This article first appeared in our sister publication the Boston Business Journal.
Needham-based Tripadvisor is laying off hundreds of employees for the second time this year, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact the travel metasearch company.
Tripadvisor said Tuesday it is cutting more than 900 employees, or approximately one-quarter of its total workforce. The company is also putting "most" of its salaried employees on a four-day week schedule with a corresponding 20 percent reduction in base salary for three months, starting in June, according to a message from CEO Steve Kaufer.
The company is also permanently shutting down its downtown Boston office near North Station, as well as its San Francisco office.
The latest layoffs come after Kaufer, who co-founded Tripadvisor, said he would forgo his salary for the rest of year.
The company had about 4,200 people worldwide, about a third of whom were based in Massachusetts. In January, the company cut its workforce by around 200, citing a reallocation of expenses to areas that the company planned to prioritize.
Tripadvisor, which turned 20 this year, is facing the pressure of the travel halt imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on top of ongoing competition from Google. Over the past five years, the company has lost nearly $10 billion in market capitalization, or about three quarters of the value it had in 2015.
Until mid-February, analysts would have attributed Tripadvisor's stock decline to Google’s ability to make the rules for online search and promote its own hotel search and booking products. That's why Tripadvisor has sought to fight back in recent months, moving beyond its hotel legacy business to promote areas such as its media business, memberships, restaurant solution business and hotel business-to-business services.
Many companies with business directly tied to the travel industry have been suffering the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In Boston, corporate travel management startup Lola.com was one of the local businesses that had to lay off workers in March.
