Good morning, and welcome to TripAdvisor's First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to TripAdvisor's Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Will Lyons. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Cindy. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. Joining me today are our CEO, Steve Kaufer; and our CFO, Ernst Teunissen. Last night, after market close, we distributed and filed our first quarter 2020 earnings release and made available our shareholder letter on our Investor Relations website located at ir.tripadvisor.com. In the release, you will find reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures discussed on this call. Also on our IR site, you will find supplemental financial information, which contains reconciliations of certain non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call as well as other metrics. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this call may contain estimates and other forward-looking statements that represent management's views as of today, May 8, 2020. TripAdvisor disclaims any obligation to update these facts to reflect future events or circumstances. Please refer to our earnings release as well as our filings with the SEC for information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. With that, I'll pass the call to Steve.

Thank you, Will, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. We're living in unprecedented times, impacting all of our personal lives and hitting the travel industry hard. First, to those on the front lines in the medical profession and to the everyday heroes working at our local grocery stores or delivery services, thank you. To our partners and suppliers in the travel industry, who are struggling with the sudden drop in business, we understand your pain, and we are helping in all the ways we can. And to our employees, know that your hard work during this challenging time is meaningful as TripAdvisor will play a critical role in helping the travel industry rebound. As we reported, estimated bookings and revenue-related activity have generally been down by more than 90% since late March. April stabilized at these low year-over-year performance levels. We acknowledge industry estimates around travel's long road to recovery. However, we are encouraged by some early small signs in recent weeks that show consumer demand is picking back up. We, TripAdvisor and the industry, will get through this. Travel will return. It is accepted as a fundamental human right in so many parts of the world. We believe our core strategy to help guide travelers on trips that really matter to them is not only compelling and differentiated but even more essential in times like this, where travelers have high anxiety and uncertainty. As Ernst will discuss in a minute, we have streamlined our cost profile and solidified our financial position to weather this pandemic. And we believe our trusted brand and customer-focused platform enables us to help get the world traveling again. Ernst?

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone. We've obviously been very focused on liquidity and cost since the COVID crisis has hit, and I want to highlight where we are on this. First, our cost structure. We took a number of cost-reduction steps in response to COVID. We've reduced headcount in the form of layoff, impacting about 900 people, nearly one-fourth of our workforce. We have also furloughed about 850 people, mostly at TheFork. Although similar in size to the layoff, the furloughing contributes much less to the cost savings as it tends to include lower-wage personnel, and we pay top-ups to what employees get from government-subsidized programs. Further cost reductions include a temporary reduction of work for lower pay for most remaining employees and some reductions to benefits. This is all in addition to removing pretty much all of our discretionary costs we had in our plan. So these measures lower our cost significantly in Q2 and the rest of the year. For clarity, when I quote cost reductions in these remarks, I refer to expenses between revenue and EBITDA, so not full GAAP expense. Fixed costs, excluding COGS and performance marketing expenses, are coming down 25% in Q2 and almost 40% in Q3 versus the Q1 starting level we had this year. In absolute terms, there is a reduction of $45 million of these fixed cost expenses for Q2 and $55 to $65 million for Q3, totaling $110 million for six months relative to the levels we started at. And I note that the Q1 level I'm comparing these against was already lower than the average quarter in 2019 because we had already taken other cost measures. So year-over-year, our cost savings are even more significant. And of course, all variable costs, COGS and performance marketing, are coming straight down with revenue. As Steve said, we've seen revenue-related activity down more than 90% recently. In Q2, we expect COGS and performance marketing to come down by about $50 million from the Q1 level to under $10 million. This is in addition to these fixed cost reductions. Of course, we will invest more in variable expenses in Q2 if revenue recovers faster than anticipated. Importantly, not only do these cost measures preserve cash, but they will also position our P&L very well for a recovery into 2021. We will be leaner, more focused on the highest priorities in the business, and we expect much of the fixed cost savings to remain when revenue recovers. Now to our liquidity position. We're pleased to announce this week that we agreed to an amendment to our credit facility with our bank syndicate. We had a large facility in place before COVID hit with already enough capacity to comfortably fund us through downside scenarios. The amendment we agreed to this week also importantly gives us a holiday on the main leverage covenant until Q3 of 2021, which helps us navigate a period with EBITDA under significant pressure. Even under very adverse scenarios, such as little to no recovery in travel in 2020, we are confident that we have now both the liquidity and the ability to stay compliant with covenants over the next two years. As Steve mentioned, revenue visibility remains limited. We are expecting a significant EBITDA loss in Q2, and we believe this is likely to persist at least through Q3, assuming the travel industry has a slow recovery, although we expect Q3 EBITDA to improve versus Q2. But as highlighted above, we believe we are well positioned to weather the storm, and we believe we are very well positioned to come out of the storm in solid financial shape. With that, we will now open the call for questions.

