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Investor Relations
Corporate News
Corporate News 2012
16/08/2012 hotel.de publishes half-year figures for 2012 (German version)
PRESSEINFORMATION
hotel.de gibt Kennzahlen des ersten Halbjahrs 2012 bekannt
hotel.de gibt Kennzahlen des ersten Halbjahrs 2012 bekannt
- Umsatzanstieg um 14,8% auf 21,80 Mio. Euro
- Wachstum des Buchungsvolumens setzt sich weiter fort
- Prognose für das Gesamtjahr 2012 bleibt bestehen
Nürnberg, 16. August 2012 – Die hotel.de AG hat im ersten Halbjahr 2012 den Umsatz um 14,8% von 18,99 Mio. Euro auf 21,80 Mio. Euro gesteigert. Der Auslandsumsatz verbesserte sich gegenüber dem Vorjahreszeitraum von 7,99 Mio. Euro um 10,6% auf 8,84 Mio. Euro. Damit betrug der Auslandsanteil im ersten Halbjahr 40,5% (Vorjahr: 42,1%). Positiven Einfluss auf die Umsatzentwicklung hatte die zum 01. März 2012 durchgeführte Erhöhung der Standardprovision für Einzelhotels von 12% auf 15%. Dadurch stieg die durchschnittliche Provision im ersten Halbjahr 2012 auf 13,23%, womit die hotel.de AG auch weiterhin zu den günstigsten Anbietern am Markt gehört.
Das Umsatzwachstum betrug im zweiten Quartal 15,8%, wobei der Umsatz von 10,70 Mio. Euro auf 12,39 Mio. Euro zulegte. Der Auslandsumsatz entwickelte sich mit einem Wachstum von 9,5% auf 5,11 Mio. Euro (Vorjahr: 4,67 Mio. Euro) unterdurchschnittlich, was auf die immer noch angespannte wirtschaftliche Lage in verschiedenen Auslandsmärkten, insbesondere im Euroraum, zurückzuführen ist.
Weiterhin Investitionstätigkeit
Die Ertragslage im ersten Halbjahr 2012 war weiterhin durch Investitionen in die Geschäftsentwicklung geprägt. Insgesamt wurden dabei 2,16 Mio. Euro ergebniswirksam investiert. Investitionsschwerpunkte waren insbesondere die Internationalisierung, das Redesign bzw. der Relaunch der neuen Webseite in weiteren Sprachen und der Hoteleinkauf. Neben der Investitionstätigkeit wurde auch das hohe Niveau der Marketingaufwendungen im zweiten Quartal 2012 beibehalten.
Vor diesem Hintergrund belief das Ergebnis vor Zinsen und Steuern (EBIT) des ersten Halbjahres 2012 auf insgesamt -0,82 Mio. Euro (Vorjahr: -1,06 Mio. Euro). Das Periodenergebnis lag dementsprechend bei -0,57 Mio. Euro nach -0,78 Mio. Euro im Vorjahreszeitraum.
Ausblick
Der Vorstand der hotel.de AG behält seine Prognose für das Gesamtjahr 2012 bei, wonach hier ein Umsatzanstieg im niedrigen zweistelligen Prozentbereich und eine EBIT-Verbesserung gegenüber dem Vorjahr erwartet wird.
Dr. Heinz Raufer, Vorstandsvorsitzender der hotel.de AG: „Trotz des weiteren Umsatzwachstums war die Geschäftsentwicklung im ersten Halbjahr 2012 relativ verhalten. Besonders in einigen ausländischen Märkten macht sich die schwache Konjunktur auch beim Reiseverhalten bemerkbar. Nichtsdestotrotz haben wir unseren Internationalisierungskurs, z. B. durch die Eröffnung der Niederlassung in São Paulo, Brasilien, konsequent fortgesetzt und die Attraktivität unseres Buchungsportals weiter gesteigert“.
Der vollständige Halbjahresbericht steht auf www.hotel.de im Bereich Investor Relations zum Download zur Verfügung.
Über hotel.de
Die hotel.de AG betreibt unter den Adressen www.hotel.de und www.hotel.info einen weltweiten Hotel-Reservierungsservice für Unternehmen und Privatkunden. Die Websites bieten in 38 Sprachen über 210.000 Hotels aller Kategorien zur unkomplizierten, schnellen und preisoptimierten Buchung an. Mehr als 5 Millionen Privat- und Geschäftskunden aus allen Ländern der Erde vertrauen dem Service zur Buchung ihres Hotels. Sie können dabei auf über 2 Mio. persönliche Hotelbewertungen zurückgreifen. Namhafte Unternehmen wie BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG und viele mehr nutzen die Firmenanwendung von hotel.de zur Buchung ihrer Geschäftsreisehotels. Die hotel.de AG hat ihren Stammsitz in Nürnberg, eine Niederlassung in Hamm (Westfalen) sowie Vertriebsbüros in Großbritannien (London), Frankreich (Paris), Spanien (Barcelona), Italien (Rom), China (Shanghai), Singapur und Brasilien (São Paulo). Das Unternehmen wurde 2001 gegründet und ging im Oktober 2006 an die Börse.13/04/2012 hotel.de AG announces growth in booking volume (German version)
hotel.de AG, erstes Quartal 2012: Buchungszahlen bestätigen anhaltenden Wachstumstrend
Nürnberg, 13.04.2012 - Im ersten Quartal 2012 verzeichnete die hotel.de AG ein provisionsfähiges Nettobuchungsvolumen von 100,72 Mio. Euro. Dies entspricht dem quartalsmäßigen „Auftragseingang“ auch für die Folgemonate und einem Anstieg um 15,5% gegenüber dem Vorjahreszeitraum (Vorjahr: 87,17 Mio. Euro). Das ausländische Buchungsvolumen erhöhte sich um 12,5% von 36,78 Mio. Euro auf 41,38 Mio. Euro. Das inländische Buchungsvolumen verbesserte sich um 17,7% von 50,39 Mio. Euro auf 59,34 Mio. Euro. Auch die Anzahl der provisionsfähigen Buchungen wuchs gegenüber dem Vorjahresquartal spürbar um 8,5% von 456.577 auf 495.550.
Das provisionsfähige Nettoabreisevolumen, das die im Berichtszeitraum tatsächlich stattgefundenen provisionsfähigen Übernachtungen beschreibt, stieg im ersten Quartal 2012 um 10,4% von 72,13 Mio. Euro auf 79,61 Mio. Euro. Dabei ist zu berücksichtigen, dass das erste Quartal saisonbedingt das schwächste Quartal ist und daher stets unterproportional zum Gesamtjahresdurchschnitt wächst.
Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Buchungszahlen geht der Vorstand derzeit weiterhin davon aus, im Geschäftsjahr 2012 ein Umsatzwachstum im niedrigen zweistelligen Prozentbereich und eine leicht überproportionale EBIT-Verbesserung gegenüber dem Vorjahr erwirtschaften zu können.
*Die hier genannten Buchungszahlen entsprechen dem Stand der Datenabfrage am 03.04.2012. Nachträgliche Stornierungen und NoShows reduzieren die Buchungszahlen.
