TripAdvisor Revenue Falls 11% to $436M as It Bets on Viator

TripAdvisor's third-quarter revenue fell 11% to $436 million, and the company responded with a restructuring that will cut 425 roles, a $369 million goodwill impairment, and a plan to concentrate its consumer investment on the Viator experiences marketplace. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $71 million, or 16% of revenue, Chief Financial Officer Mike Noonan said on the Nov. 5 earnings call.

The quarter lands as the company prepares for a leadership changeover. President and CEO Matt Goldberg said he will stay through mid-February while the board works with an executive search firm on a successor. Noonan leaves at year-end for another opportunity. Kristen Dalton, head of strategy and operations and a former VP of financial planning and analysis, becomes interim CFO on Jan. 1, 2027.

What slowed Experiences?

Experiences booked rose 2%, with Viator bookings up 4%. Third-party points of sale grew in the mid-teens; the TripAdvisor platform declined in the low teens. Gross booking value (the total dollar value of bookings, or GBV) was flat, and Experiences revenue fell 3%.

Noonan said demand on the U.S.-to-Europe travel corridor weakened further from the prior quarter, and U.S. domestic bookings growth also decelerated. Weather disruptions and higher cancellation rates weighed on revenue. He estimated that search engine optimization, or SEO, headwinds cut segment bookings and GBV growth by roughly 3 percentage points.

Experiences adjusted EBITDA was $38 million, or 13% of segment revenue — down 440 basis points (one-hundredth of a percentage point each) from a year earlier, largely on higher marketing spend as a share of revenue.

Goldberg admitted an earlier decision to combine Experiences teams across TripAdvisor and Viator "had not delivered the expected efficiencies." The company now plans to focus its primary consumer-facing investment on Viator — conversion, repeat bookings and app adoption — while TripAdvisor serves as a discovery and lead-generation platform. Third-party partnerships stay important and are growing faster than average, he said; Noonan named Airbnb among the newer partners.

In short: Viator gets the money, TripAdvisor feeds it traffic.

How deep do the cuts go?

Hotels and Other revenue fell 23% to $152 million. Hotel revenue dropped 23% to $110 million, mostly on lower volume; media and advertising fell 23% to $28 million. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $33 million.

The restructuring removes 425 employee and contractor roles dedicated to Hotels and Other, including about 150 roles moving to Experiences. Noonan said the company expects:

• More than $55 million in annualized gross savings in Hotels and Other
• Approximately $40 million in annualized savings across the group
• A fourth-quarter charge of $15 million to $20 million, with little benefit this year

The savings figures exclude potential reductions in third-party vendor costs. The company also booked the $369 million goodwill impairment after determining Hotels and Other's fair value fell below its carrying value.

What does the TheFork sale unlock?

TripAdvisor closed the sale of restaurant-booking business TheFork on Nov. 1, collecting approximately $685 million in net proceeds. Noonan said a portion will go to debt reduction, with the amount determined over the following weeks. Total debt stood at roughly $834 million at Sept. 30.

Open-market share repurchases remain unavailable while a portfolio review continues, though Noonan said buybacks stay among the company's capital allocation priorities.

What's the fourth-quarter outlook?

October bookings growth weakened modestly from the third-quarter exit rate, reflecting continued softness on long-haul routes, marketing diversification effects, and protests in Europe that began weighing on demand late in the month.

For the fourth quarter, TripAdvisor expects:

• Group revenue down in the low teens
• A modest acceleration in Experiences declines; Hotels and Other flat versus Q3
• Experiences bookings roughly flat year over year
• Group adjusted EBITDA margin in the low to mid-single digits, with Experiences near break-even as paid marketing investment continues

Noonan said it's too early to give specific 2027 guidance.

One bright spot: Goldberg said artificial intelligence referrals remain small — under 1% of overall traffic — but convert at close to five times the average for Viator and about twice the average for TripAdvisor. For a company repositioning around Viator, that's a signal worth watching.