Terms of the deal were not disclosed by TripAdvisor, but Tripbod CEO Sally Broom and its chief operating officer Tim Loonen will be moving as part of the acquisition and will be based at the user review giant’s London office.
Tripbod was launched by Broom in September 2009 and has taken only a nominal level of investment so far – an “upper six figures” round from an angel in March 2012 and a small injection from Rough Guides founder Martin Dunford who joined as an advisor in late-2010.
The idea is that local experts (“thousands”, the company has said for a number of years) share their favourite places and things to do with tourists before and during a trip.