TripAdvisor has bought Holiday Watchdog, a UK-based user-generated travel site, for an undisclosed amount, according to The Alarm Clock investment blog. Expedia-owned TripAdvisor generates user reviews of hotels and holidays. Holiday Watchdog, launched by founders Chris Brown and Chris Clarkson in 2004 from eStuff Ltd, said it had 1M unique users a month and joins Seatguru, CruiseCritic and TravelPod in the TripAdvisor network.
In 2005 Nielsen Net Ratings said Reading-based Holiday Watchdog was in the Top 10 Travel information websites in the UK, but I can’t find more recent figures. The site does not take reservations for hotels but allows people to review holidays and share holiday experiences. Deisgn and platform-wise it’s pretty ‘Web 1.0’ which suggest it was bought for its audience not its platform.
I think this will be just one of a round of mergers and acquisitions to happen in the ‘reviews’ sector this year.