Trip Advisor No Longer Connecting To Property Management Platforms

[Pengman]

At last I got round to opening an account with Trip Advisor Holiday Rentals. So I opened an account but didn't activate it as I needed it connected to Eviivo, my property/channel manager. So I contacted Eviivo, gave them my Trip Advisor account number, and said 'what happens now?' They told me to get back to Trip Advisor and tell them I want the account connected to Eviivo as a connectivity partner. So I did that, only to be told by Trip Advisor that, as of their latest update, they were no longer connecting to Eviivo or indeed any PM software platforms. However, they did say I could easily import and export calendars with Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO, so if I could do that with all three I guess I'd get part way there (although I'd have the risk of double booking bookings with Expedia and direct bookings). However, I cant do it with any of these three because (1) Airbnb - the export/import calendar fields that Trip Advisor guide me to don't actually exist (wether this is because Airbnb have changed their calendar, or wether the one presented to me as a resuly of my Eviivo/Airbnb connection is different, I don't know), (2) Booking.com - in order to get export/import calendar fields our of Booking.com, you've got to have a minimum of 20 rooms, and (3) VRBO - 'my' account is not actually mine, it's Eviivo's so I have no access to it.

It's a shame I didn't do this a few months back - Trip Advisor said that they are maintaining exisiting connections to PM software platforms, it's just people like me who are requesting new connections that they're refusing. It seems odd to me - I would have thought that in this day and age, the more connectivity you have, the better for everyone. Eviivo are looking into the matter to see of anything further can be done, but I suspect not. My feeling is that, if I can't get a nice easy connection to my PM software, the same as I do with all other major OTAs, then I'll just not bother with Trip Advisor and leave my new account unactivated. Also, from what I've read in the past, on this forum and elsewhere, the quality and number of bookings from Trip Advisor can be disappointing? - comments greatfully received.

[CSE]

Never had much faith in TA either as a booking platform or a forum.

[Joanna]

We had a reasonable number of bookings from TA around 2017-2019 then it tailed off and in the last couple of years we've had none at all. I kept our listings going because of all the good reviews but now that the reviews are all over 2 years old I think they're less relevant. I'm considering taking our listings offline to see if it makes any difference - there is still a slight possibility that people find us there and then Google us so they can book direct.

[newtimber]

They don't seem to generate many bookings so I'd say it's not worth the effort of keeping everything up-to-date on their site.