Rolf Schrömgens, CEO and Founder of Trivago said, “Over the course of 2017 we invested heavily into building up both our team and technology to promote long-term growth. While impacting our operating costs, we believe the effects of this investment will become increasingly visible. Our product teams continuously make improvements to our platform on the backend, with a strong focus on personalized technologies and user experience. On the brand side, having already established a very high brand awareness globally, our new ad creatives are focused on advancing the user’s understanding of our product’s features in order to further increase usage.”

Axel Hefer, CFO, “We managed to grow the usage on our platforms, enabling us to almost match a very strong Q1 17 in terms of revenues. We achieved this despite strong headwinds from currency movements in the Americas and Rest of the World and a drop in commercialization as our advertisers appeared to have increased their profitability targets for their spend on our marketplace compared to the first quarter of 2017.”

After a period of increased marketplace volatility and testing activities, revenue shares of our largest advertisers are relatively stable in the first quarter of 2018 compared to recent quarters
We continued to implement measures aimed at optimizing our platforms and product, with the intention of increasing user retention and booking conversion
Continued trend towards improved traffic quality for our advertisers, both coming from marketing and product optimizations
Decline in commercialization as advertisers sought to increase their profitability targets for their advertising on our platform
Significant investment in technology, content and personnel during the period
Investment in the creative production of our advertisements focused on further educating users on unique product features
Alternative accommodation integration continues with over 350,000 units of alternative accommodation available as of March 31, 2018, increasing choice for users
The construction of the new headquarters in Düsseldorf is on track and we expect to move in summer to the new campus, improving overall office atmosphere and productivity

Financial Highlights

In the first quarter of 2018, Qualified Referrals increased by 7% to 189.5 million, compared to 177.2 million in the first quarter of 2017. Americas and Rest of World continued to drive qualified referral growth in the first quarter of 2018, increasing to 59.9 million and 59.5 million, respectively. Qualified Referrals in Developed Europe decreased to 70.1 million
Total revenue in the first quarter of 2018 was broadly stable at €259.4 million, showing a slight decline of 3% year-over-year, compared to €267.6 million in a strong first quarter of 2017. This was due to a decline in commercialization and significant headwinds from foreign exchange effects
Net loss was €21.8 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to net income of €7.7 million in the first quarter of 2017 and was a result of lower commercialization across all segments against increased advertising spend
Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of €21.9 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to positive Adjusted EBITDA of €19.3 million in the first quarter of 2017
Expected Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2018 to be between negative €50 million and negative €25 million
Total revenues are expected to return to a growth trajectory in the second half of 2018, leading to overall flat revenues in 2018 vs 2017