TripAdvisor’s TheFork acquires Michelin’s Bookatable under strategic partnership

Michelin and TripAdvisor have entered into a content and licensing partnership, combining the gastronomic expertise of the Michelin Guide with the power of TripAdvisor’s large customer audience.

All of the 14,000 restaurants selected by the Michelin Guide inspectors worldwide will be clearly identified with ‘Star’, ‘Bib Gourmand’ and ‘Plate’ distinctions across TripAdvisor.

The Michelin Guide has joined forces with TripAdvisor and TheFork to offer diners a complementary way to find their ideal dining experience, as well as improved access to a wider choice of high-quality restaurants around the world.

Michelin and TripAdvisor, with its subsidiary TheFork, have entered into content and licensing partnership to combine the gastronomic selection expertise of the Michelin Guide with the power of TripAdvisor’s large customer audience and TheFork’s advanced booking service.

All of the 14,000 restaurants selected by the Michelin Guide inspectors worldwide will be clearly identified with their Star, Bib Gourmand and Plate distinctions on the TripAdvisor website and apps leading to significantly improved accessibility of the Michelin selection. Around 4,000 restaurants throughout Europe will soon be accessible and bookable on TheFork, and on the digital Michelin Guide platform.

In addition, Michelin has signed an agreement to sell Bookatable to TheFork. This acquisition allows TheFork to consolidate its existing markets and expand into five new countries: the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland and Norway. This means that the 14,000 restaurants bookable on Bookatable will join the 67,000 already bookable on TheFork, creating the largest online restaurant booking platform. The terms of TheFork’s acquisition of Bookatable will not be disclosed.

Gastronomy tourism

For nearly 120 years, the Michelin Guide has endeavoured to provide people with the best, independent and most trustworthy information on restaurants while at the same time constantly respecting local regions and gourmet traditions and promoting the work of passionate chefs to equally passionate diners. Due to the objective nature of the criteria used by Michelin’s inspectors, the Michelin Guide also helps expand the influence of the world’s gastronomic traditions and increases tourism.

The partnership between the Michelin Guide and TripAdvisor and TheFork will significantly increase the visibility of the chefs and restaurants of the Michelin guide and increase reservations thanks to the link to the world’s leading online booking platforms.

“With our more than 120 years of experience making gastronomic guides which provide restaurant recommendations based on independent, expert inspectors, this strategic partnership between Michelin and TripAdvisor will offer unprecedented visibility to the establishments listed in the Michelin Guide selections around the world,” said Scott Clark, member of the Michelin Group Executive Committee. “By combining the Michelin Guide’s unique restaurant curation and selection criteria with TripAdvisor’s comprehensive travel planning platform, we will be able to make the Michelin Guide’s selections accessible to a much larger number of diners around the world.”

Together, these ambitious agreements will make it possible to offer millions of consumers the possibility to easily identify and book Michelin-selected restaurants on TheFork. In exchange, all TheFork restaurant partners will be bookable on the Michelin Guide digital platforms, via www.guide.michelin.com and the app.

“We are happy to add Bookatable by Michelin to the TripAdvisor family. This agreement allows us to continue expanding our business geographically, while offering an even more valuable service to restaurants and diners alike,” said Bertrand Jelensperger, senior vice president, TripAdvisor Restaurants and CEO, TheFork. “We’ll soon make Michelin-selected bookable restaurants more visible on our platforms to better serve our users and drive the right customers to each restaurant.”

TheFork and TripAdvisor offer restaurants a huge audience of high-intent diners. TheFork now targets foodies in 22 markets thanks to the acquisition, with a focus on local consumers, counting over 80,000 bookable restaurants and 30 million-plus monthly visits, while TripAdvisor helps nearly 460 million travellers each month to plan better trips with the help of more than 830 million reviews and opinions of 8.6 million accommodations, restaurants, experiences, airlines and cruises. These virtual visitors are a huge pool of new customers for restaurants and can positively impact their revenues significantly.