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“We operate at the forefront of the travel tech industry and pride ourselves on our ‘test and learn’ approach as a means to constantly innovate. Transferring this approach to empower start-ups is central to our pioneering ethos and we hope to learn as much from their journey as they learn from us. The initiative is open to any early to mid-stage travel technology companies in Europe. We would like to support entrepreneurs working on disruptive technology concepts applicable to online travel, with a focus around lodging.”
– Johan Svanstrom, President of Hotels.com
About the programme
Following an initial selection process from more than 230 applications, five promising candidates were selected to take part in our six-month programme that will see them benefit from access to EAN’s full suite of accommodation via their content-rich APIs, access to advisory workshops covering everything from product development and machine learning to strategy, sales and marketing and six-months worth of free workspace at the Traveltech Lab.
The final winner will also receive US$10,000 worth of Hotels.com travel vouchers to go towards their business travel expenses.
Our finalists are:
Stasher
Bag storage startup Stasher, founded by UK nationals Matt Majewski, Jacob Wedderburn-Day in 2016, provide secure and cost-effective spaces for tourists to leave luggage for short periods of time. Dubbed ‘The future of luggage storage’, the company enlists a variety of small businesses, known as StashPoints, to store luggage in 18 UK cities and in Amsterdam and Paris.
DayBreakHotels
DayBreakHotels is the world’s first online marketplace selling hotel rooms, apartments and luxury ancillary services on a modular basis and at a fraction of the standard room-per-night price. Through DayBreakHotels’ website, rooms are available for six to eight hour reservations and ancillary services like meeting rooms, spa treatments and gym facilities are sold either individually or in a package.
Live2Leave
Live2Leave is a travel app created by Celeste Owen-Jones & Lea Bourratiere that enables users to record travel experiences and see recommendations from a community of selected friends. The app also allows users to save travel notes and build itineraries, facilitating in-destination planning. Live2Leave currently has 7,000 recommendations in 1,600 cities spanning 193 countries around the world.
Shoot My Travel
Shoot My Travel is a digital marketplace that connects travellers with local professional photographers, on demand, in 230 destinations worldwide. Founded in 2015 by Valerie Lopez and Camilo Rojas, the Miami-based startup is the first vacation photography platform to offer photo tours operating through an iOS App.
Triptech
B2B start-up Triptech are building a direct marketing engine to improve the relevance, security and scale of direct marketing in the travel sector. The technology aims to help travel companies acquire applicable, down-the-funnel users by providing accurate, real-time prices and safe URLs. The team includes Artem Kubatkin, Pavel Glushkov and Fedor Kovalev.
What attracted you to the programme?
The short answer is people. At Triptech we see this programme as an opportunity to spend time and learn from top industry professionals. Expedia is known for one of the strongest teams in the industry, and combined with all the startups and founders we get to meet in the Traveltechlab — that’s the best environment you can wish for building a travel tech company. We knew we would be applying straight away.
What makes your product/service different?
We make direct marketing relevant, effective, and 10x more powerful.
If you are chosen, what areas are you excited to tap into at Expedia?
We are excited to learn the feedback on our technology from Expedia and test how well would we improve Expedia’s direct marketing performance.
What excites you about the future of travel technology?
The next billion users from Asia. In Asia, online travel is a bit different from what we know. WeChat, Line, payments methods, web interfaces — everything is different. I’m excited to see the impact from Asian companies on online travel as we know it.
Why is it important for companies like Expedia to organize programmes like Hotel Jumpstart?
It’s a win-win partnership that helps the travel industry to evolve. With a programme like this, Expedia benefits from access to new technologies, ideas and talent, while helping early-stage companies to grow and test their products within Expedia's eco-system. Win-win.
Programme benefits
Strategic support
Participating start-ups will receive strategic support directly from Hotels.com and EAN including:
- Access to content-rich APIs
- Access to key decision makers at Hotels.com & EAN
- Mentorship support via monthly office hours and workshops with seasoned Hotels.com & EAN’s development, UX/UI and Marketing teams
- Access to deep expertise and insights through advisory workshops covering everything from product development and machine learning to strategy, sales and marketing
Traveltech Lab
Participating start-ups will also receive operational and professional support directly from Traveltech Lab including:
- Access to Traveltech Lab’s bespoke business support curriculum
- Curated events programme for the travel tech industry, with speakers from across the sector
- 24/7 access to a stunning fully-serviced and staffed workspace with London & Partners and a host of other inspiring start-ups
- Tailored introductions to London & Partners and their partner network
Programme timeline
26 November 2017
Hotel Jumpstart application deadline
13th December 2017
Pitch day for shortlisted start-ups
8th January 2018
Mentoring programme begins
4th July 2018
Demo day
Meet the Mentors
Anshu is a seasoned product leader with 15 years of experience, having spent 8 years building customer propositions to start, scale and optimize marketplaces in London and a further 7 years developing new technology at start-ups in Silicon Valley.
