Thursday, February 14, 2008

TripAdvisor buys U.K. travel firm Holiday Watchdog

Travel website operator TripAdvisor LLC has acquired British online travel company Holiday Watchdog, according to company officials.

Holiday Watchdog, an operator of U.K.-based, user-generated travel sites, will continue to operate as an independent site, company officials said. Needham-based TripAdvisor is an operating company of Expedia Inc.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Holiday Watchdog will operate from TripAdvisor's London office, and there are no immediate plans for integration of content with other TripAdvisor Media Network sites, officials said.

TripAdvisor, founded in 2000, has completed several acquisitions during the last two years.

In May 2007, it bought New Jersey-based The Independent Traveler Inc., publisher of IndependentTraveler.com and Cruisecritic.com. The company acquired Boston's Smarter Travel Media LLC, the operator of smartertravel.com and bookingbuddy.com in February 2007.

It also bought Seattle-based SeatGuru.com in March 2007, Canada-based TravelPod.com in December 2006, and London's Travel Library.com in September 2006.