Hotel.de

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HOTEL DE GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 2001
Seat Cologne , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
Branch tourism
Website www.hotel.de

Hotel.de (spelling in capital letters) is a German company originally based in Nuremberg that operates internet portals for booking hotels . It has existed since 2001 and was traded in the General Standard from 2006 to 2011 and in the Entry Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2013 . Hotel.de has been majority owned by HRS since 2011 , and together both providers achieved a market share of around two thirds in 2012. The headquarters in Nuremberg was closed on January 31, 2017, the portal has since continued under the umbrella of the HRS group of companies with headquarters in Cologne .

history

Former headquarters in Nuremberg (2014)

The company was founded on September 11, 2001 in Düsseldorf by Heinz Raufer and three other shareholders in the legal form of a stock corporation . The website and the domain hotel.de were taken over by Atrada Trading Network AG , which Heinz Raufer had previously sold to Deutsche Telekom . Atrada had already implemented a comparable service for booking hotels and trips in cooperation with intergerma in 1999. Hotel.de initially focused on business customers .

In 2006 Hotel.de announced that it wanted to go public . The listing was intended to raise around 20 million euros, with which the main aim was to finance international expansion. At that time, the company had a turnover of 12.4 million euros and employed 340 people. The subscription period began in October 2006, and trading began on October 20 of that year. The stock traded at the lower end of the price range and even fell below the issue price. Observers rated the IPO as disappointing, but still recommended a buy.

In 2006, Hotel.de was awarded the German Start-Up Prize by the StartUp initiative in the rising category. In the following year, Hotel.de received the “Bavaria's Best 50” award from the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs for its “special growth strength”. In addition, from 2009 Hotel.de was voted “Website of the Year” several times in the leisure and travel category. In 2011 the business magazine Der Handel presented the company with the “e-Star Online Excellence Award” for its iPhone application, and in 2012 the Android counterpart received a “MobileTech Award”.

In October 2011, Hotel.de was taken over by HRS . The founders sold 61.6 percent of the shares for a total of 43 million euros, after having previously denied their interest in a sale several times. At that time the company had 446 employees. Regardless of the takeover , Hotel.de was continued as an independent company with locations in Nuremberg and Hamm . Nevertheless, both companies concluded a profit transfer agreement . HRS later increased its stake to around 83 percent, and the Federal Cartel Office announced that it would examine the acquisition, but this did not lead to any result. By May 2013, HRS's stake had grown to more than 95 percent, and the remaining shareholders were compensated as part of a squeeze-out . Hotel.de AG was taken off the stock exchange, Heinz Raufer, the last founder, left the company in September 2013.

In addition to its headquarters in Nuremberg and an office in Hamm, which was closed as part of the merger with the HRS Group, the company had branches in London , Paris , Barcelona , Rome and Shanghai . In 2011, a branch was set up in Singapore , where marketing and sales for international markets were located. From 2012 Hotel.de was represented in São Paulo .

At the end of October 2016, the closure of the Nuremberg location and the dismissal of all 130 employees as of January 31, 2017 were announced. The reason for this was the double functions that resulted from the acquisition of the portal, which were not profitable. Since then, the portal and the locations have been continued under the umbrella of the HRS Group.

Portals

Initially, the company offered its services exclusively in the German-speaking area under the domain hotel.de ; in 2006, expansion abroad began. In 2008 the international offers in Great Britain , France , Spain and Italy were combined under hotel.info . Hotel.de receives a commission for bookings that varies based on various criteria. Visitors can leave reviews for hotels on Hotel.de.

According to the company's own information, Hotel.de's websites are available in 38 languages; in 2012, 210,000 hotels were offered worldwide. The Hotel.de portal alone is available in 22 languages, in addition to 17 European languages ​​and Russian, also in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In addition to its own portals, Hotel.de also provides rooms through other providers: For example, in 2006 a cooperation with the airline Air Berlin was agreed. In 2007, Deutsche Bahn also integrated the Hotel.de service into its website, but this was replaced by HRS in 2011.

