It seemed such an obvious idea at the time - connect the world's largest social network to the world's most visited travel website.
This was how many considered the decision by TripAdvisor in June 2010 to plug into the world of Facebook, with the launch of a feature called Trip Friends.
One issue that had dogged the hotel review site (as it solely was back then) was that the reviews were from the masses of the global travelling public but perhaps not as helpful as recommendations and tips might be from like-minded people with the same requirements or preferences.
Someone travelling with their young family for a beach holiday might have different expectations for a property than someone on a romantic weekend away.
It was thought for a long time that in the late-2000s that TripAdvisor might build a social network of its own to help with this, so users could build out a profile that could organise reviews in a better way for the user.
But then it was, rather wisely, considered a better strategy to simply use the vastness of the Facebook social network and allow users to see if their "friends" had visited a property on TripAdvisor or could recommend or criticise it.
So, Trip Friends was born.
It was seen as a simple yet efficient way for users to tap into their personal social graph to make better choices for hotels. And no doubt it saved TripAdvisor a lot of headaches by sparing it from having to develop its own platform. Early results were promising, too. By December 2011, more than 57 million people had tried Trip Friends.
Almost six years on, Trip Friends is still operating as part of the site and is a way for users to get feedback via Facebook.
But did it have much impact?
Speaking during a session at the Phocuswright Europe Conference in Dublin, Ireland, this week, TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer admits the initiative "did not move the needle".
The reason?
In short, the volume of reviews flowing between the Facebook-connected friends were low, not least because that unless an individual and his or her circle of friends are extremely regular travellers to the same destinations, it's very unlikely that a user will find a friend that has visited a property.
And this is at the heart of the social travel planning issue that has seen off countless startups in recent years.
It's a volume game, and if two of the web's high-volume players can't facilitate the interaction, then very few will.