trivago makes money from referrals: online travel agencies and hotels pay it, mostly per click, when a traveller clicks one of their offers on its hotel price-comparison site. In 2025 referral revenue was โฌ532.9 million of total revenue of โฌ548.9 million (up 19%), and Expedia Group, which held 59.2% of trivago’s shares and 83.9% of the voting power at 31 December 2025, paid โฌ182.0 million of it. trivago was incorporated in Dรผsseldorf in 2005 and listed on Nasdaq in December 2016.
Advertisers, which include online travel agencies, hotel chains and independent hotels, pay for each referral, mostly on a cost-per-click basis, when a user clicks their offer.
02
Spend to win traffic
Advertising spend rose 21% to โฌ418.2 million in 2025, and return on advertising spend fell to 128.4% from 132.1% as brandmarketing grew.
03
One big customer
Expedia Group paid โฌ182.0 million in 2025, compared with โฌ169.9 million in 2024, mostly click-through fees for its brands' offers.
04
Smaller revenue lines
trivago also sells subscriptions to trivago Business Studio, analytics tools for hotels, and since the third quarter of 2025 runs trivago DEALS, a direct hotel booking service it acquired (formerly Holisto).
Revenue grew 19% to โฌ548.9 million and trivago reported net income of โฌ11.2 million for 2025, according to its annual report on Form 20-F.
Growth with better returns
In the second quarter of 2026 total revenue rose 21% to โฌ168.4 million and return on advertising spend improved to 121.8% from 119.0%; trivago raised its full-year outlook to mid-teens revenue growth and about โฌ30 million of adjusted EBITDA.
AI chatbots as rivals
trivago’s 20-F names AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude and Perplexity as new competitive challenges, and warns that AI agents may be used more often to book accommodation.
AI inside the product
Management says trivago uses AI in its product, marketing and ways of working, and describes the service as AI-powered hotel search that personalises and simplifies the choice.
trivago's revenue engine, 2025
Total revenue
2025โฌ548.9 million (+19%)
What it showsGrowth returned after weaker years
Referral revenue
2025โฌ532.9 million (+17%)
What it showsClicks sold are almost all of revenue
Revenue from Expedia Group
2025โฌ182.0 million
What it showsOne related party is the largest customer
Advertising spend
2025โฌ418.2 million (+21%)
What it showsMost revenue goes back out to buy traffic
Global ROAS
2025128.4% (2024: 132.1%)
What it showsEach euro of ads returned less revenue
What it means for you
For investors: watch return on advertising spend; small changes in it decide whether trivago makes money.
For hoteliers: metasearch is a paid channel; compare its cost per booking with direct and online travel agency bookings.
For operators of comparison sites: build a brand that brings free, direct traffic, or advertising will absorb your margin.
For strategists: track AI assistants that answer 'which hotel?' directly, a possible substitute for comparison pages.
Read the related-party line: with Expedia Group as both controlling shareholder and largest customer, its spending shapes results.
The Business Engineer lens
trivago is a pure traffic business, so AI assistants that answer travel questions directly are both a threat to its audience and a new channel to win. The Business Engineer view is that comparison sites survive the AI shift only if their brand and data make them the place assistants and travellers both send the click.
Mostly from referral revenue: travel agencies and hotels pay trivago, mainly per click, when users click their offers. Referral revenue was โฌ532.9 million of โฌ548.9 million in 2025.
Who owns trivago?
Expedia Group controls it, with 59.2% of the issued shares and 83.9% of the voting power at 31 December 2025.
Is trivago profitable?
It reported net income of โฌ11.2 million in 2025, after a loss in 2024.
How does AI affect trivago?
trivago lists AI chatbots as new competitors for travellers' attention and says it uses AI in its own product and marketing.
The complete explainer, cleaned up and reformatted for mobile.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
In short
trivago makes money by selling clicks: online travel agencies and hotels pay it, mostly per click, each time a traveller clicks a hotel offer and is referred to their site. In 2025 that referral revenue was โฌ532.9 million of โฌ548.9 million total revenue (+19%). Expedia Group, trivago’s majority shareholder, paid โฌ182.0 million of it, or 33%. The catch: trivago spent โฌ418.2 million on advertising (76% of revenue) to win that traffic, which left an operating income of โฌ1.5 million.
Trivago is a search and discovery travel platform part of Expedia Group. Trivago is widely known as a trusted hotel comparison service. Trivago doesn’t charge based on bookings but rather through a cost-per-click (CPC) model, monetized when a hotel searcher clicks one of its advertiser listings. This referral revenue comprises most of Trivago’s income. Trivago also has another minor revenue stream via subscriptions to its Business Studio, a tool that helps hoteliers track impression and click data associated with their properties.