Über die hotel.de AG
Die hotel.de AG betreibt unter den Adressen www.hotel.de und www.hotel.info einen weltweiten Hotel-Reservierungsservice für Unternehmen und Privatkunden. Die Websites bieten in 37 Sprachen über 210.000 Hotels aller Kategorien zur unkomplizierten, schnellen und preisoptimierten Buchung an. Mehr als 5 Millionen Privat- und Geschäftskunden aus allen Ländern der Erde vertrauen dem Service zur Buchung ihres Hotels. Sie können dabei auf über 2 Mio. persönliche Hotelbewertungen zurückgreifen. Namhafte Unternehmen wie BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG und viele mehr nutzen die Firmenanwendung von hotel.de zur Buchung ihrer Geschäftsreisehotels
Die hotel.de AG hat ihren Stammsitz in Nürnberg, einer Niederlassung in Hamm (Westfalen) sowie Vertriebsbüros in Großbritannien (London), Frankreich (Paris), Spanien (Barcelona), Italien (Rom), China (Shanghai) und Singapur. Das Unternehmen wurde 2001 gegründet und ging im Oktober 2006 an die Börse.
11/04/2012 hotel.de AG publishes Annual Report 2011 (German version)
hotel.de veröffentlicht Geschäftsbericht 2011
Nürnberg, 11. April 2012 – Die hotel.de AG bestätigt mit der heutigen Vorlage des Geschäftsberichts 2011 die am 13. Februar bekannt gegebenen vorläufigen Zahlen. Demnach stieg der Umsatz gegenüber dem Vorjahr von 36,17 Mio. Euro um 13,4% auf 41,02 Mio. Euro. Der Auslandsanteil verringerte sich dabei leicht von 42,2% auf 41,8%. Dennoch hat die hotel.de AG auch im Geschäftsjahr 2011 stark in die weitere Auslandsexpansion investiert, was sich auch in der Entwicklung der Ergebniskennzahlen widerspiegelt. So verringerte sich das Ergebnis vor Zinsen und Steuern (EBIT) um 41,6% von 2,03 Mio. Euro auf 1,19 Mio. Euro und der Jahresüberschuss von 1,78 Mio. Euro auf 1,07 Mio. Euro.
Mit 4,55 Mio. Euro wurde über 1 Mio. Euro mehr investiert als ursprünglich geplant. Der Großteil dieser Investitionen entfiel dabei weiterhin auf den Ausbau des IT-Teams und den ausländischen Hoteleinkauf. Das Ergebnis je Aktie verringerte sich von 0,47 Euro auf 0,29 Euro. Vor dem Hintergrund eines weiterhin hohen Investitionsbudgets und des stark verringerten Jahresüberschusses werden Vorstand und Aufsichtsrat der hotel.de AG der Hauptversammlung in diesem Jahr eine Dividende in Höhe von 0,04 Euro je Stammaktie vorschlagen.
Der Geschäftsbericht 2011 steht im Investor Relations-Bereich zum Download zur Verfügung.
Über die hotel.de AG
Die hotel.de AG betreibt unter den Adressen www.hotel.de und www.hotel.info einen weltweiten Hotel-Reservierungsservice für Unternehmen und Privatkunden. Die Websites bieten in 37 Sprachen über 210.000 Hotels aller Kategorien zur unkomplizierten, schnellen und preisoptimierten Buchung an. Mehr als 5 Millionen Privat- und Geschäftskunden aus allen Ländern der Erde vertrauen dem Service zur Buchung ihres Hotels. Sie können dabei auf über 2 Mio. persönliche Hotelbewertungen zurückgreifen. Namhafte Unternehmen wie BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG und viele mehr nutzen die Firmenanwendung von hotel.de zur Buchung ihrer Geschäftsreisehotels.
Die hotel.de AG hat ihren Stammsitz in Nürnberg, einer Niederlassung in Hamm (Westfalen) sowie Vertriebsbüros in Großbritannien (London), Frankreich (Paris), Spanien (Barcelona), Italien (Rom), China (Shanghai) und Singapur. Das Unternehmen wurde 2001 gegründet und ging im Oktober 2006 an die Börse.
28/03/2012 Agreement about the conclusion of a profit transfer (German version)...
Agreement about the conclusion of a profit transfer agreement between hotel.de AG and HRS Hotel Reservation Service Robert Ragge GmbH (German Version)
Nürnberg, 28. März 2012 – Der Vorstand der hotel.de AG, als abführendes Unternehmen, hat sich mit der Geschäftsführung der Hotel Reservation Service Robert Ragge GmbH darauf verständigt, einen Ergebnisabführungsvertrag zwischen beiden Gesellschaften abzuschließen und diesen der kommenden ordentlichen Hauptversammlung der hotel.de AG, die am 12. Juli 2012 stattfinden soll, zur Zustimmung vorzulegen.
Über die hotel.de AG
Die hotel.de AG betreibt unter den Adressen www.hotel.de und www.hotel.info einen weltweiten Hotel-Reservierungsservice für Unternehmen und Privatkunden. Die Websites bieten in 37 Sprachen über 210.000 Hotels aller Kategorien zur unkomplizierten, schnellen und preisoptimierten Buchung an. Mehr als 4 Millionen Privat- und Geschäftskunden aus allen Ländern der Erde vertrauen dem Service zur Buchung ihres Hotels. Sie können dabei auf über 1,5 Mio. persönliche Hotelbewertungen zurückgreifen. Namhafte Unternehmen wie BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG und viele mehr nutzen die Firmenanwendung von hotel.de zur Buchung ihrer Geschäftsreisehotels.
Die hotel.de AG hat ihren Stammsitz in Nürnberg, eine Niederlassung in Hamm (Westfalen) sowie Vertriebsbüros in Großbritannien (London), Frankreich (Paris), Spanien (Barcelona), Italien (Rom), China (Shanghai) und Singapur. Das Unternehmen wurde 2001 gegründet und ging im Oktober 2006 an die Börse.
Die hotel.de AG betreibt unter den Adressen www.hotel.de und www.hotel.info einen weltweiten Hotel-Reservierungsservice für Unternehmen und Privatkunden. Die Websites bieten in 37 Sprachen über 210.000 Hotels aller Kategorien zur unkomplizierten, schnellen und preisoptimierten Buchung an. Mehr als 4 Millionen Privat- und Geschäftskunden aus allen Ländern der Erde vertrauen dem Service zur Buchung ihres Hotels. Sie können dabei auf über 1,5 Mio. persönliche Hotelbewertungen zurückgreifen. Namhafte Unternehmen wie BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG und viele mehr nutzen die Firmenanwendung von hotel.de zur Buchung ihrer Geschäftsreisehotels.
Die hotel.de AG hat ihren Stammsitz in Nürnberg, eine Niederlassung in Hamm (Westfalen) sowie Vertriebsbüros in Großbritannien (London), Frankreich (Paris), Spanien (Barcelona), Italien (Rom), China (Shanghai) und Singapur. Das Unternehmen wurde 2001 gegründet und ging im Oktober 2006 an die Börse.