Our first question comes from Deepak Mathivanan with Barclays.

Great. Steve, how are you thinking about positioning Trip for the recovery path, both in terms of product and business model? You obviously have a great brand in travel, and traffic is always very strong. But the various assets that you have historically had have been somewhat disconnected from a user experience standpoint and, to some extent, undermonetized compared to other media peers. So how are you thinking about perhaps first, realigning the product, using this time into a more integrated experience and then also potentially exploring new monetization models around those?

Thanks, Deepak. That's a great question and does dovetail very much with what we're doing internally. We have a fully centralized B2C organization at TripAdvisor now that kind of follows as an extension of the One TripAdvisor vision that we had talked about for the last couple of quarters. The key element to that is truly helping the traveler plan all of the things that they need for this considered trip. So instead of, or in comparison to someone first shopping for a hotel and then maybe shopping for an experience later, we really are aiming to have our travelers plan the entire trip with us, no matter which category they happen to start in. That considered trip presents a huge total addressable market, with great positioning in comparison to a search engine like Google or someone that just sells an airline flight or a hotel, and it leverages very much the brand trust that people have in us at TripAdvisor to guide them through that whole journey. To the second part of your question, we have an excellent monetization vehicle for when someone is in hotel shopping mode or experience shopping mode. We've grown our restaurant media business quite well when they're looking for a place to eat. Our biggest challenge has been enabling people to plan the entire trip around it so that we get not just a bite when they're looking for a hotel, restaurant, or attraction. Since every considered trip involves, at the minimum, all three components, how do we help the traveler and therefore, monetize all those different parts? Add to that some initial efforts on leveraging the large consumer base with direct-to-consumer products, and I think we have both the considered trip monetized more for every considered shopper that we have and new offerings targeting newer revenue streams, namely direct-to-consumer, as potentially opportunities ahead that we've never tapped into before.

And our next question comes from Naved Khan with SunTrust.

Can you provide some color on the uptick that you're seeing in bookings there over 90 days out? How much of an improvement is it? And is it primarily in regions where lockdowns have been eased? Or is it more broad-based? Can you talk about that? And then just regarding the headcount reduction, how does it affect your plans to build out more features and functionality for the branded display side? Yes, just those two.

Sure. I want to caution folks, the uptick we're seeing is modest. It's not anything that I would characterize as a big rebound, which obviously makes sense given that the lockdowns in many parts of the world are easing but are not off. And so therefore, it starts to come back, and we're probably an early indicator as people are thinking about the trip but not yet booking it on our site. So traffic has started to come back pretty much around the globe. To the question on how the headcount reductions will change what we're investing in, yes, we're having to focus on some of these core things that matter to us, but growing our media business to better monetize all of our unique audience is certainly something we view as a high priority. I would recall the key points I made in past calls and this one in terms of helping a traveler, guiding a traveler through their considered trip; we will continue to invest there. We will also continue to invest in our B2B businesses, both with experiences and obviously, our hotel auction. And then the display or general media business continues to be a very nice growth driver for us.

And our next question comes from the line of Lloyd Walmsley with Deutsche Bank.

Yes, looking at kind of longer-dated queries, it looks like there's not a lot of auction density right now. Just anecdotally, obviously, not much demand out there right now. But I'm wondering if your customers are falling below minimum CPC levels or just kind of exiting altogether? What's causing some of that beyond the obvious? And then how are your conversations with customers in terms of when they're likely to come back to auctions, what they need to see? Or do you think it will be pretty quickly as conversions start to come up? Any sense for that? And then lastly, on the subscription listing business, can you give us a sense for how big that is, and how that's holding up in light of everything going on?

