Trivago Looks to Reorganize With ‘Significant’ Job Cuts

Faced with a drop of more than 95 percent in referral revenue in the last week of the first quarter, Trivago informed investors that it has started to “make changes to our organizational setup,” including “significant” headcount reductions.

Other than chopping jobs, and reducing costs, Trivago didn’t specify what organizational changes it is making.

Trivago notched a small profit, roughly $18.7 million (euro 17.2 million) in 2019, but was already struggling heading into 2020.

In a letter to shareholders last week, Trivago said it reduced its advertising spend “to an absolute minimum” because of the coronavirus-driven drop-off in demand.

As part of its reorganization, Trivago said “we are targeting a substantial reduction in our cost base going forward.”

GIVING PARTNERS A BREAK

Like Tripadvisor, which is giving a break on subscription bills to hotel and restaurant partners, Trivago said: “We have accommodated the requests of many advertisers to extend payment dates and to pay outstanding invoices in installments.”

Trivago was among eight German startups that pleaded with Google to give them relief from a portion of their first quarter advertising bills.

“Our travel partners are facing unprecedented challenges and we’re working with partners to help protect their businesses, including helping them surface their cancellation policies in our travel search products and expanding our ‘pay per stay’ pilot earlier this month to all hotel ads partners globally to shift the cancellation risk from our partners to us,”