14/02/12 hotel.de AG publishes Annual Report 2011 (German version)
hotel.de gibt vorläufige Zahlen für das Geschäftsjahr 2011 bekannt
- Umsatzanstieg um 13,4% auf 41,02 Mio. Euro
- Zusätzliche Investitionen belasten das Ergebnis mit 1,05 Mio. Euro
- EBIT-Prognose verfehlt: Rückgang um 40% auf 1,19 Mio. Euro
Nürnberg, 13. Februar 2012 – Die hotel.de AG verzeichnete nach vorläufigen, ungeprüften Zahlen im Geschäftsjahr 2011 einen weiteren Umsatzanstieg im Bereich des Kerngeschäfts um 13,4% auf 41,02 Mio. Euro (Vorjahr: 36,17 Mio. Euro). Dabei profitierte die Gesellschaft insbesondere von der positiven wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung in Deutschland und dem damit verbundenen Anstieg der Hotelübernachtungen. Vor dem Hintergrund der erschwerten wirtschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen durch die europäische Schuldenkrise entwickelte sich das Auslandsgeschäft hingegen leicht unterproportional.
Das Geschäftsjahr 2011 war bei der hotel.de AG erneut von umfangreichen Investitionen in die Internationalisierung des Geschäftsmodells und Maßnahmen zur Neukundengewinnung geprägt. Diese resultierten auch in einer entsprechenden Belastung der aktuellen Ertragslage der Gesellschaft. Der Vorstand geht jedoch davon aus, dass diese vorgezogenen Investitionen eine positive Wirkung auf die zukünftige Umsatz- und Ertragslage des Unternehmens haben werden.
Mit einem Ergebnis vor Zinsen und Steuern in Höhe von 1,19 Mio. Euro wurde der Vorjahreswert von 2,03 Mio. Euro und damit auch die eigene EBIT-Prognose für das Geschäftsjahr 2011 verfehlt.
Neben den geplanten Investitionen in Höhe von 3,50 Mio. Euro wurde das Ergebnis dabei durch zusätzliche Investitionen belastet. Diese setzen sich im Wesentlichen aus Kosten für externes IT-Projektmanagement und die Personalsuche zur Unterstützung der IT-Entwicklung, für die vorgezogenen Hotelakquise-Projekte im Ausland sowie aus Investitionen zur Beschleunigung des Website-Redesigns, das Mitte Januar 2012 erfolgreich freigeschaltet wurde, zusammen.
Insgesamt beliefen sich die unplanmäßigen Mehraufwendungen im Geschäftsjahr 2011 damit auf ca. 1,05 Mio. Euro.
Der Jahresüberschuss (Net Result) wird nach derzeitigem Stand bei ca. 1,10 Mio. Euro (Vorjahr: 1,78 Mio. Euro) liegen.
Über die hotel.de AG
Die hotel.de AG betreibt unter den Adressen www.hotel.de und www.hotel.info einen weltweiten Hotel-Reservierungsservice für Unternehmen und Privatkunden. Die Websites bieten in 37 Sprachen über 210.000 Hotels aller Kategorien zur unkomplizierten, schnellen und preisoptimierten Buchung an. Mehr als 4 Millionen Privat- und Geschäftskunden aus allen Ländern der Erde vertrauen dem Service zur Buchung ihres Hotels. Sie können dabei auf über 1,5 Mio. persönliche Hotelbewertungen zurückgreifen. Namhafte Unternehmen wie BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG und viele mehr nutzen die Firmenanwendung von hotel.de zur Buchung ihrer Geschäftsreisehotels.
Die hotel.de AG hat ihren Stammsitz in Nürnberg, eine Niederlassung in Hamm (Westfalen) sowie Vertriebsbüros in Großbritannien (London), Frankreich (Paris), Spanien (Barcelona), Italien (Rom), China (Shanghai) und Singapur. Das Unternehmen wurde 2001 gegründet und ging im Oktober 2006 an die Börse.
Corporate News 2011
17/11/11 hotel.de continues positive development of Q2 2011
hotel.de continues positive development of Q2 2011
- Third quarter sales rise by 14.2% to Euro 11.57 million
- EBIT in Q3 at Euro 1.28 million
- Outlook: Full-year sales of more than Euro 40.00 million targeted in 2011
Nuremberg, 17. November 2011 – hotel.de AG increased its sales by 12.8% from Euro 27.08 million to Euro 30.56 million in the first nine months of 2011 This performance was driven in particular by strong growth in the third quarter of 2011, in which hotel.de AG boosted its sales by 14.2% to Euro 11.57 million (previous year: Euro 10.13 million). International sales for the first nine months improved year-on-year by 12.5% from Euro 11.57 million to Euro 13.02 million. The international share of sales for this period amounted to 42.6% (previous year: 42.7%). For the third quarter alone, international sales grew year-on-year by 14.5% to Euro 5.03 million (previous year: Euro 4.40 million), accounting for a 43.5% share of total sales (previous year: 43.4%).
Ongoing positive development in booking volumes
hotel.de AG reported net commissionable booking volumes of Euro 103.71 million in the third quarter of the 2011 financial year, thus exceeding the Euro 100 million mark for the first time. This figure, which corresponds to the “new orders” received in the quarter under report, also for subsequent months, rose year-on-year by 22.5% (Q3 2010: Euro 84.65 million). Net commissionable checkout volumes, reflecting the volume of commissionable accomodation actually taken up in the given period, in the third quarter also increased by 14.5% to Euro 99.28 million (previous year: Euro 86.71 million).
Driven by this positive sales performance, hotel.de AG generated EBIT of Euro 1.28 million (previous year: Euro 1.53 million) and net income for the period of Euro 1.17 million (previous year: Euro 1.11 million) in the third quarter of 2011. It should be noted that the comparative figures for the previous year were still positively influenced by one-off other operating income of Euro 0.30 million.
Comments Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, on the company’s performance in the third quarter: “Following somewhat weaker developments in the first half of the year, we significantly improved our earnings power once again in the third quarter. We see this as a confirmation and indication of the success of the investments we have made in consistently internationalising our business model and boosting our marketing. These may have impacted negatively on our earnings in the short term, but in the longer term the company clearly stands to benefit from these investments.”
Nine-month earnings performance still burdened by investment activities
In the first nine months of the 2011 financial year, hotel.de AG invested and charged to earnings a total of around Euro 3.46 million. Of this sum, Euro 2.63 million was invested as planned in the company’s internationalisation, including investments in the IT team, translations, cost allocations for the international offices and investments in international hotel procurement. To accelerate core IT projects expected to benefit sales, a further Euro 0.83 million was channelled into the hunt for suitable personnel to assist in IT development and in bringing forward the development of mobile applications.
n view of these factors, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the first nine months of 2011 amounted to Euro 0.22 million (previous year: Euro 1.57 million). Net income for the period amounted to Euro 0.39 million, as against Euro 1.32 million in the previous year.
