trivago has launched trivago Hotel Relations, a new wholly-owned subsidiary that will foster strong direct relationships with independent hotels.
The company will focus on empowering hoteliers around the world to be more competitive online and to drive more direct bookings through their hotel websites.
“With this step we are accelerating our ability to scale an exceptionally skilled international salesforce and build stronger ties with hoteliers.
“It enables us to work even closer with hoteliers and better support them in making their direct marketing successful,” said Johannes Thomas, managing director and chief revenue officer at trivago.
He explained: “We’ve seen significant success in our hotel direct business over the past two years.
“At the same time, we learned that scaling a sales organisation requires a different culture, operating mode, and set of talents compared to a technology organisation.
“We believe that being a dedicated company provides it with the necessary freedom to determine its own identity.”
The different requirements of a tech organisation and those of a sales organisation inspired the decision to set up a dedicated sales subsidiary that can create its own identity, culture, and employer branding.
Instead of recruiting engineers, the new company aims to recruit the top sales talents from around the globe.
trivago Hotel Relations, based in Düsseldorf, Germany, will be the entity responsible for trivago’s relationships with over 310,000 hoteliers around the world.
The company starts with over 160 employees from 21 countries and aims to grow its team in 2018.
This is intended to accelerate trivago’s efforts in providing travellers with more choices and the option to book direct.