trivago starts strong in 2019, with double digit increase in profitability

Financial Highlights

• In the first quarter of 2019, we continued on our path of optimizing and recalibrating our Advertising Spend and improving the quality of the traffic we referred to our advertisers, leading to the third consecutive quarter of positive net income.

• Net income in the first quarter of 2019 was €7.8 million, up by €29.6 million, compared to a net loss of €21.8 million in the first quarter of 2018.
• Our focus on profitability resulted in improvements in our Return on Advertising Spend (“ROAS”) in the first quarter of 2019. The reduction in Advertising Spend also resulted in a decline in Referral Revenue and Qualified Referrals as compared to the same period in 2018.
• Consolidated ROAS significantly improved to 136.6% in the first quarter of 2019, compared to 107.8% in the same period in 2018.
• Consolidated Revenue per Qualified Referral (“RPQR”) improved significantly, reaching €1.59 in the first quarter of 2019, up 18% compared to the same period in 2018, as the Advertising Spend and product optimizations we implemented continued improving the traffic quality we send to our advertisers.
• The number of Qualified Referrals decreased to 129.3 million in the first quarter of 2019, or by 32%, compared to 189.5 million in the first quarter of 2018.
• Total revenue decreased to €208.8 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared to €259.4 million in the same period in 2018, representing a decline of 20% period-over-period.
• Adjusted EBITDA was €20.9 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of €21.9 million in the first quarter of 2018, up €42.8 million.
• Reflecting our performance in the first quarter of 2019, we continue to expect Adjusted EBITDA for 2019 to be between €50 million and €75 million.

Operational Highlights

• As of March 31, 2019, we offered access to more than 3.0 million hotels and other types of accommodation in over 190 countries, including over 1.8 million units of alternative accommodation, such as vacation rentals and private apartments, up from 350,000 a year ago.
• Our revenue share from mobile websites and apps continued to exceed 60%.

Rolf Schrömgens, CEO and Founder: “Our strategy is already delivering tangible results with a significant improvement in traffic quality as we continue to increase marketing efficiency and optimize our product. We are also very pleased with the status of our alternative accommodation efforts as we explore exciting opportunities for our product.”

Axel Hefer, CFO: “We are pleased that we were able to further increase our profitability and to carry the positive momentum into the new year. We believe this positions us well to achieve our goal of profitable growth in the second half of the year.”

Financial Summary & Operating Metrics (€ millions, unless otherwise stated)

n.m. not meaningful

⁽¹⁾ “Adjusted EBITDA” (Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization, and Share Based Compensation) is a non-GAAP measure. Please see “Definitions of Non-GAAP Measures” and “Tabular Reconciliations for Non-GAAP Measures” for explanations and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures used throughout this release.