Outlook
A further strategic step in the company’s ongoing development was the acquisition by Hotel Reservation Service Robert Ragge GmbH of around 61.60% of the share capital and voting rights in hotel.de AG from the holdings of its founding shareholders in October 2011. Given increasingly tough competition in the portal market, this merger represents a logical step for both companies to boost their effectiveness in the hotly contested market, and thus to lay a firm foundation for further growth.
“We are convinced that this combination will further strengthen hotel.de AG’s position in the global hotel portal business and that it also harbours numerous benefits for hotel and booking customers alike,” commented Dr. Heinz Raufer with regard to the combination. In view of the company’s performance in the first nine months of 2011, the Management Board still expects to meet its target of generating sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range and increasing its full-year sales to more than Euro 40.00 million. Given the higher cost base due to the company’s growth, the Management Board further expects the company to generate EBIT at approximately the same level as in the previous year. A higher level of sales growth and disproportionate EBIT growth are budgeted for 2012.
The company’s nine-month report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. Founded in 2001, the company went public in 2006. In 2010, it handled reservations with a volume of more than Euro 390 million.
14/10/11 hotel.de AG: HRS acquires 61.6% stake in hotel.de
hotel.de AG: HRS acquires 61.6% stake in hotel.de
Nuremberg, 14 October 2011 – The founding shareholders in hotel.de AG have sold their shares in hotel.de AG, totalling 61.6%, to HRS Hotel Reservation Service GmbH, Cologne.
This combination should strengthen the two companies’ market position in an increasingly competitive market climate and generate substantial synergies. Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG: “This combination comes at exactly the right time, will boost hotel.de’s position in the global hotel portal business and provides us with a superb basis for our further development.”
This partnership will also benefit booking customers, who will obtain even better prices and availability levels in future due to the sharp rise in reservation volumes, as well as being able to select their desired hotel from an even greater range of hotels worldwide. The hotels under contract, on the other hand, stand to benefit from further growth in booking volumes by corporate and private customers.
hotel.de AG will continue to be managed by its existing management team as a standalone company at its existing locations and will, as planned, maintain its expansion with its hotel.de brand in Germany and hotel.info brand abroad.
Dr. Stefan Morschheuser, Supervisory Board Chairman of hotel.de AG: “The Supervisory board of hotel.de is looking forward to the strategic alliance. Our brand will increase its awareness and our hotel and booking customers will gain several advantages by taking this step.” HRS this morning announced its control over hotel.de AG pursuant to § 35 of the German Securities Takeover Act (WpÜG). Further information can be found at:
http://www.dgap.de/news/wpueg/kontrollerwerb-zielgesellschaft-hotelde-ag_373529_690986.htm.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. Founded in 2001, the company went public in 2006. In 2010, it handled reservations with a volume of more than Euro 390 million.
07/10/11 Booking volumes up 22.5% to Euro 103.71 million in Q3 2011
Booking volumes up 22.5% to Euro 103.71 million in Q3 2011
Nuremberg, 7 October 2011 – In the third quarter of the 2011 financial year, hotel.de AG managed to maintain the positive momentum already seen in the previous quarter, generating commissionable net booking volumes* of Euro 103.71 million. This figure, corresponding to the volume of “new orders” received, also for subsequent months, in the quarter under report, thus grew year-on-year by 22.5% (Q3 2010: Euro 84.65 million). The company benefited in particular from the sharp rise in domestic booking volumes by 24.3% to Euro 60.58 million (Q3/2010: Euro 48.73 million). International booking volumes showed further stable growth of 20.1%, amounting to Euro 43.13 million (Q3/2010: Euro 35.92 million). The international business accounted for a 41.6% share of total booking volumes (Q3/2010: 42.4%).
Commissionable net booking volumes for the first nine months of the 2011 financial year as a whole now amount to Euro 280.84 million, up 14.1% on the previous year’s figure of Euro 246.13 million.
Substantial growth in commissionable net checkout volumes
Commissionable net checkout volumes, the key figure presenting the volume of commissionable accommodation actually taken up in the period under report, amounted to Euro 99.28 million in the third quarter of 2011 (Q3 2010: Euro 86.71 million), 14.5% ahead of the previous year’s figure. In the period from January to September, commissionable net checkout volumes totalled Euro 261.65 million (previous year: Euro 236.49 million), corresponding to year-on-year growth of 10.6%.
“We are very satisfied with our business performance in the third quarter of 2011, even though some of our foreign markets are still being held back by the ongoing debt crisis in the euro currency area. We generated substantial growth both in our commissionable booking volumes and in our net checkout volumes and are therefore well on course to reach our targets for the year as a whole”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, with regard to the company’s latest performance. “In this quarter, our commissionable booking volumes exceeded the Euro 100 million mark for the first time, thus underlining the strength of our business model and its scalability.”
Ongoing growth in booking figures
The number of commissionable bookings made also continued to rise, increasing by 19.3% to 524,374 in the third quarter of 2011 (Q3 2010: 439,743). A total of 1,447,799 bookings were made in the first nine months as a whole, 11.7% up on the previous year’s figure of 1,296,635. In view of the positive development in booking figures for the first nine months of the financial year, the Management Board of hotel.de AG is once again confirming its annual forecast, namely of generating sales growth in a low double-digit range and achieving a year-on-year improvement in EBIT.
* The booking figures stated here correspond to the data enquiry status on 01.10.2011. Booking figures may subsequently be reduced by cancellations. Since the first quarter of 2011 we have converted our reporting to net booking volumes adjusted for non-commissionable bookings. Net booking volumes correlate more closely to net checkout volumes and thus provide a more exact indication of the company’s future sales performance. The previous year’s figures have been adjusted accordingly.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. Founded in 2001, the company went public in 2006. In 2010, it handled reservations with a volume of more than Euro 390 million.
17/08/11 hotel.de announces key figures for first half of 2011
hotel.de announces key figures for first half of 2011
- Sales grow 12.0% to Euro 18.99 million
- Second-quarter sales exceed Euro 10.00 million for the first time
- Earnings performance still affected by ongoing foreign investments
- Full-year forecast for 2011 confirmed
Nuremberg, 17 August 2011 – In the first half of 2011, hotel.de AG increased its sales by 12.0% from Euro 16.95 million to Euro 18.99 million. International sales improved year-on-year by 11.4% from Euro 7.17 million to Euro 7.99 million. The international business accounted for 42.1% of sales in the first half (previous year: 42.3%). Overall, the company’s sales growth was thus once again higher than in the previous year.
Second-quarter sales exceed Euro 10.00 million mark for the first time
hotel.de AG reported net commissionable booking volumes of Euro 94.30 million in the second quarter of the 2011 financial year. This figure, also corresponding to the “order intake” of the company for the coming months, rose year-on-year by 17.4% (Q2 2010: Euro 80.32 million).
Following the traditionally weaker first quarter, sales at hotel.de AG in the second quarter of 2011 grew by 12.8% to Euro 10.70 million (Q2 2010: Euro 9.49 million), for the first time exceeding the Euro 10.00 million mark in a second quarter. hotel.de AG generated an EBIT of Euro 0.60 million in the second quarter of 2011 (Q2 2010: Euro 0.82 million) and a net income for the period of Euro 0.75 million (Q2 2010: Euro 0.82 million).
Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, comments on the second-quarter performance: “The trend is heading in the right direction. Our ongoing investments in marketing and IT as well as our targeted of new hotels abroad are now having an increasingly positive impact.”
First-half earnings performance still affected by ongoing investments
hotel.de AG invested a total of around Euro 2.44 million, with a corresponding charge to earnings, in the first six months of the 2011 financial year. Of this total, around Euro 1.75 million related to investments in the company’s internationalisation, such as investments in the IT team, including the translations, cost allocations for the international offices as well as our targeted acquisition of new hotels abroad. To boost IT core projects benefiting sales, a further amount of Euro 0.69 million was channelled into the hunt for personnel to assist in IT development and measures brought forward to develop mobile applications.
Due to the additional expansion of online marketing activities, especially in the fields of search engine marketing and search engine optimisation, total marketing expenses grew year-on-year by more than one million euros. Overall, the company thus achieved an extension of 23.9% in its coverage compared to the previous year.
Given these factors, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the first half of 2011 amounted to Euro -1.06 million (previous year: Euro 0.04 million). Net income for the period amounted to Euro -0.78 million, as against Euro 0.21 million in the previous year. .
Outlook
“The recovery in the travel industry is continuing further in 2011,” added Dr. Heinz Raufer. “The trend towards online bookings is still intact, a development from which we stand to benefit in future as well. Together with our ongoing optimisation of processes, our investments in marketing, IT and the acquisition of new hotels, mainly abroad, will benefit our sales performance as the year progresses, thus further improving our earnings performance.”
The complete half-year report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. Founded in 2001, the company went public in 2006. In 2010, it handled reservations with a volume of more than Euro 390 million.
07/07/11 Booking volumes up 17.4% to Euro 94.30 million in 2nd quarter of 2011
Booking volumes up 17.4% to Euro 94.30 million in 2nd quarter of 2011
Nuremberg, 7 July 2011 – hotel.de AG can report commissionable net booking volumes* of Euro 94.30 million for the second quarter of the 2011 financial year. This figure corresponds to the quarterly volume of “new orders received" which was up 17.4% on the previous year’s figure (Q2 2010: Euro 80.32 million). International booking volumes grew by 20.1% from Euro 34.47 million to Euro 41.41 million, accounting for around 43.9% of total booking volumes (Q2 2010: 42.9%). The domestic business improved by 15.3% from Euro 45.86 million to Euro 52.89 million.
Commissionable net booking volumes for the first half of 2011 as a whole, now amount to Euro 182.74 million, up 13.1% on the previous year’s figure of Euro 161.52 million.
Growth in commissionable net checkout volumes
Commissionable net checkout volumes, the key figure presenting the volume of commissionable accommodation respectively departures actually taken up in the period under report, amounted to Euro 91.00 million in the second quarter of 2011 (Q2 2010: Euro 82.89 million), 9.8% ahead of the previous year’s figure. In the period from January to June, commissionable net checkout volumes totalled Euro 163.10 million (previous year: Euro 150.20 million), corresponding to year-on-year growth of 8.6%.
Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG commented on the recent developments: “Despite the growth achieved compared with first quarter, we are still not satisfied with the development in our commissionable net checkout volumes in the second quarter. The weaker level of growth compared with booking volumes respectively the incoming orders was due to the relative weakness of incoming orders in the first quarter of 2011, a factor now reflected in commissionable net checkout volumes in the second quarter of 2011. Individual foreign markets, for example, posted below average performances. Given the very positive development in booking volumes in the second quarter, we expect to see a further improvement, also in terms of our commissionable net checkout volumes, in the third quarter.”
Ongoing growth in booking figures
The number of bookings made also continued to rise, increasing by 11.2% to 480,042 in the second quarter of 2011 (Q2 2010: 431,803).. A total of 941,858 bookings were made in the first six months as a whole, 9.3% up on the previous year’s figure of 861,643.
In view of the positive overall booking figures for the second quarter and the traditionally stronger business performance in the second half of the financial year, the Management Board of hotel.de AG is upholding its forecast of generating sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. Founded in 2001, the company went public in 2006. In 2010, it handled reservations with a volume of more than Euro 390 million.
20/05/11 Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG
Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG
- Shareholders support corporate strategy
- All agenda items approved with large majorities
- Dividend raised from Euro 0.27 to Euro 0.47 per share
Nuremberg, May 20, 2011 – hotel.de AG is distributing a dividend of Euro 0.47 per share for the 2010 financial year, equivalent to a 74.0% increase compared with the previous year. This proposal was approved with a large majority by shareholders at the company’s Annual General Meeting held today in Nuremberg. “With this planned dividend increase, we are complying with our previously announced intention of distributing the annual net surplus in full. Where future profits are not required for investments in the company’s further development, we plan to uphold this dividend policy without amendment in the coming years as well”, explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. Based on the company’s current share price of around Euro 14.00, the dividend yield thus amounts to 3.4%.
The Annual General Meeting also approved all other agenda items and supported the corporate strategy presented by the Management Board. This involves maintaining the internationalisation of the company’s business activities and extending the scope of its product. A further focus in the current year involves expanding mobile applications, an area which Raufer also presented in greater detail in his presentation. Investments in this area, some of which were brought forward to the first quarter of 2011, were one of the reasons for the negative quarterly earnings at the beginning of the year.
In his outlook, Raufer was nevertheless optimistic about the year as a whole. “As the year progresses, we expect the stepping up of our marketing activities, the acceleration of our IT development and the international scaling of our business to generate positive momentum. For 2011 as a whole, our current budgets foresee sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range and a year-on-year improvement in EBIT.”
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. Founded in 2001, the company went public in 2006. In 2010, it handled reservations with a volume of more than Euro 390 million.
17/05/11 hotel.de announces key figures for first quarter of 2011
hotel.de announces key figures for first quarter of 2011
- Sales growth of 11.0% to Euro 8.29 million
- Earnings performance affected by investments brought forward
- Full-year forecast for 2011 confirmed
Nuremberg, 17 May 2011 – hotel.de AG increased its sales by 11.0% from Euro 7.46 million to Euro 8.29 million in the first quarter of 2011. International sales improved year-on-year by 12.6% from Euro 2.95 million to Euro 3.32 million. The international share of sales thus amounted to 40.0% in the first quarter (previous year: 39.5%). Due to seasonal factors, the first quarter of the financial year is always the weakest quarter. Higher growth rates are therefore expected as the year progresses.
hotel.de AG invested around Euro 1.31 million in total, with a corresponding charge to earnings, in the first three months of the new financial year. Of this sum, Euro 0.88 million related to budgeted investments in the company’s internationalisation (full-year budget: Euro 3.50 million). Over and above these outlays, additional expenses of Euro 0.43 million were incurred for external project management and in the hunt for suitable personnel to support the company’s IT development. These one-off investments were necessary to counter delays apparent in this area since the beginning of this year. Moreover, the translation of online service offerings into the relevant languages not yet covered was accelerated, as was the development of mobile applications. The related investments were brought forward to the first quarter of the year.