Sure. I'll take the auction question, then maybe Ernst can speak on subscriptions. You may see a little, what I'll call, dislocation in the auction at the moment or over the past week or two as many of our clients had to do a very quick reallocation, a very quick pullback. But if we look at prior recessions, prior big challenges to the travel industry, those companies that had an interesting demand footprint were in a good position because many of the companies that have big fixed assets, be it planes or hotels, are very hungry for demand. And the travelers on TripAdvisor and other front-end media sites become very valuable. So I would say I'm cautiously optimistic that many of our current clients, certainly the big players, will be very eager to get access to the auction on our site. As demand picks up, those eyeballs become that much more valuable. I'll turn it to Ernst.

Yes, in terms of the subscriptions, yes, they're holding up better than the auction. Subscriptions, obviously, have longer-dated terms, often one-year terms. There are renewals coming up, which might be under pressure. But overall, that revenue stream has held up better than the auction revenue stream. We've been helpful to some partners by pushing out some payments. But in terms of the actual revenue, we're expecting a more limited impact on that compared to the auction.

And our next question comes from Jed Kelly with Oppenheimer.

Great. Two, if I may. First question, just how do you see your meta auction evolving into the recovery? Is there any way you can potentially diversify your revenue among your partners? And then on your activities, I guess traveler health and safety is going to be a pretty big priority. So how do you view your supply? Do you still want to have a lot of supply? Or will you scale it down to work with a couple of trusted partners?

Sure. So on the meta evolving, I believe we will have all the major OTAs, certainly the major chains, be eager for our demand. What we might call the liquidity of the auction will be strong, and people will be fighting over travelers on our site and others. With respect to traveler health and safety, absolutely important. Arguably, the biggest challenge is what airlines, hotels, and other travel companies are actually doing to provide a safe travel experience. We expect and we would hope to be a major information hub to help travelers with exactly that concern. People turn to TripAdvisor because we are a trusted brand, and we expect to gather and share as much information as we can about safety-related issues wherever travelers are going.

And our following question comes from Brad Erickson with Needham & Co.

Just a couple. First, you talked about variable costs basically coming down as quickly and kind of in line with what you're seeing revenue-wise. Conversely, when we look towards recovery, do you see any revenue that you might start to generate correlating really as a function of bookings rebound, we might see from the hotels or the OTAs? Is that the right formula for how to think about any sort of a shape of recovery? And what you're hearing from your customers specifically that leads you to comment that Q3 will be better than Q2?

I'll take that to begin with... Sure. Yes, variable costs, mostly COGS and performance marketing, are very linear with revenue and bookings. So expect when revenue comes back, expect these variable costs to grow broadly in line with these. And you asked about partners; yes, if our partners on the hotel side see bookings growth, they are likely to spend on our channel. We're likely to want to invest variable marketing expense based on that. Across other parts of the business, like experiences, we will also spend more once we see demand pick up. I said in my opening remarks that we expect those levels to be very low in Q2. I mentioned we might see revenues under $10 million between COGS and external marketing and performance marketing. Of course, we're happy; if revenue comes back more quickly, we're happy to pick up the pace of spending because that means more revenue will come as a result. The reason why we believe Q3 will improve compared to Q2 is that our assumption for Q2 is that it stays pretty much at where we are today. We've commented on bookings and other revenue-related indicators for our business being down over 90% right now in late March and in April. We expect that to extend into the rest of the quarter, but perhaps there is an upside in June, although we're not banking on it near-term. We expect there to be more recovery in revenue during Q3. Still very much down year-over-year, but an improvement compared to Q2.

And our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with UBS.

Maybe one big picture and one sort of housekeeping matter. Steve, bigger picture, you talked about some of the dynamics where you would invest in the portfolio of assets you have. Can you share your worldview on how you think maybe the industry might consolidate or there might be pockets of the industry where scale becomes more important on the other side of COVID-19? And then coming back to the deal that was announced in November with Trip.com in China, my understanding of that deal was they had to purchase in the open market within one year to maintain the Board seat here. Have they made any such purchases? And how is that relationship evolving?

