Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
Home Profiles Tripadvisor

Profiles · Companies and entities

ProfileCompany or group

Tripadvisor

Other company

Type
Company or group
Role
Other company
Updated

The profile

Tripadvisor's bookings and revenue fell by more than 90 percent from late March through April 2020, and its revenue for the year was $604 million, against $1,560 million in 2019. It cut about 900 jobs. It took no PPP loan, but government programs still paid: a CARES Act loss carryback worth an expected $76 million in federal tax benefits, and wage subsidies and grants in the United States, Britain and elsewhere that cut its costs by $33 million over 2020 to 2022. Its own relief for restaurants and hotels was mostly free product.

  • Category: travel and hospitality
  • Pandemic-layoff role: Additional sourced company
  • Last updated: 2026-11-01

In the archive

Founders, executives and investors

Kaufer co-founded Tripadvisor and was its chief executive in 2020. The company is public; its investor site lists it on Nasdaq under the ticker TRIP.

Business before the pandemic

In June 2020 Tripadvisor described itself as "the world's largest travel platform," used by 463 million travelers a month. They browsed more than 860 million reviews and opinions of 8.7 million accommodations, restaurants, experiences, airlines and cruises. On the same site they compared hotel, flight and cruise prices, booked tours and attractions, and reserved restaurant tables.

What the pandemic did to the business

In the first quarter of 2020 Tripadvisor spent $115 million buying back 4,707,450 of its own shares, at an average price of $24.32. In March it drew $700 million on its credit line. Its May 7 earnings release added: "We do not intend to repurchase additional shares for the foreseeable future."

Tripadvisor reduced discretionary spending, cut "non-essential" vendors and froze hiring, TechCrunch reported. "Unfortunately, there is no playbook for this moment that we're in together right now," Kaufer wrote in a blog post.

Kaufer estimated that daily bookings and revenue "declined year-over-year generally by more than 90%" from late March through April. Revenue for 2020 was $604 million, against $1,560 million in 2019, and the company lost $289 million.

Executive pay

Kaufer gave up his base salary from March through the end of 2020, and directors gave up their annual cash retainers. The 2020 bonus plan paid nothing on its financial half unless the company reached 85 percent of its revenue target or 80 percent of its adjusted EBITDA target. Revenue fell 61 percent. The compensation committee moved "away from the specific revenue and adjusted EBITDA targets established prior to the pandemic outbreak" and made new "strategic initiatives" the performance metrics; management's payout recommendations weighed actual revenue and adjusted EBITDA alongside them. Bonuses for the five named executive officers paid out at 74 to 88 percent of target. Kaufer's was $721,875 of an $825,000 target; with $184,039 of salary and $13,550 of other pay, his reported 2020 compensation was $919,464, against $2,455,678 for 2019.

In August 2020 three named executive officers, Seth Kalvert, Lindsay Nelson and Kanika Soni, received retention grants of restricted stock units valued at $999,988 to $1,749,996 at grant, vesting in full in August 2022. Chief financial officer Ernst Teunissen's amended employment agreement of May 8, 2020 set a target payment equal to $7 million minus the value of his restricted stock units and options vesting between May 1, 2020 and May 31, 2022. The 2023 proxy reports its payout as a $1,071,449 bonus for 2022.

Relief: no PPP loan, a tax refund and foreign wage subsidies

SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to Tripadvisor, SmarterTravel, Cruise Critic, SinglePlatform or FlipKey, and none at the Needham headquarters address. The CARES Act let companies carry 2020 losses back five years to generate "a refund of previously paid income taxes." Tripadvisor booked an expected $76 million federal benefit from carrying back its 2020 losses, and $64 million of it was refunded in 2022. Government grants and other assistance, from programs including CARES Act payroll tax credits and the United Kingdom's job retention scheme, reduced its costs by $12 million in 2020, $9 million in 2021 and $12 million in 2022.

Kaufer also asked Congress for more. He and Bertrand Jelensperger, who ran Tripadvisor's restaurant business and TheFork, were among the 23 signers of a spring 2020 letter, posted on Toast's Rally for Restaurants site, that asked the four congressional leaders for a "bipartisan follow-up to the CARES Act," including changes to PPP forgiveness rules and a mandate that business-interruption insurance cover COVID-19 losses.

What it gave restaurants and hotels

Its own relief for customers, as its press releases described it, was mostly free product. On April 7 it said it was making it easier to buy restaurant gift cards and find restaurants still open for takeout and delivery, features it was rolling out to restaurants "for free." The release called gift card purchases "much needed microloans" for operators. The Tripadvisor Foundation committed $1 million, starting with $1, up to $150,000, for each Tripadvisor review or #LoveYourLocal share, the money going to World Central Kitchen and the Restaurant Workers' Community Foundation. Two days later Viator said it would waive its commission on paid virtual #RoamFromHome experiences and pay operators more often. In June Tripadvisor launched a "Travel Safe" checklist that businesses could fill in for free; the release said more than 13,850 properties had already switched it on. Two hotel tools launched in October, Spotlight and Reputation Pro, came with a free trial; the release refers to Spotlight "subscribers."

Borrowing

In July 2020 Tripadvisor sold $500 million of 7 percent senior notes due 2025 and put the $490 million of net proceeds toward the $700 million credit-line draw, which it repaid in full in the third quarter.

Layoffs

On April 28, 2020 Tripadvisor cut about 900 jobs, 23 percent of its workforce by its May 7 earnings release, and furloughed about 850 employees, primarily at TheFork, its restaurant-reservation business in Europe. Headcount fell from 4,194 at the end of 2019 to 2,596 a year later, and the 2020 restructuring cost $41 million. How Tripadvisor handled layoffs →

After the first shock

By June 2020 Tripadvisor was selling the recovery to its customers. Its in-house researchers laid out five stages for travel: decline, plateau, "emerge," domestic travel and international travel. New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland were among the first markets it placed in the "emerge" stage, where restaurant searches were rebounding. Its surveys ran with Qualtrics every two weeks from late March to mid-May, in six countries. They found 41 percent of consumers expecting to take as many trips as the year before or more, and 44 percent more likely to take a road trip. Searches for campgrounds, ranches and beach motels were rising in North America, and Myrtle Beach, San Diego and Key West led recent U.S. destination searches. The release offered "media buyers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and tour operators" advice for each stage.

Since 2025

Tripadvisor, Inc. remains listed on Nasdaq. Its investor site, as of June 2026, describes a group of travel brands and businesses that includes Tripadvisor, Viator and TheFork, with marketplaces for experiences, accommodations and restaurants. Its annual report for 2025 puts revenue at $1.89 billion, against $1.56 billion in 2019 and $604 million in 2020. Experiences brought in $924 million, up from $737 million in 2023, and passed hotels and other revenue ($750 million, down from $901 million), while TheFork brought in $221 million. Net income was $40 million in 2025, against $126 million in 2019. The company had about 2,590 employees at the end of 2025, about 68 percent of them in Europe.

Sources

Back to top