What’s more, the budgeted increase in marketing expenses by around Euro 0.50 million in the period from January to March 2011, involving a significant expansion in marketing coverage, has yet to show its desired impact in the form of additional sales. This was due in particular to delays in the IT development of the next expansion stage for the company’s own Hotel Centre, as a result of which the development of hotel content in popular international B and C destinations could not be implemented at the pace initially planned. Given these factors, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the first quarter, in any case generally weak, amounted to Euro -1.67 million (previous year: Euro -0.79 million). Net income for the period amounted to Euro -1.53 million, down from Euro -0.60 million in the previous year’s period.
Outlook
The Management Board of hotel.de AG is upholding its forecast for the 2011 financial year as a whole and accordingly expects to see sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range and a year-on-year improvement in EBIT. A similar level of sales growth accompanied by disproportionate EBIT growth is planned for 2012.
Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG: “Following a certain delay, the increased marketing investments and expenses incurred to accelerate IT development projects should impact positively on sales in the further course of the year. We expect to see higher growth rates in the coming quarters. Assuming a more dynamic business performance in the second and especially the third quarter, these measures should also be reflected in an improvement in the company’s key earnings figures.” The complete quarterly report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When selecting their hotel they can refer to more than 1 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. The company was founded in 2001 and was publicly listed in October 2006. In 2010, the company mediated reservation volumes in excess of Euro 380 million.
02/05/11 Ralf Ahamer takes up position on Management Board at hotel.de AG
Ralf Ahamer takes up position on Management Board at hotel.de AG
Nuremberg, 2 May 2011 – Ralf Ahamer, most recently Chief Marketing Officer at XING AG, has today taken up his position as a Management Board member at hotel.de AG with responsibility for marketing and product management. By taking this step, hotel.de AG has underlined its consistent focus on marketing and its products both nationally and internationally. This is also the aim of the reallocation of Management Board responsibilities due to take effect upon Ralf Ahamer joining the company from May 1, 2011. Responsibility for those areas now headed by Ralf Ahamer previously lay with company CEO Dr. Heinz Raufer (marketing) and CIO Torsten Sturm (product management).
In future, the IT/TC division will no longer be managed as a Management Board department, but will rather report directly to CEO Dr. Heinz Raufer. As previously, the company will therefore be managed by a Management Board of three individuals – CEO Dr. Heinz Raufer, CMO Ralf Ahamer and CSO Reinhard Wick. Upon this reallocation of responsibilities, cofounder Torsten Sturm will step down from his Management Board position retrospectively as of May 1, 2011, but will continue to manage the IT department in close liaison with the Management Board team in his capacity as Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Dr. Stefan Morschheuser, Supervisory Board Chairman of hotel.de AG: “Now that Ralf Ahamer has joined the company and we have restructured our management board departments, we will see significantly greater speed and creativity in terms of our marketing and product management. Under the proven management of Torsten Sturm, our IT team will be able to focus even more closely on implementing the large number tasks ahead.”
Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG: “The increasing pace of our international growth means that the requirements placed in our IT have risen considerably. With Torsten Sturm, we can rely on an experienced manager who will be 100% focused on this task.”
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When deciding on hotels, they can refer to more than 1.5 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. The company was founded in 2001 and was publicly listed in October 2006. In 2010, the company mediated reservation volumes in excess of Euro 380 million.
08/04/11 hotel.de publishes Annual Report 2010
hotel.de publishes Annual Report 2010
- hotel.de publishes Annual Report 2010
- First-quarter booking totals support positive outlook
Nürnberg, 08. April 2011 – The 2010 Annual Report presented by hotel.de AG today has confirmed the preliminary figures announced on 28 February. Sales thus grew year-on-year by 11.8 % from Euro 32.37 million to Euro 36.17 million, with a further rise in the international share of sales from 40.6% to 42.2%. Key earnings figures also showed significant improvements. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) thus surged by 128.1% from Euro 0.89 million to Euro 2.03 million, while the annual net surplus grew from Euro 1.04 million to Euro 1.78 million. Earnings per share rose from Euro 0.28 to Euro 0.47 and are thus consistent with the dividend proposal the Management and Supervisory Boards will be submitting to this year’s Annual General Meeting.
“We posted a solid performance in the past year. We not only met our sales forecast but also reported significantly higher earnings than we had expected at the beginning of the year”, explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. “Not only that, we also managed to further enhance hotel.de’s attractiveness and coverage, as well as extending our foreign hotel content and increasing our international share of sales. We also set a new company record – the number of bookings made in 2010 exceeded the 2 million mark for the first time.”
Bookings growth continues in new year*
hotel.de AG can report commissionable net booking volumes of Euro 91.04 million for the first quarter of 2011, this corresponds to the volume of orders received, also for future months, in the quarter under report and is equivalent to year-on-year growth of 13.0% (previous year: Euro 80.58 million). International booking volumes rose by 9.0% from Euro 34.88 million to Euro 38.02 million. Booking volumes in the company’s home market improved by 16.0% from Euro 45.70 million to Euro 53.02 million. The number of bookings made also showed notable year-on-year growth, rising by 9.7% from 427,437 to 468,820.
Net commissionable checkout volumes, the key figure for the volume of commissionable accommodation actually taken up in the period under report, grew by 7.0% from Euro 66.71 million to Euro 71.36 million in the first quarter of 2011 It should be noted in this respect that, due to seasonal factors, the first quarter is traditionally the weakest quarter and typically characterised by under-average growth rates.
Given the development in booking figures at the beginning of the new financial year, hotel.de is maintaining its forecast for 2011 as a whole. The Management Board thus expects to see sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range and a year-on-year improvement in EBIT. A similar level of sales growth accompanied by disproportionate EBIT growth is planned for 2012.
The 2010 Annual Report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de.
* The booking figures stated here correspond to the data inquiry status on 01.04.2011. Booking figures may subsequently be reduced by cancellations. Since the first quarter of 2011 we have converted our reporting to net booking volumes adjusted for non-commissionable bookings. Net booking volumes correlate more closely to net checkout volumes and thus provide a more exact indication of the company’s future sales performance. The previous year’s figures have been adjusted accordingly.
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Here, customers can book accommodation in 37 languages at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, fast and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When selecting their hotel they can refer to more than 1 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments, Ernst & Young AG and many more already use hotel.de’s corporate customer application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome), China (Shanghai) and Singapore. The company was founded in 2001 and was publicly listed in October 2006. In 2010, the company mediated reservation volumes in excess of Euro 380 million.
08/03/11 Ralf Ahamer appointed as new member of Management Board of hotel.de AG with responsibility for marketing and product management divisions
Ralf Ahamer appointed as new member of Management Board of hotel.de AG with responsibility for marketing and product management divisions
Nürnberg, 08. March 2011 – The Supervisory Board of hotel.de AG has appointed Ralf Ahamer (37) as a member of the company’s Management Board with responsibility for the marketing and product management divisions with effect from 1 May 2011.
