TripAdvisor's Exclusivity Deal With Priceline: Expedia Just Spilled The Beans

Shares of TripAdvisor surged after the company announced a new partnership with Priceline Group. As part of the deal, Priceline's Booking.com site will offer TripAdvisor's visitors hotel offers through its Instant Booking feature. Priceline's other sister sites will also list their available inventory over time.

TripAdvisor hasn't publicly commented on the relationship, nor has it confirmed if Priceline Group has exclusive rights to Instant Booking.

Related Link: This Is A Major Long-Term Tailwind For TripAdvisor

However, Expedia's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi may have spilled the beans – intentionally or not. Speaking to Skift, the executive discussed the TripAdvisor-Priceline Group partnership and said, "We will look at the channel when it becomes available to us. At this point there is an exclusivity period for Booking.com from what we understand."

Khosrowshahi also told Skift, "They [TripAdvisor] are being fairly tight-lipped," and "our anticipation is that over the next couple of months or quarters we are not going to participate [in the Instant Booking listing]."

Wall Street Pro Weighs In

Commenting on Skift's report, Dan Kumos of Benchmark told Benzinga that it was assumed from the beginning that Expedia would be "cut off" from TripAdvisor's channel completely following the agreement with Priceline Group.

"Either way," Kumos told Benzinga, "TripAdvisor has been a deleverage channel for [Expedia]. It could be a near-term negative but I think there are increasingly more native channels, which Expedia can participate through to offset traffic loss."