How trivago makes money, FY2025: the full income statement as a flow, to scale. Advertising spend takes 76 cents of every euro of revenue. Source: trivago N.V. Form 20-F for fiscal 2025 (filed 26 Feb 2026, SEC EDGAR). Gross profit, margins and shares calculated.
Watch (65 seconds): trivago: where the money comes from, step by step, with captions. Figures from the filing named at the end.
What drives trivago’s revenue
trivago is paid per referral: “We charge our advertisers for each referral mostly on a CPC basis,” its 20-F says, and a referral is each click from its search results to an advertiser’s hotel offer. Revenue therefore moves with two things: how many travellers click, and how much advertisers bid for each click.
trivago total revenue by year, from its annual filings. Chart: The Business Engineer.
In 2025 referral revenue rose 17% to โฌ532.9 million. trivago credits growth from branded traffic, which it has been buying with brandmarketing, and from better booking conversion. Rest of World grew fastest (+24%), while the Americas and Developed Europe each grew 15%.
How trivago compares with other traffic businesses
trivago spends 76 cents of every euro of revenue on advertising (โฌ418.2 million in 2025). NerdWallet, which also earns from referrals, spent half of its 2025 revenue on performance marketing. Google, which owns its traffic, paid traffic acquisition costs equal to 20.3% of the relevant revenue (its TAC rate).
The share of revenue that goes back out to buy traffic largely sets the margin: trivago’s operating margin was 0.3% in 2025, NerdWallet’s 7.8% and Alphabet’s 32% (margins calculated by FourWeekMBA from each company’s filing).
trivago returned to an operating profit of โฌ1.5 million, from a loss of โฌ32.2 million in 2024, a year that included a โฌ30.1 million impairment. Net income was โฌ11.2 million.
trivago revenue and advertising spend, FY2024 and FY2025. Chart: The Business Engineer.
The cost of growth rose: advertising spend grew 21%, faster than referral revenue, so return on advertising spend (ROAS) fell to 128.4% from 132.1%. Other revenue rose by โฌ11.3 million, mainly from trivago DEALS, a hotel booking service acquired in the third quarter.
What to watch
Google. trivago says it relies on search engines, “particularly Google”, for a substantial amount of traffic, and that Google promotes its own products that compete with trivago’s hotel search.
Expedia. Expedia Group, trivago’s majority shareholder, paid 33% of its 2025 revenue (37% in 2024), so one customer’s bidding still moves the results. Brand marketing: whether the higher spend keeps lifting branded, direct traffic, which is what ROAS will show.
Frequently asked questions
How does trivago make money?
Online travel agencies and hotels pay trivago, mostly per click, each time a traveller clicks a hotel offer and is referred to their site. This referral revenue was โฌ532.9 million of trivago’s โฌ548.9 million revenue in 2025.
Who owns trivago?
Expedia Group is trivago’s majority shareholder. It is also trivago’s biggest customer: Expedia Group paid โฌ182.0 million in 2025, 33% of trivago’s revenue.
Is trivago profitable?
Only just: in 2025 trivago had an operating income of โฌ1.5 million and a net income of โฌ11.2 million, after losses in 2024.
How much does trivago spend on advertising?
โฌ418.2 million in 2025, or 76% of revenue. Its return on advertising spend fell to 128.4% from 132.1% in 2024.
Trivago is a technology company founded and headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany in 2005.
Sensing a gap in the online hotel market, university friends Stephan Stubner, Rolf Schrรถmgens, and Peter Vinnemeier created the first German hotel search engine. Some of these websites include Airbnb, Agoda, and Booking.com.
Shortly after launch, Trivago began to gain momentum after partnering with several online travel agencies (OTAs). In 2016, the company became the first German start-up to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Value Proposition
Comprehensive Hotel Search: Trivago offers users a one-stop destination for hotel search, comparison, and booking, aggregating millions of hotel listings and prices from various online sources, including OTAs, hotel chains, and independent booking websites, providing travelers with a comprehensive selection of accommodation options worldwide.
Price Transparency: Trivago prioritizes price transparency and competitiveness by displaying real-time hotel prices and deals from multiple booking platforms side-by-side, allowing users to compare rates, discounts, and promotions easily, empowering them to find the best available deals and savings for their desired stay dates and destinations.
User Reviews and Ratings: Trivago integrates user-generated reviews and ratings into its platform, allowing travelers to read authentic and unbiased hotel reviews, ratings, and feedback from fellow guests, enhancing transparency, trust, and decision-making confidence for users when selecting accommodations based on past experiences and recommendations.
