Information asymmetryScattered supply
In 2000 a traveler choosing a hotel, restaurant or tour paid before seeing it, and quality varied from one property and place to the next TR1. The main guides were printed books by paid authors, each title revised every two to four years TAX-9, so a listing could be years old by the time of the trip. Travel agents and hotel brochures filled in the rest, and most of that came from the sellers themselves. Some travelers posted trip reports online, and those told a buyer more than the brochures did, but they were scattered across the web TAX-1. What a traveler wanted was a recent report from someone who had already been there.