Brad is a technology leader with 2 decades of building and successfully delivering digital projects across a variety of industries and platforms. To the programme, he brings the ability to convert business requirements into technical solutions and to create teams, process and plans to deliver those products.
Dan leads the Hotels.com Mobile Apps Product and Design teams as well as the global Mobile Marketing team and is responsible for Hotels.com’s global mobile strategy across web and apps. His key areas of expertise are product management, digital marketing, digital analytics and strategy.
Having been a successful e-commerce start up owner and serving as advisor for other start-ups, Fritz understands what is required for start-up success. He also has in-depth knowledge of setting up web projects, marketing them via different channels and knowledge of the online travel tech world.
Before joining Expedia, Gianmarco worked at several start-ups and even launched his own travel peer-to-peer platform. Gianmarco is passionate about product creation and start-ups, and keen to share what start-up lessons he’s learnt during his career.
Ian has worked in IT for over 20 years, predominantly in large scale or high performance distributed systems in environments ranging from Front Office trading, through Telco, online gaming and government. In his last five years at EAN, he’s worked to modernize systems, while managing 20x increase in traffic volumes.
Prior to working at Expedia, Jack founded two start-ups: growing one organically and building another as a joint venture with a global fashion-tech company in London. He is looking forward to sharing his experience and helping start-ups make the most of the resources available to them at Expedia.
Makram has 15 years of experience in technology, strategy, operations and execution across the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He started off as a software engineer, continued as a strategy consulting manager, then joined Expedia where he developed a new product category by commercializing an internal tool and bringing it to market.
Nazim is a software engineer with over 5 years of experience as a technical lead, building cutting edge, rich, accessible and progressively enhanced websites. Before joining Expedia, he built and delivered the Asia Pacific ecommerce platform for Burberry. He has also volunteered as a mentor to young people in the tech industry and organised corporate sponsorship for hackathons.
Vareeya is a strategy and business development professional with experience in e-commerce, travel, retail and consumer goods industries. She has extensive experience working across different geographies and is experienced in building and developing a long term relationships with strategic partners.
Martin has over 20 years experience in direct marketing, CRM and customer marketing roles at both ‘bricks and mortar’ retail and e-commerce travel brands. Having joined Hotels.com when it was a start-up he is uniquely positioned to support start-ups during the programme and currently volunteers as a mentor for students in London.
Ben has a background in driving business growth through sales and marketing, gained from working with leading digital agencies and global ecommerce organisations. He has set up and run two of his own businesses, bringing a deep understanding of how to build a compelling value proposition and executing on a global sales and marketing plan.
Hotels.com L.P. operates Hotels.com, a leading online accommodation booking website with properties ranging from international chains and all-inclusive resorts to local favourites and bed & breakfasts, together with all the information needed to book the perfect stay. Customers get instant savings with Secret Prices through our mobile booking app and Hotels.com Rewards members can earn and redeem free* nights at thousands of properties worldwide. The Hotels.com Mobile Concierge on iPhone is like having a local expert in the palm of your hand, offering fast access to services such as transportation, on-demand food delivery, restaurant reservations and activities.
Expedia® Affiliate Network (EAN) is a global B2B partnership brand within the Expedia group that powers the hotel business of leading airlines, top consumer brands, travel agencies and hundreds of other partners through its API and template solutions.
Traveltech Lab is the UK’s original travel innovation hub housing a growing community of early-stage technology start-ups poised to disrupt the sector. The Lab aims to foster innovation, collaboration, and creativity while bringing together technology start-ups with major corporates within the industry. We provide a stunning shared workspace overlooking the River Thames and Tower Bridge, a bespoke business and professional support programme, a curated event series and brokered relationships with over 400 world leading travel and tourism businesses.
The Lab is a partnership between London & Partners, the Mayor’s official promotional company for London; and The Trampery, specialists in innovative spaces to drive creativity and entrepreneurship.
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EAN, ean.com, expediaaffiliate.com, Expedia Affiliate Network logo, ian.com, and Interactive Affiliate Network logo are trademarks and/or service marks of Expedia, Inc. All other trademarks or logos are property of their respective owners.
© 2017 Hotels.com, LP. All rights reserved. Hotels.com and the Hotels.com logo are trademarks of Hotels.com, LP. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. *free night excludes taxes and fees.