trivago's IPO marketed shares at $13 to $15, then priced at $11, and the stock still rose on day one. The Düsseldorf company ran a hotel search engine that pulled prices from many booking sites into one list, and its TV ads had made the name familiar in dozens of countries. Expedia had bought a majority stake in 2013. trivago listed in December 2016, one of the final IPOs of the year.

Four Founders in Düsseldorf

Rolf Schrömgens, Peter Vinnemeier, Stephan Stubner and Malte Siewert started trivago in 2005. Booking sites often showed the same hotel room at different prices. trivago gathered those prices and showed them side by side, then sent the traveler to the booking site to pay. The site earned money for each click it sent. To win travelers, trivago spent heavily on television ads, which made it one of the best known travel names in Europe and beyond.

Below the Range, Then Up

trivago sold 26.1 million American depositary shares at $11 and began trading on Nasdaq as TRVG on December 16, 2016. The stock closed its first day at $11.85, up about 8 percent. Expedia kept a majority of the shares after the offering. The years after were harder, as Google and the big booking sites spent more on their own hotel search. trivago is still public on Nasdaq, with Expedia as its largest owner.

Cover: Rear Piazza, Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga, N.Y., Baker & Record, Photographers. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a grand hotel's long porch (hotel search).