TripAdvisor makes a grab for your website content.

Late last week TripAdvisor sent out an email advising of a change in their terms and conditions. This was no trivial change, they demand access to all text and images on your website which they can harvest anytime and have perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable rights over. This is a grab for all the content on your website forever. TripAdvisor can then use any of those images and text as they see fit and for their potential profit without any payment to you (A copy of the terms at the bottom of the page).

Why is your website content so important ? The unique descriptions and photos that you put on your website are one of the few places that a small independent business has an advantage. Search engines value unique content, if you give this over to TripAdvisor or anyone else, it will impact your uniqueness and harm your ranking on the internet. Conversely it will improve the ranking of the website that takes it for their own use. In short: giving away your website content will harm your internet ranking and help that of TripAdvisor. A likely result of losing your unique content would be your website going lower on Google and others going higher.

What is really striking about this request for “agreement” of content access is that it is perpetual (forever), it is irrevocable (can’t reverse it), it is transferable (can be given or sold to anyone else), royalty-free (you get no payment) and sub-licensable (they can make money from it). This is just about the worst possible outcome you could ever agree to, it is completely and utterly in the favour of TripAdvisor. I don’t think its possible for there to be a worse agreement for independent accommodation owners.

Do not undervalue your website content. The material on your website is a result of your hard work. With your toil over time it has become your very valuable brand/name/image, it is literally what marks you out as different. I cannot image what has possessed TripAdvisor to think they can grab it so blatantly from your website and take it forever to do with as they please with just one click. There is no option to refuse the terms, (only a button to close the pop up – see below) this looks more like a diktat, “a take it or take it”, than it does an agreement. You can close the popup but it keeps coming back until you agree, if you agree then you lose your unique content rights and the pop up goes away.

TripAdvisor say in their popup that they want to improve traveller experience on their website. Fine do that, but that is their business to make the experience better for customers on their website. Unique content costs effort, it costs money, it is valuable and it is certainly not free. TripAdvisor profits from their website. They sell OTA advertising that is a major part of their income which is paid for by commissionable bookings. Why would a independent property give over its unique content (under extremely bad terms) in order to increase the profit of TripAdvisor. The nett result of which is fewer direct bookings and again, and again, yet more commission.

It is extremely sad and disappointing that TripAdvisor have such low ethical values in this action. This is no relationship of mutual benefit, they take everything and you get nothing. Surely this has to be totally withdrawn by TripAdvisor with a big apology. All properties that have agreed these terms should have the agreement reversed with an assurance that these kind of terms should never be sneaked back in. The damage has been done, we have now seen the disregard they have for accommodation businesses and sadly trust lies shattered.