Thanks, Eric. I’ll take the first part about it. In terms of, at the biggest macro level from a traveler perspective, how do I think things are going to change in travel in a two-to-three-year time frame? I got to say not much. People love to travel. More and more of the younger generation is growing up, looking for experiences in travel, always rated super highly on what people want to do. So I believe the demand will be there. So then what happens on the supply side, especially in the midst of this pandemic? Certainly, we feel for hotels going through an incredibly rough patch. And unfortunately, we can guess that a number will need recapitalization in one form or another. But if you believe my prediction that the demand will return within a couple of years at least, then the same need for accommodations persists. The hotels may come under a different flag or may be reborn under different ownership in general, but they will be there. And perhaps more will join chains, perhaps the reverse. That's tough for me to read right now. On the attraction side, yes, another important supplier that we care about is also going through a tough time, and there may be a thinning out. That would be unfortunate from our perspective, but where there's a need and where that demand will grow, those tour providers will quickly come back into business. Many of those providers are not highly capital-intensive, so they can spring back quickly. As for restaurants, there will be closures and openings as demand emerges. The big macro level includes consolidation among the big OTAs, but I don’t believe we will look back in three or five years and see huge changes in the major suppliers and intermediaries due to this pandemic. But that's just my two cents.

To your second question about Trip.com, yes, we are excited about that relationship and the opportunity we have to work together. The joint venture in China is moving through its transition phase and is now implementing the strategy for the business. We're excited to work on that with Trip.com. As you point out, there is an ongoing step with the Board seat. There are some regulatory approvals still required before we get there. But we continue to have a strong relationship with Ctrip and are excited about the partnership we've forged.

And our next question comes from the line of Tom White with D.A. Davidson.

Steve, I think you made some comments about expecting kind of a rebound in the hotel auction as we recover. And on one hand, that makes sense that large OTAs might be in sort of a land grab mode, given that everyone's been dark for a while. But I'm just curious if there's any more color you can give on what gives you confidence about that, given that those big advertisers have been leaning away a bit from the metasearch channel in recent quarters. And then just a follow-up; I'm curious if there's any update on how you guys are thinking about alternative accommodations or vacation rentals, that category? Have your views changed there given the pandemic?

Thanks, Tom. Good question. When looking at how I expect hotel chains and OTAs to operate in our metasearch environment or any metasearch environment, I'm going off of past downturns. The basic economics say that individual hotels are going to be very hungry for demand because they'll be operating differently, and there's a huge difference for them, whether they're at 40% capacity or 60% occupancy. They will naturally feel inclined to turn to us and the OTAs to help fill their rooms. As they become more profitable, they are likely to spend more on various channels, which would correspond back to us or through the OTA channel. I would say I'm cautiously optimistic since securing demand has historically proven valuable. To your second question on rentals, we know that alternative accommodations are an important choice for consumers. It remains important to maintain that choice on our platform. It's all about helping guide travelers on their considered trip. And in many cases, having an entire home is better than a couple of hotel rooms. We don't think our views have changed, even considering the pandemic. There's an argument suggesting that alternative accommodations may come back quicker than hotels, but that perspective is anecdotal and varies depending on different demographics.

And our next question comes from the line of Lee Horowitz with Evercore.

Great. Just one if I could. I guess with travel likely remaining much more localized in the near term, people getting in their car and driving to their new vacation destination, how are you thinking about adjusting your business model to capitalize on that trend, if at all? And how may that affect the model, I guess, in the near term in terms of revenue per user? Any insight on localized travel would be helpful.

Yes. Great comment, great observation. We certainly agree with it. Our research supports that domestic trips will be much more common than before. That works well for us. We have all the content we need in every country to help folks have great local trips. On the TripAdvisor home page, if you're coming from a U.S. IP, you’ll see fewer times featuring Paris and Bangkok and much more focusing on places like Austin or San Francisco. It’s easy for us to market destinations already covered well to a more localized audience. Initially, it will be drive trips, but the larger delineation will probably be domestic versus international. If you're sitting in Boston and were considering a trip to Paris for the summer, you are just as likely to consider a domestic trip. Whether it results in a drive or a flight, travelers will need accommodation, local advice, memorable activities, and great restaurants. We'll have all that information and wish to be a primary source for wonderful things to do in the countries we serve.