criticism

After the takeover of Hotel.de by HRS, the hotel association argued that the acquisition meant more standardized conditions and fewer options. In connection with this, in particular continuously increasing commissions were warned, which were gradually increased to 15 percent. In 2013, Hotel.de came under fire again because it was able to guarantee the best possible conditions from hotels. The Bundeskartellamt objected to the procedure as restricting competition and had already warned the parent company HRS several times in this regard . The companies concerned themselves saw the corresponding provisions as an advantage for consumers , whose search costs would be minimized by the guarantee of the best price.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on initial listing. (No longer available online.) Deutsche Börse, archived from the original on May 27, 2014 ; Retrieved April 19, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / deutsche-boerse.com
  2. ↑ Share master data. (No longer available online.) Hotel.de, archived from the original on May 27, 2014 ; accessed on May 22, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hotel.de
  3. ↑ Florian Söllner: Takeover surprise: HRS buys hotel.de. (No longer available online.) In: Der Aktionär. October 14, 2011, archived from the original on April 12, 2014 ; Retrieved April 19, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deraktionaer.de
  4. ↑ Mighty Dwarfs . In: Financial Times Germany . January 25, 2012, p. 23 .
  5. ↑ Internet World Business : Out for Hotel.de in Nuremberg: 130 employees are dismissed
  6. ↑ The number three online bed broker has stood firm . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . September 12, 2011, p. 23 .
  7. ↑ Hotels & Travel at the best prices. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 2, 2001 ; Retrieved April 23, 2014 .
  8. ↑ He gets them all to bed. In: Stern. January 9, 2009, accessed April 23, 2014 .
  9. ↑ www.hotel.de now independent . In: General hotel and gastronomy newspaper . January 12, 2002 ( ahgz.de [accessed April 23, 2014]).
  10. ↑ With Swabian virtues to great success on the Internet . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . February 13, 2008, p. 3 .
  11. ↑ Hotel.de goes to the capital market . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 26, 2006.
  12. ↑ Internet service provider plans to go public this month . In: Welt am Sonntag . October 8, 2006, p. 47 .
  13. ↑ Hotel.de wants to raise tens of millions. In: Handelsblatt. October 8, 2006, accessed April 22, 2014 .
  14. ↑ The subscription period for hotel.d is running . In: Financial Times Germany . October 16, 2006, p. 6 .
  15. ↑ hotel.de slips below the issue price . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 21, 2006, p. 21 .
  16. ↑ Market and Opinion . In: The world . October 21, 2006, p. 17 (rubric: Market and Opinion).
  17. ↑ IPOs . Escape to the stock. In: Focus Money . October 18, 2006, p. 10-15 .
  18. ↑ The hotel.de share offers opportunities. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. October 13, 2006, accessed April 23, 2014 .
  19. ↑ hotel.de receives the founder award . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . September 14, 2006.
  20. ↑ Bavaria's best honored . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . June 28, 2007.
  21. ↑ Winner of the website of the year election! (No longer available online.) MetrixLab, archived from the original on May 28, 2014 ; Retrieved April 19, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / websitedesjahres.de
  22. ↑ e-Star Online Excellence Award 2011 given in six categories. dfv Mediengruppe, April 13, 2011, accessed April 19, 2014 .
  23. ^ Mobile Tech Conference 2012 . In: LEAD digital . No. 7 , April 4, 2012, p. 13 .
  24. ↑ Nürnberger hotel.de is sold . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . October 15, 2011, p. 21 .
  25. ↑ Cologne-based HRS buys majority in hotel.de . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . October 15, 2011, p. 21 .
  26. ↑ HRS puts hotel.de on a short leash . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . April 12, 2012, p. 3 .
  27. ↑ HRS wants to keep hotel.de on the stock exchange for the time being . In: Börsen-Zeitung . January 5, 2012, p. 10 .
  28. ↑ HRS swallows hotel.de completely . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . May 25, 2013, p. 23 .
  29. ↑ hotel.de is now owned by the Cologne-based company . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . 4th September 2013.
  30. ↑ hotel.de is about to break . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . September 19, 2013, p. 21 .
  31. ↑ hotel.de gives up its headquarters in Heessen. In: WA.de. November 5, 2013, accessed May 22, 2014 .
  32. ↑ Off to Singapore: hotel.de is expanding . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . April 19, 2011.
  33. ↑ Subsidiary in Sao Paulo . In: Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Middle Franconia (Ed.): Economy in Middle Franconia . No. 10 , 2012 ( ihk-nuernberg.de [accessed on April 23, 2014]).
  34. ↑ Internet World Business : Out for Hotel.de in Nuremberg: 130 employees are dismissed
  35. ↑ Hotel.de wants to grow abroad . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . October 10, 2006.
  36. ↑ hotel.de separates from the international brand Travelers.com . In: fvw . December 5, 2008, p. 25 .
  37. ↑ Internet portal hotel . Enters the conference business . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse . May 29, 2008, p. 2 .
  38. ↑ Stefan Henkel: Cost and benefit analysis for electronic booking channels in the hotel industry . Grin Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-656-44321-6 , p. 24 .
  39. ↑ Cooperation between Air Berlin and hotel.de . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . January 5, 2006.
  40. ↑ Bahn is now using hotel.de . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . December 20, 2007.
  41. ↑ Tanja Gabler: Exclusive integration. In: Internet World Business. November 4, 2011, accessed April 19, 2014 .
  42. ↑ Katja Köllen: HRS swallows rivals hotel.de. In: WirtschaftsWoche. October 17, 2011, accessed April 19, 2014 .
  43. ↑ Hoteliers feel squashed . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . January 26, 2012.
  44. ↑ Hunt for cheap rooms: hotel portals in the sights of the cartel office . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . November 9, 2013, p. 3 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 9 ″  N , 11 ° 5 ′ 46 ″  E