Tripadvisor tied a writedown largely to search changes, expects SEO to weigh on growth next year, and says marketing takes more of its revenue.

Tripadvisor recorded a $369.5 million writedown on its legacy hotels and advertising business in the third quarter, and its CFO said on the earnings call that SEO will still be a headwind to growth in 2027.

The non-cash goodwill impairment hit the Hotels and Other segment, which includes hotel metasearch and media advertising, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings release. The release says it was driven largely by traffic headwinds that have accelerated over several periods because of “changes in the search landscape.” Segment revenue fell 23% to $151.6 million for the quarter.

During the call, analyst Ross Sandler at Barclays wanted to know how close Tripadvisor’s core brand is to Google Zero, a term used to describe a website receiving zero organic traffic via Google. In response, CFO Mike Noonan said Tripadvisor’s SEO exposure is in the “mid to high teens,” down meaningfully versus a year ago, but did not provide specifics on what total it is a percentage of.

Marketing is also taking a larger share of revenue, which Tripadvisor ties to its move from free search traffic to paid channels.

Sandler suggested Viator, Tripadvisor’s experiences booking site, has little SEO exposure. Noonan agreed and said the exposure comes mostly through the legacy Tripadvisor brand.

SEO will still be a headwind in 2027, Noonan said, and he expects it to start to ease based on current trends in the channel.

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