In terms of revenue per user, we would expect that to be merely a shift in spending towards domestic spending, not necessarily a change in the revenue we can generate per user overall.

And our next question comes from Shweta Khajuria with RBC Capital Markets.

Great, thank you. How do you see the current environment from COVID different from maybe the past recessions? In your letter, you called out previous recessions and a potential for a quicker recovery because demand for travel will be there. How do you compare this COVID-related downturn versus what you've seen in the past, such as ’08 and ’09? How is it different? And how will the recovery be different?

Thanks. I’ll start and let Ernst add some comments. This downturn certainly will be different. Past downturns have been very economically forecast. There were always individuals who could afford to travel and would happily do so. However, here, even those with the ability to take a trip are not traveling anywhere, and when restrictions ease, many will likely stay domestic. It will be challenging to see how travel fully returns to normal until a vaccine is available or there are several months of no new cases. Many of us believe that's quite a long way out. The way airlines, hotels, and travel suppliers manage to ensure comfort while traveling will help bring back demand, and the information we provide can help. However, our forecast would be rather different were it, and I say this painfully, just a recession rather than something that raises significant health concerns when traveling. Ernst, do you want to add anything?

Yes, not much to add. It's obviously much sharper for the travel industry, a much sharper reaction and a much sharper reduction in revenue than ‘07, ‘08, and ‘09. But that doesn't mean the recovery path will necessarily be much longer than it was at that time. It's difficult to forecast. What I do observe is that the economic support structure and financial markets are functioning really well, indicating that there is enough liquidity available for companies, which bodes well for a potential shape of overall economic recovery.

And our next question comes from Kevin Kopelman with Cowen.

I just had a question about Google. They made some changes to their different verticals in shopping that allow free-price ads or organic price ads essentially. Do you expect something like that to happen in travel? If so, would TripAdvisor be able to participate?

This is Steve, and my thoughts are yes, we noted what they did with shopping. I think the competitive dynamics are pretty different in the shopping category versus travel. When Google makes a change or offers a new product, we certainly look at it and see if it fits our business needs. But I'm not spending a lot of time guessing if something like that could come into travel.

And our next question comes from James Lee with Mizuho.

Hope everybody is healthy and safe. Steve, just curious, as you go through the portfolio review process, how should we think about your ability to streamline your business even more? I'm thinking about your TripAdvisor China JV. Would you necessarily want to keep that business or could you potentially exit some geographies or even the vacation rental business, looking at categories where you do not have a leading position?

Thanks, James. We did look at our China offering a year back and concluded we couldn't do this alone. So we entered a joint venture, effectively taking it off our books, which achieves streamlining through our partnership. As the Junior JV partner, Ctrip can leverage all our content to help Chinese travelers, benefiting both entities. Regarding rentals, our intent is to maintain alternative accommodations as part of the TripAdvisor experience. We have our rental supply supplemented by partners. We're focused on improving our supply on our site while recognizing we won't dominate that space. We also announced folding some of our SmarterTravel brands into TripAdvisor, examining whether other brands we acquired years ago have better homes. The process of streamlining and the portfolio review is ongoing to allow us to focus on what's expected to yield big wins over the next three- to five-year timeframe.

Great. If I can ask a follow-up question, are you expecting any structural changes to customer behavior, whether on the supplier side or user side? For example, are Experiences suppliers moving online faster? Are you anticipating to capitalize on that? Help us think about potential new business models emerging that could provide content to raise consumer confidence or address friction in travel.

