TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer (Photo: Thisistravel.co.uk)

Jetsetter, the luxury travel site that Gilt Groupe put up for sale for around $50 million back in October, has been acquired by TripAdvisor, according to a press release published to PRNewswire. A Gilt Groupe representative confirmed the acquisition to Betabeat. Skift reported back in March that Jetsetter was close to an acquisition, most likely by the travel reviews site.

"In a short span of time, Jetsetter has emerged as a premier player in the travel space, and we are proud of what the team has accomplished," Gilt Groupe CEO Michelle Peluso said in the release. "There are strong synergies between Jetsetter and TripAdvisor and we are confident that having Jetsetter be part of the TripAdvisor group will further accelerate its growth."

A report in the Wall Street Journal in October indicated that Jetsetter was having difficulties finding buyers as it had reportedly set its asking price at $100 million. However, a source close to the situation told Betabeat in October that the listing price was actually $30-50 million.

Jetsetter endured a series of ups and downs prior to Gilt's decision to put it up for sale. Its founder and former CEO Drew Patterson faced staffer mutiny last May before Gilt Groupe CEO Kevin Ryan asked him to step down. Mr. Ryan attributed Mr. Patterson's departure to turnover and low staff morale. "More than half of us are looking to leave within the next month, at which point the business won’t be operational,” a Jetsetter employee told Betabeat back in May.

“Too many people have left," Mr. Ryan told Betabeat after Mr. Patterson stepped down. "When you’re the CEO, you’re responsible for that. We’ve had a lot of communication over the last six months on this issue. At a certain point, for myself, you make a change.”

Meanwhile, TripAdvisor is no stranger to acquiring NYC startups. Back in October, it also acquired Brooklyn travel startup Wanderfly.

Update:

A source within the company tells Betabeat that TripAdvisor took the Jetsetter team out tonight to an open bar at Strand and told them "nothing will change." The source also said Jetsetter will be moving out of the Gilt offices "soon," and will keep some sort of relationship with Gilt, though it's unclear what that will be.

Additional reporting contributed by Nitasha Tiku.

(Photo: FurryFiesta.org)

A furry convention is just like any other convention, except you might catch two people dressed in large homemade fox costumes making out next to a panel discussion about how to properly care for your fursuit.

Furry Fiesta, a three-day summit for members of a subculture that love (and are sometimes sexually attracted to) anthropomorphized animals, is held every year at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in North Dallas-Addison. It's full of panels, arts and crafts and stand-up comedy, and can also be a hotspot for raucous parties.

As it turns out, not every guest who stayed at the Crowne Plaza during the 2012 convention was as open-minded as the hotel staff about the nature of furrydom. A Florida father took his family to Dallas for a cheerleading competition and stayed at the Crowne Plaza during Furry Fiesta, and he was none too pleased with what he found. "Tony A" wrote a scathing review on Trip Advisor, condemning the hotel for allowing "these 'people,' if [you] can call them that" to stay there.

Mr. A had no idea what furries were until he decided to Google around for them:

I am not sure if you folks know what a Furry Rave is. A regular rave is a party where folks dance, drink, party and do their drugs. A regular rave would have been unacceptable then. A Furry Rave included more lude and lascivious behavior, along with the other factors included in a regular rave.... How did I find out all of these details about this "rave" and what these furry conventions are about? GOOGLE!!!!! How hard is it for someone to do a little due diligence before they schedule something like this? This research took me 5 MINUTES to do.

A Crowne Plaza representative reached out to Mr. A on Trip Advisor and the review has since been deleted, though it lives on forever in our hearts (and Google Cache). Once Reddit got ahold of it, response reviews starting cropping up holding Tony A. accountable for his group's behavior:

We had a lovely Fur Rave at the Crowne Plaza North Dallas Addison the first week of January. The staff was wonderful and our group had a lovely time. Between attending group functions and admiring one another's delightful cosplay, we had genuinely adorable furry interaction in the hotel. The only thorn in our paw was a group of sanctimonious RA RA Cheerleader Moms (the worst kind). Their kids were yelling their useless to society chants in the halls and front room, in the halls - they had a problem with our adorably furry behavior.

So yeah, it's only Monday and this is already the state of the Internet. Carry on.

All your friends suggest you visit the Taj Mahal. (Photo: screencap)

Yet another fledging New York startup has been snapped up by a bigger tech company. TechCrunch reports that Brooklyn-based travel recommendation engine Wanderfly has just been acquired by TripAdvisor, a company which (let's face it) could probably use a heavy-duty dose of startup cool.

Wanderfly's comparatively tiny team still works out of the Yard in Williamsburg.

According to an announcement from their brand new corporate parent: 

"The Wanderfly team understands the value in social travel planning," said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor. "They're a great asset as we continue our developments in this area and I am delighted to welcome them to TripAdvisor."

No dice on disclosure of the terms.

We can only hope for Wanderfly's sake that no one is required to relocate to Newton, Massachusetts.

Looks like someone has quality Yelp reviews! (Photo: flickr.com/foundingfarmers)

Did you pick your Sunday afternoon brunch spot based on Yelp reviews? If a recent study is any indication, you have plenty of company. The Guardian reports that two Berkeley economists have decided to quantify the impact of your glowing Yelp review on that Thai place down the street. The results:

They found that a restaurant with a rating improved by just half a star – on a scale of 1 to 5 – was much more likely to be full at peak dining times.

Indeed, an extra half-star rating caused a restaurant's 7pm bookings to sell out on from 30% to 49% of the evenings it was open for business.

That's irrespective of changes in price or quality. So next time you're considering a wrathful review of the local bagel joint and wondering whether it'll make any difference, the answer is yes.

To us, that sounds like a big, glaring incentive to game the system. That inspires the question of whether any of these reviews can really be trusted. Nor is this question mere cynicism. Just last weekend, the New York Times ran a lengthy piece about the business of online book reviews, featuring an energetic entrepreneur who found himself banking tens of thousands of dollars by selling his services as an enthusiast. One expert estimates that a full third of online reviews are, basically, complete B.S.

The study's authors don't sound too bothered by the notion, though:

"These returns suggest that restaurateurs face incentives to leave fake reviews, but a rich set of robustness checks confirm that restaurants do not manipulate ratings in a confounding, discontinuous manner."

However, it's probably worth noting one little detail about the study's methodology: The data crunched comes from 328 restaurants in the San Francisco area. We can't help but wonder if that's a population unusually swayed by the wisdom of the crowds.