Ctrip
Ctrip is the online travel brand of Trip.com Group serving the Chinese market. It covers hotel, flight, train ticket, vacation package, and car booking, with search, comparison, ordering, and after-sales handled through its website and mobile app. Trip.com Group was founded in June 1999 as Ctrip.com, listed on NASDAQ in 2003 (ticker TCOM), and renamed from “Ctrip.com International, Ltd.” to “Trip.com Group Limited” in October 2019 to reflect its portfolio of travel brands including Ctrip, Trip.com, Qunar, and Skyscanner. Ctrip and Fliggy, Alibaba’s travel platform, operate in the same online travel sector but belong to different companies.
What it is used for and where the boundaries are
Ctrip’s core scenario is moving travel decisions and fulfillment into one app: checking hotel and flight prices, comparing and booking, changing or refunding tickets, and obtaining itinerary documents, with train tickets and vacation packages under the same entry point. For corporate customers, the group runs Ctrip Business Travel, a separate service for corporate travel booking, approval, and settlement, with its own entry point at ct.ctrip.com.
For international trips, the group’s Trip.com brand serves the global market; Ctrip and Trip.com maintain separate inventory and pricing systems, and accounts and loyalty points do not carry across the two brands. Features, membership rules, and promotions change over time; the Ctrip website and in-app information are authoritative before use.
Discussion in the show
Episode 005, in the chapter “Instinct：订房、商旅与信任” (Instinct: bookings, business travel, and trust), discussed how AI agents booking travel might shake traditional online travel platforms. Orange described Instinct’s model as “AI Ctrip” — an agent that books hotels and lodging for users and takes a 2% to 2.5% commission on transaction volume. Yang Pan pointed out that Ctrip already has a business travel version paid for by companies, and compared Instinct to “renting an assistant from a company like Ctrip”. He went further: as long as a new channel is cheaper, exists on the internet, and does some GEO and SEO, agents will in theory pull users away from traditional channels like Ctrip; Guizang countered that being cheap alone is not enough, because post-stay feedback decides whether users keep using a channel. These are the participants’ views on travel booking in the agent era, not Ctrip’s official position. See the episode 005 chapter in the Chinese transcript.
Frequently asked questions
What company is Ctrip?
Ctrip is the online travel brand of Trip.com Group serving the Chinese market, covering hotel, flight, train ticket, and vacation bookings. The group was founded in 1999, listed on NASDAQ in 2003 (TCOM), and renamed Trip.com Group in 2019.
Where are the Ctrip website and business travel entry points?
The consumer entry point is the Ctrip website and the Ctrip app; corporate travel is served by Ctrip Business Travel at ct.ctrip.com.
What is the relationship between Ctrip and Trip.com?
Both belong to Trip.com Group: Ctrip serves the Chinese market, while Trip.com is the group’s international brand. The group also runs Qunar and Skyscanner.
What is Ctrip Business Travel?
Ctrip Business Travel is the group’s corporate travel service, covering flight and hotel booking for business trips plus approval and reconciliation management. It runs separately from the consumer Ctrip app; see ct.ctrip.com.