Ralf Ahamer most recently worked as Chief Marketing Officer at XING AG, the leading online network for professionals. In his time from openBC to XING he was responsible, among other areas, for marketing, customer care, community management and product management. Furthermore, Ralf Ahamer also built up the advertising sales division and played a key role in developing the business model for the jobs marketplace. He launched successful campaigns and cooperations in Germany and abroad, building scalable structures for XING’s international growth, e.g. in the areas of web analysis and CRM.
Dr. Stefan Morschheuser, Supervisory Board Chairman of hotel.de AG: “I am delighted that in Ralf Ahamer we have managed to acquire an extremely experienced and competent management personality from the internet scene for our Management Board. With him, we have secured hotel.de’s consistent alignment as a marketing and product-driven company, two areas where Ralf Ahamer has a wealth of experience and is a proven specialist. This way, we should be able to achieve our ambitious growth targets, both at home and abroad, even faster.”
Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG: “Ralf Ahamer will boost our Management Board team with his superb marketing and product management expertise. We are very much looking forward to working together successfully.”
About hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG operates a global hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at its www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info addresses. Available in 34 languages, these websites enable customers to book accommodation at more than 210,000 hotels in all categories easily, quickly and at optimal prices. More than 4 million private and business customers from all around the world now place their trust in this service to book hotels. When selecting their hotel they can refer to more than 1 million personal hotel evaluations. Well-known companies such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG and many more use hotel.de’s corporate application to book hotels for business travel.
Based in Nuremberg, hotel.de AG also has a branch in Hamm (Westphalia) and sales offices in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The company was founded in 2001 and was publicly listed in October 2006. In 2010, the company mediated reservation volumes in excess of Euro 380 million.
28/02/11 hotel.de announces key figures for 2010
hotel.de announces key figures for 2010
- Sales growth of 11.8% to Euro 36.17 million
- EBIT more than doubles from Euro 0.89 million to Euro 2.03 million
- Planned increase in dividend from Euro 0.27 to Euro 0.47
Nürnberg, 28. February 2011 – hotel.de AG has left the implications of the financial and economic crisis behind and can look back on a successful 2010 financial year. The company’s operating business benefited in the past year from the economic recovery and the resultant increase in travel activities among private and business customers alike. Sales thus grew year-on-year by 11.8% from Euro 32.37 million to Euro 36.17 million. With 16.0% growth to Euro 15.25 million, sales in the international business improved disproportionately, as a result of which the international share of sales rose from 40.6% to 42.2%. On the one hand, this development involved a process of catching up, as international sales were far harder hit by the crisis in 2009. On the other hand, business here also benefited from the targeted investments made in the company’s internationalisation.
Key earnings figures reflect benefits of scale
These higher sales volumes contributed to a substantial improvement in earnings in the past financial year. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) thus surged by 128.1% from Euro 0.89 million to Euro 2.03 million, while the annual net surplus grew from Euro 1.04 million to Euro 1.78 million. “Our earnings performance reflects the first benefits of scale from the internationalisation strategy we have consistently pursued. We aim to latch onto this performance in the current financial year as well”, explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. “Over and above that, we have achieved a further relative reduction in our costs, especially by exploiting the increasing automation of hotel registration and administration processes and by consistently raising the efficiency and effectiveness of our search engine marketing.”
Dividend proposal: Euro 0.47 per share
The Management and Supervisory Boards of hotel.de AG propose to draw on the annual net surplus to distribute a dividend of Euro 0.47 per share. This corresponds to a year-on-year increase of 74.1% (previous year: Euro 0.27 per share). Based on the company’s current share price of around Euro 14.00, the dividend yield thus amounts to 3.4%.
Outlook for the current 2011 financial year
hotel.de AG expects to see further growth in the market for online travel services. This expectation is backed up by increased cost pressure at many companies, which has boosted demand for time and cost-saving booking alternatives. Private customers too are increasingly booking journeys online, a factor also supported by the rapid development in mobile internet applications.
“We are superbly positioned to benefit from the dynamic market climate. Our aim for 2011 is to achieve sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range and further improve our EBIT. We expect to see positive momentum in particular from the ongoing expansion in our IT platform, which will help enhance our efficiency and increase the speed at which we can acquire foreign hotels”, commented Dr. Raufer with regard to the company’s objectives for the current year. The 2010 Annual Report, including extensive information about the past financial year, will be published in the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de on 8 April 2011.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
10/01/11 Booking volumes rise 19.3% to Euro 95.62 million in fourth quarter of 2010
hotel.de announces key figures for 2010
Nürnberg, 10. January 2011 – hotel.de AG ended the 2010 financial year on a positive note, with a 19.3% increase in booking volumes to Euro 95.62 million in the fourth quarter (Q4 2009: Euro 80.17 million). International booking volumes grew by 18.0% from Euro 33.76 million to Euro 39.84 million, thus accounting for around 41.6% of total booking volumes. As already in previous quarters, booking volumes in France (measured in terms of hotel location) showed especially marked growth of 27.5%. The domestic business improved by 20.2% from Euro 46.41 million to Euro 55.78 million.
For 2010 as a whole, hotel.de AG generated booking volumes totalling Euro 392.08 million, thus not only exceeding the previous year’s figure by 12.4%, but also beating the previous record figure reported in 2008. “This growth in booking volumes has been driven by our intense investment in acquiring new customers and internationalising our business model. Not only that, demand for inexpensive online reservation systems is on the increase. As one of the leading providers in the market, we are benefiting from this trend”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
Net commissionable checkout volumes, equivalent to the overnight accommodation eligible for commission actually taken up in the period under report, amounted to Euro 81.37 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 (Q4 2009: Euro 75.40 million) Net commissionable checkout volumes for the twelve-month period from January to December 2010 thus amounted to Euro 319.83 million (previous year: Euro 305.53 million).
Number of bookings exceeds two-million mark for first time
At 2,013,818, the number of bookings made also exceeded the two-million mark for the first time in 2010 as a whole (previous year: 1,821,253). The fourth quarter accounted for 498,357 bookings, equivalent to a year-on-year improvement of 14.3% (Q4 2009: 436,012). Average reservation volumes per booking have also risen further, a development mainly due to the year-on-year increase in the average length of stay per booking. * The booking figures stated here correspond to the data enquiry as of 03.01.2011. Booking figures may be reduced by subsequent cancellations. .
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, the brand hotel.info - hotel.de AG's international brand - has been created. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe. Sales offices opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
Corporate News 2010
07/10/10 Booking volume growth continues: 19.0% rise to Euro 107.96 million in third quarter of 2010
Booking volume growth continues: 19.0% rise to Euro 107.96 million in third quarter of 2010
Nürnberg, 7. October 2010* – Booking volumes at hotel.de AG showed further growth in the third quarter of 2010 as well. Year-on-year, booking volumes rose 19.0% from Euro 90.73 million to Euro 107.96 million. With growth of 20.1%, the company’s international activities performed even better than its domestic business (+18.2%). Booking volumes in France (measured in terms of hotel location) showed a particularly marked improvement, rising by 31.7%. Overall, international booking volumes totalled Euro 45.90 million (Q3 2009: Euro 38.21 million), while domestic booking volumes amounted to Euro 62.06 million (Q3 2009: Euro 52.51 million).
