Hilton, one of the most popular hotel chains in the world, is upping its ease of booking factor for mobile customers by integrating with TripAdvisor.

Through a partnership with the app, consumers can now book Hilton hotel rooms even cheaper by finding them on the TripAdvisor mobile application. The partnership represents an opening up of Hilton’s upscale rooms to a wider audience.

“At Hilton, we’re always reimagining the experience for our guests and looking for new ways to make travel easier,” said Danny Hughes, senior vice president and commercial director at Hilton. “We are committed to working with booking partners, like TripAdvisor, who respect our desire to develop direct relationships with our guests, present our hotels in a fair and equitable manner, and increase the value of both our brands.”

Marketplace brand
TripAdvisor and similar marketplace-style apps have risen to prominence in recent years as the plethora of businesses and services at consumers’ fingertips needs to be organized and made easier to find.

Apps such as OpenTable and Zocdoc put a variety of individual businesses from a select industry in front of a user for comparison and ease of service.

These apps may bolster the competition, but for brands it is a virtual necessity to join in on them in order to get their message in front of a consumer. If not, the brand risks being lost among the sea of competitors who are all seeing success from joining a marketplace app.

Some brands have held out however, such as Hilton, which has not been a part of the marketplace in one of the most popular hotel marketplace apps, TripAdvisor. Instead, Hilton was surviving off the strength of its brand name, hoping to avoid having to compete with others on the TripAdvisor marketplace.

Now, the brand has finally joined, putting Hilton hotels into the TripAdvisor network and allowing consumers to book Hilton hotel rooms with just a few button taps.

Once a customer has selected “book now” through the TripAdvisor app, the transaction is handed over to Hilton’s internal purchasing platform which finalizes the reservation.

TripAdvisor
Hilton’s brand name is strong, but even this titan of the hospitality industry needs to play nice with the marketplace apps that now dominate many industries.

This is not to Hilton’s detriment, however. Instead, its brand name will likely remain just as strong while being compared to other hotels through TripAdvisor as it was being compared to other hotels in the yellow pages many years ago.

This move does represent part of Hilton’s larger move towards more mobile-friendly options, including a recent campaign that saw the hotel chain using beacons and guests’ GPS services on their phones to recommend nearby attractions and restaurants (see story).

With this new partnership, Hilton is making its brand even more visible to today’s modern mobile customers.

“Hilton is a longtime partner and we are thrilled to add their portfolio of brands to our instant booking marketplace,” said Robin Ingle, senior vice president, global sales at TripAdvisor. “Following the rollout momentum we had last year, we continue to accelerate our growth with new instant booking partners and increased user adoption. We’re pleased that our community of travelers and partners alike are finding instant booking such an attractive option.”