TripAdvisor(R), the world's most popular and largest travel community, today launched a new owners' center (www.tripadvisor.com/owners), built to help management teams from hotels, restaurants and attractions manage and optimize their properties' presence on TripAdvisor. Each of the more than one million businesses on TripAdvisor has its own individual page with tools personalized for that business. Instant email alerts of new reviews for their property is just one of the many tools available to registered managers and owners on the new owners' center.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080902/TRIPADVISORLOGO )

"Innovative leaders in the hospitality industry are searching for new ways to manage and market their businesses in today's troubling economic times, so we're helping them connect in more ways with our community," said Nathan Clapton, vice president of partnerships for TripAdvisor. "We give owners the tools to manage their online presence and engage the community just when the community is searching harder than ever for the most relevant information and the best values."

Know instantly what's being said about you

The first step to being part of any online community is to listen to the conversation, and then to join in. Once owners register on the site, they can sign up for emails of any new review of their property as a simple customer relationship management tool. It's a quick transition over to engaging the community, with links to management response tools, as well as instructions for updating property listings, uploading videos and photos, and much more.

Promote, simply and quickly

Travelers trust other travelers, so owners can benefit by displaying what they're saying on their own websites. In a 2007 survey of 360 e-commerce companies, sites that added user reviews reported very positive results(1):

  --  56%  lifted conversion
  --  77%  raised traffic
  --  42%  increased the average shopping basket

TripAdvisor launched this feature in beta version earlier, and already more than 5,000 hotels, restaurants and attractions are featuring the badges and widgets on their own websites. Property owners can now quickly and easily put a TripAdvisor reviews panel or an award badge for their specific property on their website. The reviews panel or widget can be customized to include snippets of the most recent guest reviews, ratings and photos of the property or destination from TripAdvisor's world-leading resource of more than 20 million reviews and opinions.

About TripAdvisor Media Network

TripAdvisor(R) Media Network, operated by TripAdvisor, LLC, attracts more than 32 million monthly visitors* across 14 popular travel brands: TripAdvisor(R), www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.frequentflier.com, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com and www.virtualtourist.com. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 25 million monthly visitors*, ten million registered members and 20 million reviews and opinions. Featuring real advice from real travelers, TripAdvisor-branded sites cover 300,000+ hotels and attractions and operate in the U.S. (http://www.tripadvisor.com/), the U.K. (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/), Ireland (http://www.tripadvisor.ie/), France (http://www.tripadvisor.fr/), Germany (http://www.tripadvisor.de/), Italy (http://www.tripadvisor.it/), Spain (http://www.tripadvisor.es/), India (http://www.tripadvisor.in/) and Japan (http://www.tripadvisor.jp/). TripAdvisor(R) Media Network provides travel suppliers with graphical advertising opportunities and a cost-per-click marketing platform. Collectively, the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network have won hundreds of awards and accolades from press and industry worldwide. TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. .

TripAdvisor and TripAdvisor.com are 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. (C) 2009 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.

(1) Source: e-consultancy/Bazaarvoice, 2007 Online

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, July 2008

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SOURCE: TripAdvisor