sister company like TripAdvisor on these pages anymore. Good news is that I can resume my thoughts on the GDS world.

@ Nuno - Thanks.

[TiaraHotels]

Wow.

Good look Gillaume!

Best wished :)

Nuno Valinhas
Tiara Hotels & Resorts

[Tim]

Congrats! Will you keep blogging?

[Martin Ferguson]

Good luck Gui - I look forward to working with you in your new capacity! MF