Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2014

Basis of Presentation

Basis of Presentation

We have prepared the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). We have included all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the results of the interim period. These adjustments consist of normal recurring items. We prepared the unaudited consolidated financial statements following the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for interim reporting. As permitted under those rules, we have condensed or omitted certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by GAAP for annual financial statements. Our interim unaudited consolidated financial statements are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any other interim period or for the full year. These interim unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, previously filed with the SEC.

Principles of Consolidation

Principles of Consolidation

These accompanying unaudited financial statements present our results of operations, financial position and cash flows on a consolidated basis. The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include TripAdvisor, our wholly-owned subsidiaries, and entities we control, or in which we have a variable interest and are the primary beneficiary of expected cash profits or losses. We have eliminated significant intercompany transactions and accounts.

Certain of our subsidiaries that operate in China have variable interests in affiliated entities in China in order to comply with Chinese laws and regulations, which restrict foreign investment in Internet content provision businesses. Although we do not own the capital stock of some of our Chinese affiliates, we consolidate their results as we are the primary beneficiary of the cash losses or profits of these variable interest affiliates and have the power to direct the activities of these affiliates. Our variable interest entities are not material for all periods presented.

Reclassifications

Reclassifications

Pursuant to our disclosure in “Note 15— Related Party Transactions” in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, we no longer consider Expedia, Inc., or Expedia, a related party.    Certain reclassifications have been made to conform the prior period to the current presentation relating to Expedia transactions, which includes the reclassification of revenue from Expedia on our unaudited statements of operations to revenue and the reclassification of receivables from Expedia, net on our unaudited consolidated balance sheets to accounts receivable.   These reclassifications had no net effect on our unaudited consolidated financial statements.

All other reclassifications, made to conform the prior period to the current presentation, were not material and had no net effect on our unaudited consolidated financial statements.

Accounting Estimates

Accounting Estimates

We use estimates and assumptions in the preparation of our unaudited consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP. Our estimates and assumptions affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of our unaudited consolidated financial statements. These estimates and assumptions also affect the reported amount of net income or loss during any period. Our actual financial results could differ significantly from these estimates. The significant estimates underlying our unaudited consolidated financial statements include recoverability of long-lived assets and investments, including intangible assets and goodwill; income taxes; useful lives of property and equipment; purchase accounting for business combinations and stock-based compensation.

Seasonality

Seasonality

Expenditures by travel advertisers tend to be seasonal. Traditionally, our strongest quarter has been the third quarter, which is a key travel research period, with the weakest quarter being the fourth quarter. However, adverse economic conditions or continued growth of our international operations with differing holiday peaks may influence the typical trend of our seasonality in the future.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

Presentation of an Unrecognized Tax Benefit When a Net Operating Loss Carryforward, a Similar Tax Loss, or a Tax Credit Carryforward Exists

In July 2013, the FASB issued new accounting guidance on the presentation of unrecognized tax benefits. The new guidance requires an entity to present an unrecognized tax benefit, or a portion of an unrecognized tax benefit, as a reduction to a deferred tax asset for a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward, except as follows: to the extent a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward is not available at the reporting date under the tax law of the applicable jurisdiction to settle any additional income taxes that would result from the disallowance of a tax position or the tax law of the applicable jurisdiction does not require the entity to use, and the entity does not intend to use the deferred tax asset for such purpose, then the unrecognized tax benefit should be presented in the financial statements as a liability and should not be combined with deferred tax assets. This guidance is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2013, with early adoption permitted. Accordingly, we adopted these presentation requirements during the first quarter of 2014. The adoption of this new guidance did not have a material impact on our unaudited consolidated financial statements or related disclosures.