Customized Search Filters: Trivago provides advanced search filters and parameters that enable users to refine their hotel search results based on specific criteria, preferences, and requirements, such as location, price range, star rating, amenities, and guest ratings, ensuring personalized and relevant search results tailored to individual needs and preferences.
Mobile Accessibility: Trivago offers mobile applications for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to search, compare, and book hotels on the go, providing seamless access to its platform’s features and functionality anytime, anywhere, enhancing convenience, flexibility, and usability for travelers.
Trivago business model
While Trivago is a trusted hotel comparison service, it does not profit from enabling searchers to book a room through the company directly.
Through the cost-per-click (CPC) model, Trivago earns money whenever a hotel searcher clicks one of its advertiser listings. This referral revenue comprises most of Trivago’s income.
Using the CPC model, the exact amount of revenue generated is dependent on the ad budget of the advertiser, the keywords they want to be displayed for, and the bids of competing companies. Here, the advertiser in question may be an individual hotel, a hotel chain, or an online travel agency.
A Trivago algorithm ensures that relevant advertisements are matched with relevant user searches. This increases the click-through rate (CTR) of listed ads and drives more revenue as a consequence.
Subscriptions
The second albeit far less significant source of revenue for Trivago is subscription fees.
The company charges hoteliers access to a product called Business Studio. This tool helps hoteliers track impression and click data associated with their properties. It also helps them create promotional offers and better understand their target audience. Ultimately, a business that enhances its marketing and positioning experience can better consumers with targeted messages. This has significant benefits both the business itself and also for Trivago.
Trivago notes that the basic version of Business Studio is free of charge. However, access to most of the premium features is only available in the Business Studio PRO package. The company, which claims the package can deliver 21% more clicks and 45% more bookings, provides a quote on request only.
Marketing Strategy
Digital Advertising: Trivago invests in digital advertising campaigns across various online channels, including search engine marketing (SEM), display advertising, social media advertising, and affiliate marketing, to raise brand awareness, drive user traffic, and acquire new customers, leveraging targeted messaging and promotional offers to attract travelers to its platform.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Trivago employs search engine optimization strategies to improve its organic search visibility and rankings on popular search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, optimizing website content, metadata, and keywords to enhance discoverability, relevance, and traffic from organic search results.
Partnerships and Affiliations: Trivago forms strategic partnerships and collaborations with airlines, travel agencies, booking platforms, hotel chains, and travel-related brands to expand its reach, distribution network, and customer base, leveraging co-marketing initiatives, cross-promotions, and affiliate programs to mutually benefit from shared marketing efforts and resources.
Content Marketing: Trivago produces and distributes informative and engaging content, including travel guides, destination reviews, hotel recommendations, and insider tips, through its blog, social media channels, and email newsletters, providing valuable travel insights, inspiration, and recommendations to its audience, fostering engagement and loyalty.
User Experience Optimization: Trivago focuses on optimizing the user experience (UX) and interface design of its platform, website, and mobile applications to ensure intuitive navigation, fast loading speeds, and seamless booking experiences for users, reducing friction, enhancing satisfaction, and encouraging repeat usage and referrals.
Distribution Channels
Website and Mobile Apps: Trivago operates its hotel search platform through its official website (trivago.com) and mobile applications for iOS and Android devices, providing users with direct access to its search, comparison, and booking features, allowing travelers to browse and book hotels seamlessly across multiple devices and platforms.
Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): Trivago partners with online travel agencies (OTAs), hotel booking platforms, and travel aggregators, including Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Agoda, to integrate their hotel listings, prices, and availability into its meta-search platform, enabling users to compare and book accommodations from a wide range of sources.
Affiliate Networks: Trivago collaborates with affiliate marketing networks and publishers to extend its reach and distribution network, leveraging affiliate partnerships to promote its hotel search services and platform through third-party websites, travel blogs, review sites, and digital media channels, driving referral traffic and user acquisitions.
Social Media Platforms: Trivago maintains a presence on popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where it shares updates, promotions, travel tips, and destination highlights with its followers, engaging with users, responding to inquiries, and fostering community interaction and brand advocacy.
Offline Channels (Future Potential): While Trivago primarily operates in the digital realm, there is potential for the company to explore offline distribution channels, such as partnerships with travel agencies, tour operators, and brick-and-mortar retailers, to expand its reach and accessibility to offline audiences and travelers who prefer traditional booking methods or in-person assistance.
Online travel: how the connected businesses make money
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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