You raised two points. Certainly, those delivering experiences are moving to online faster, and we see that happening. We have a business unit called Bokun dedicated to that, and they continue to sell in the marketplace combined with Viator and TripAdvisor for when people are ready to engage in experiences again. We believe such changes represent a secular growth benefit to us, though not a major factor over the next year. Regarding confidence to travel, I don’t see it as an additional business model but more in terms of drawing travelers who are exploring and thinking about traveling. The more we can provide information allowing that traveler to feel comfortable traveling safely, that will help conversion rates. Users already on our site convert by booking experiences or hotels. We feel confident that we can help raise that travel confidence, benefiting us overall.

And I would add that we are now more ruthlessly focused on investments in the portfolio mentioned and changes in behaviors. We have made layoffs accounting for nearly one-fourth of the company. We are very deliberate regarding how we allocate resources among the remaining team. Some businesses and activities have been deprioritized and are no longer our focus, while we aim to continue building our competitive advantage, especially in Experiences and Dining. We view this as a growth area and intend to emerge from this crisis in a strong position. As we consider the opportunities that arise through more rapid online movement or other options, we are highly focused, despite cost reductions.

And our next question comes from Brian Fitzgerald with Wells Fargo.

Had a couple of questions, maybe one to follow up on Tom's question. Steve, are you seeing any nuances with respect to traveler preference for alternative inventory versus hotels as we emerge from this? I’d rather stay where they have seals on the doors and UV light cleaning versus some vacation rental from a private owner. So nuances there. And the second question around your dining assets, Bookatable and LaFourchette. As we emerge from this crisis, scheduling for dining is going to be important as they won’t be able to open to full capacity, so how do you feel about those dining assets standing out as we recover?

Thanks, Brian. On the first question, I don’t have much insight into alternatives versus hotel preferences among users. We're contemplating it, but traffic isn’t significant enough to provide useful insights at this point in time. Regarding restaurants, as they reopen and need to reconfigure tables, especially in Europe where they’re smaller, TheFork can play an important role from a consumer perspective to ensure availability. You don’t want to venture out, only to find no room at the restaurant. From a management perspective, we can help restaurants understand it may be time to shift their structures, perhaps instituting two sittings. Thus, the reservation management system supports both travelers and restaurateurs effectively. I don't want to suggest that this will drive significant revenue for LaFourchette since the entire industry is hurting. However, as dining resumes and new habits form around table booking, TheFork will assist restaurants and travelers even more than before.

More broadly, as Steve previously mentioned, TripAdvisor as a brand is highly regarded for providing excellent information. As we provide more details about layout, safety practices for hotels, and more, such information will become increasingly valuable. We believe this positions us to benefit from these changes.

And our next question comes from Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.

Steve, given the situation we are living through, are you looking at this as an opportunity to revisit initiatives that weren't feasible before due to timing? Instant booking comes to mind, but I'm curious if there are other extreme evolutions in your business model that are possible. How are you using this time to evolve the business?

Thanks, Heath. Great question. While we’ve been thinking about this, it’s not just about instant booking, but more about re-imagining the traveler experience on TripAdvisor as they plan their trips. Historically, progress was fast and focused on conversion across various services. This time presents a unique chance to rethink how consumers experience that planning phase, understanding how travelers want to time their journey from exploring activities through to booking experiences. Our goal is to place importance on how people plan their trips. They shouldn't view us as a mere stop along the way for information but as the main hub to collect all the elements of their journey, transforming TripAdvisor into their go-to source. This endeavor won’t yield immediate results in the next quarter or two, but I believe it represents an opportunity to enhance our relationships, encouraging travelers to rely on TripAdvisor across their entire journey. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. We are navigating tough times, and we've had to bid farewell to a number of exceptional employees. On behalf of the TripAdvisor family, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to these colleagues for their passion and their service. To my current teammates at TripAdvisor, you're doing an amazing job. I'm very proud of how you've all stepped up to help our business partners in the industry and with the site updates that we've already launched and will soon launch to help the billions of travelers who trust us to safely guide them on their next journey. The near term remains unpredictable. But time and time again, we have seen the hospitality industry recover and thrive. Concerted actions have solidified our financial position and will help us to emerge as a more focused business on the other side. We will continue executing our strategy and ensure TripAdvisor plays an influential role with consumers and partners worldwide in the recovery and beyond. So thanks, everyone, and please stay safe.