In life there are some certainties, some things that are less sure and others that fall somewhere in the middle.
Such meandering was captured in a volley of linguistic chaos by ex-US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 when he was making the case for the invasion of Iraq.
And so to our TripAdvisor Connect scoop on Tuesday, here are some of the things we know, few of the things we think and some complete guesses.
First to the facts
The service enables hotels and bed & breakfasts to boost their prominence on TripAdvisor via a CPC campaign, meaning they can pay to boost their ranking within hotel price comparison results shown on their property page.
All properties wanting to participate must subscribe to TripAdvisor Business Listings and the reviews giant is currently in the process of talking to internet booking engines about an API.
The API will connect to the booking engines enabling consumers to see rates and availability and book the property direct, thus bypassing online travel agencies.
TripAdvisor Review Express is also integrated within the service enabling properties to automatically solicit reviews from guests who have stayed and also helping TripAdvisor collect more verified reviews.
In case you were wondering, no bidding against a competitor hotel is allowed.
What is less sure?
The service will go live in Q4 this year (we believe it's September, in line with some of the statements in the FAQs).
Previously only major OTAs, hotel chains and online booking engines had access to these services and the company is sort of presenting it like a victory for the little guy.
Julio Bruno, TripAdvisor’s global vice president of sales and its TripAdvisor for Business, says:
"This means that the even the smallest guesthouse will have the same visibility as a large hotel chain, and they can manage their promotions themselves from their Management Centre."
But is it really a victory, does it give them more control? Small and medium sized businesses can bid up and up for campaigns and TripAdvisor will make more and more money.
Hotel owners will be paying for a Business Listing subscription as well as any CPC campaigns although to encourage sign-ups maybe there will be some room for negotiation on the subscription.
Perhaps over time, the cost of a Business Listing will become minimum as TripAdvisor makes its money from CPC, not unlike Google's model.
Undoubtedly it will boost verified reviews on the site as well subscribers to TripAdvisor Business Listings especially in light of concerns from many avenues on the current power of larger OTAs and accommodation aggregators.
And what of the unknown unknowns:
As is often the case with these things, the devil is in the detail.
For example – look at the FAQ for TripAdvisor Connect Internet Booking Engine and you see:
TripAdvisor will track average booking value, is that purely for metrics for its customers or are there other things it could do with that information?
And what about this:
Concerned about TripAdvisor having all those email addresses? Or, do the opportunities outweigh any worries?
Also, see FAQ section for TripAdvisor Connect for some more detail:
It will be fascinating to see how those 'minimum bid requirements' play out.
Reaction from the industry so far has included comments around it being a smart move, creating a seamless experience and a good opportunity for smaller properties.
On the negative side, the perception is that it will require quite a lot of work from IBEs as well as concerns expressed around TripAdvisor collecting email addresses and recording the value of transactions.
There’s also reaction around TripAdvisor hedging its revenue opportunities between its metasearch service and the big guys and this new scheme for the smaller players via Business Listings.
In February, TripAdvisor released its latest statistics on Business Listings with more than 50,000 hotels signed up. The company also alluded to an independent study showing Listings subscribers seeing up to $64 for every dollar spent.
NB: Open curtain image via Shutterstock