NEWTON, Mass., March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdvisor®, the world's largest travel website, today announces the expansion of its senior team with the appointment of John Dila, in the newly created position of Director, Customer Care. Dila's role includes developing and launching a new global customer care unit dedicated to supporting the hospitality industry and TripAdvisor's member community.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080902/TRIPADVISORLOGO )

In his new role, Dila will lead TripAdvisor's new customer care operations, shape TripAdvisor's support strategy and service culture and build a global team of customer service agents. This team will be dedicated to delivering a superior customer experience for TripAdvisor's member and owner communities.

As Dila looks to improve overall customer service, the initial priority will be to better serve the owner community. To this end, one initiative Dila and the customer care team aim to deliver on is a streamlined management response system that will make it quicker and easier for owners to post management responses that meet TripAdvisor's policies.

Dila has a wealth of experience in ecommerce and customer service. He joins TripAdvisor from InnoCentive Inc., an open innovation crowd-sourcing startup, where he led the community and product business unit. Prior to that, Dila spent six years at eBay, developing and running the customer experience teams and customer support strategy.

"We're delighted to have John on board," commented Stephen Kaufer, co-founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. "He's a crucial addition to TripAdvisor and we look forward to John building this new team and improving the experience of both property owners and travelers. We are committed to improving service standards and this hire underscores our desire to act more efficiently on user and owner feedback."

Dila will be based in TripAdvisor's head office in Newton, Mass. and will be charged with evaluating TripAdvisor's current support systems and will announce specific updates in due course.

"I look forward to building TripAdvisor's global customer care unit," said Dila. "The owner and member communities are the linchpins of TripAdvisor, so we'll be listening carefully to their feedback as we aim to provide the best possible customer support for all of our users."

For further information and an in-depth interview with John Dila, visit the TripAdvisor4Biz blog.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor® is the world's largest travel site, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features (including Flights search, TripAdvisor Mobile and TripAdvisor Trip Friends) with seamless links to booking tools.

TripAdvisor® Media Group, operated by TripAdvisor LLC, attracts more than 50 million unique monthly visitors* across 18 popular travel brands**. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 40 million unique monthly visitors***, 20 million members, and over 40 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 27 countries worldwide****, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also operates TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to TripAdvisor's millions of monthly visitors. The division includes Business Listings, which allows hoteliers to connect directly to millions of researching travelers, and Vacation Rentals, which helps property managers and individual home owners list their properties and showcase hotel alternatives. 

TripAdvisor Media Group websites have been recognized as top travel resources in 2010 by Conde Nast Traveller, Good Housekeeping, TIME magazine and Travel + Leisure.

TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Group are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE).

TripAdvisor and the TripAdvisor logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

©2011 TripAdvisor LLC.  All rights reserved. 

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Media Group Sites, Worldwide, August 2010

** In addition to TripAdvisor, The TripAdvisor Media Group of websites includes: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com and www.kuxun.cn.

***Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, August 2010

**** TripAdvisor sites operate in 27 countries worldwide: www.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.co.uk, www.tripadvisor.ca, www.tripadvisor.it, www.tripadvisor.es, www.tripadvisor.de, www.tripadvisor.fr, www.tripadvisor.jp, www.daodao.com, www.tripadvisor.in, www.tripadvisor.se, nl.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.com.br, www.tripadvisor.com.tr, www.tripadvisor.dk, www.tripadvisor.com.mx, www.tripadvisor.ie, www.tripadvisor.com.au, www.tripadvisor.com.sg, www.tripadvisor.co.kr, no.tripadvisor.com, pl.tripadvisor.com, th.tripadvisor.com, www.tripadvisor.ru, www.tripadvisor.com.gr/, www.tripadvisor.co.id and www.tripadvisor.com.ar.

SOURCE TripAdvisor