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Fix TripAdvisor Connector & Implement BYOK Scraping Model

Feature RequestReview Sources

1. Technical Issue

The current TripAdvisor integration is failing.

  • Observed Behavior: When synchronizing a TripAdvisor profile, the import is either partial (very few reviews) or completely non-existent.

  • Direct Consequence: The "Review Aggregation" feature is effectively broken for this source.

  • Collateral Damage: Analytics and dashboards are corrupted. The "Reviews by Platform" distribution displays false data, misleading the end-user.


2. Business Justification

Leaving this issue unresolved renders the solution unviable for any client in the Hospitality or F&B sectors. Downplaying TripAdvisor's relevance is a strategic error.

Key Metrics:

  • Volume: TripAdvisor has surpassed 1 billion reviews and opinions. It is the global reference for reputation history.

  • Traffic: The platform attracts approximately 460 million unique monthly visitors.

  • Trust: In the HORECA sector, TripAdvisor is often the primary or secondary source for purchase decisions, alongside Google.

  • Churn Risk: Delivering a "Reputation Management" tool that fails to monitor a pillar of the industry destroys trust. If a client sees 0 reviews on our dashboard but has 500 online, they will question the reliability of all our data.


3. Proposed Solution & Architecture Change

We need a stable, long-term fix. Given that the official API is restrictive and building internal scrapers is maintenance-heavy, I propose the following:

  1. Immediate Fix: Investigate the current connector failure.

  2. BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) Implementation: Integrate a third-party scraping service (e.g., Apify, Bright Data, or similar) using a Bring Your Own Key model.

    • Logic: Instead of EMR absorbing the scraping costs and fighting anti-bot measures globally, allow us (the agency/user) to input our own API Key from the scraping provider.

    • Benefit: This offloads the proxy/infrastructure cost to the user, ensures dedicated resources, and guarantees higher stability for critical accounts without burdening EMR's core infrastructure costs.

Posted by Seb Gardies ·
Status: Completed1 comment

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Comments1

  • Seb Gardies

    •

    Jan 24

    I’m bringing up the TripAdvisor sync issue again (currently down due to DataDome blocking). I think it is crucial to realize that this isn’t just "one missing connector." For a huge portion of our clients, this is a vital feature that has simply vanished.

    Let’s be direct: For a plumber, Google is enough. For a Hotel or Restaurant, a solution without TripAdvisor is unsellable.

    Why this vertical is critical for all of us : The Hospitality sector (Hotels, Restaurants, Activities) is the biggest consumer of Review Management services. If we can no longer serve them, we are cutting ourselves off from a massive market share.

    The Current Situation: Massive Churn Risk

    Today, when I pitch a restaurant owner or a hotelier, or when I need to renew an existing client, I am at a dead end. I cannot sell them a "Reputation Management" solution that ignores their primary channel.

    👉 Result: They look elsewhere

    The Proposal to Save this Market: "BYOK" (Bring Your Own Key)

    We know that bypassing DataDome is expensive (requires residential proxies, TLS fingerprinting bypass, etc.) and that EMR cannot instantly absorb this cost for everyone without raising prices.

    That is why I am putting the BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) solution back on the table for scraping (via Scrapfly, ZenRows, etc.).

    It's a Win-Win: This offloads the technical and financial burden from EMR, and it allows us to keep our Hospitality clients.

    @Mannie Gill , please don’t let us lose this sector. Give us the option to pay for the scraping ourselves via an external integration if necessary.