Length of stay and room rates also on the increase
The trend towards longer stays also continued in the third quarter of 2010, as did the slight rise in room rates. While corporate customers in particular cut their travel budgets noticeably in the past economic crisis, this customer group is now beginning to ease the controls placed on travel activity. hotel.de in turn stands to benefit from higher reservation volumes per booking as a result.
Bookings pass the half-a-million mark
As in the two previous quarters, the number of bookings made also rose compared with the previous year. A total of 533,645 bookings were made via hotel.de and hotel.info in the third quarter of 2010, equivalent to a 13.3% increase on the previous year’s period (Q3 2009: 470,992). The disproportionate rise in booking volumes compared with the number of bookings made documents the trend towards longer hotel stays and higher accommodation prices already referred to above.
This overall growth is attributable both to the trend towards inexpensive online reservation systems and to the investments made by hotel.de AG in acquiring new customers, especially abroad. “Consistently pressing ahead with our internationalisation strategy has enabled us to further expand our international market position in recent months. In our marketing and sales activities, we will be continuing to focus both on acquiring new booking customers and on expanding the range of international hotels on offer”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. Compared with domestic bookings, international bookings are characterised by higher average lengths of stay, and thus by higher booking volumes, and are therefore especially important for improving the company’s key earnings figures in the longer term.
* The booking figures stated here correspond to the data enquiry as of 01.10.2010. Booking figures may be reduced by subsequent cancellations.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
17/08/10 hotel.de reports successful first half of 2010
hotel.de reports successful first half of 2010
- Sales grow by 10.4% to Euro 16.95 million
- First-half EBIT already positive at Euro 0.04 million
- Further growth potential in second half of year
Nuremberg, 17 August 2010 – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, can look back on a successful first half of 2010. Sales grew by 10.4% from Euro 15.36 million to Euro 16.95 million. Germany accounted for sales of Euro 9.78 million, as against Euro 9.15 million in the previous year. International sales showed even more marked growth of 15.7% from Euro 6.20 million to Euro 7.17 million, a development driven by the marked recovery in the economic climate and resultant growth in international travel volumes among business and private customers alike. The international share of sales rose from 40.4% to 42.3% as a result. “The growth in the international share of our sales reflects the consistent implementation of our internationalisation strategy”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. "We consistently maintained our investments in acquiring new customers, particularly abroad, even during the 2009 crisis year".
Business breaks even in first half of year already
Higher sales and the measures taken to enhance efficiency have impacted positively on earnings as the year has progressed. The company reached breakeven in the first half of the year already, and thus one quarter earlier than in the previous year. EBIT rose from Euro -0.29 million to Euro 0.04 million. At Euro 0.21 million, the net surplus for the period was also higher than the previous year’s figure of Euro -0.05 million. Of the company’s investments in its international expansion, a sum of around Euro 2.00 million is accounted for in these earnings figures. Over and above this, second-quarter sales and earnings were also affected by two one-off items. On the one hand, the volcanic ash cloud led to an 18% increase in cancellations during the relevant period. In addition to this, travel volumes were noticeably lower during the Football World Cup. hotel.de therefore sees significant potential for sales and EBIT growth in the second half of the year.
Outlook
The great interest shown in cost-effective online reservation systems continued in the second quarter of 2010, leading to pleasing new customer growth at hotel.de. The company expects this to impact positively on booking volumes and sales as the year progresses. Further growth momentum is expected from the increasing internationalisation of the company’s business, an area in which hotel.de will be investing around Euro 4 million once again in the current year. “The aim is to enhance the attractiveness of our services for booking customers worldwide. That’s why we will be further boosting our portfolio in destinations outside major cities, thus ensuring that we offer the widest possible range of hotels. Not only that, we also plan to increase the number of languages in which our services are available from 17 currently to 37, thus enabling us to rapidly cover all relevant languages worldwide”, added Dr. Raufer.
To further improve its sales and earnings situation, hotel.de AG plans to increase its average hotel commission margin to around 12.0% by the end of the year. Even after this, hotel.de will still be the best-priced provider in the market. Long-term improvements in profitability are also to be achieved by increasing process automation by making greater use of IT.
In view of these developments, the Management Board has confirmed its forecast for the 2010 financial year as a whole, and accordingly expects to see sales growth of between 10% and 15% and a slight year-on-year increase in earnings.
The extensive half-year report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
06/07/10 Booking volumes with substantial growth of 18.8% to Euro 102.7 million in second quarter of 2010
Booking volumes with substantial growth of 18.8% to Euro 102.7 million in second quarter of 2010
Nuremberg, 6 July 2010* – Booking volumes at hotel.de AG showed sustainably positive developments in the second quarter of 2010 as well, rising 18.8% year-on-year from Euro 86.4 million to Euro 102.7 million. “The economic recovery has led to a revival in our corporate travel and international booking customer businesses in particular”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. “Together with the ongoing investments we are making in new customer acquisitions, especially abroad, these were the key drivers for our pleasing second-quarter results. We will continue to make every effort to maintain this positive performance and thus to regain our pre-crisis growth rates”
Disproportionate growth in international booking volumes
International booking volumes, significantly affected by the impact of the crisis in the previous year, showed disproportionate growth of 23.4% to Euro 46.3 million. Of the company’s core foreign markets, France posted the strongest performance, with growth of 49.6%. Having said this, double-digit rates were also reported by the UK (+16.9%), Spain (+29.4%) and Italy (+23.3%). Domestic booking volumes improved 15.3% to Euro 56.4 million The conference business contributed Euro 1.8 million to booking volumes (Q2 2009: Euro 2.4 million).
Rise in number of bookings and average volume per booking
The number of bookings rose 14.3% from 452,903 to 517,461. The higher rate of booking volume growth shows that the average volume per booking has also increased. This figure benefited from a higher average length of stay in the international business in particular. Remarks Dr. Raufer: “The international business generated around a third of the total number of bookings in the second quarter, yet already accounted for virtually half of our booking volumes. This was due to the fact that individual international bookings were around 60% higher on average.”
Net commissionable checkout volumes, the key figure depicting the volume of accommodation eligible for invoicing in the period under report, will continue to benefit from the recovery in booking volumes in the coming months as well. After all, the booking volume growth in the second quarter of 2010 – the company’s incoming orders for the period as it were – on the one hand boosts the number and volume of commissionable checkouts in the period under report, while also impacting on the following period, given that some of the bookings made in the quarter under report only result in checkouts in the subsequent quarter. Net commissionable checkout volumes already rose 9% in June 2010. The figure for the second quarter as a whole grew 5.3% from Euro 79.8 million to Euro 84.0 million.
Further increase in hotel commission margin in second quarter as well
What’s more, hotel.de also achieved a year-on-year increase in its average hotel commission margin. Dr. Raufer: “Compared with the previous year’s period we have already managed to raise our margin from 11.0% to its current level of around 11.5%. As the year progresses, the margin should rise to 12.0% on average. This process will be assisted by concluding numerous new contracts with foreign hotels, including many in the high-margin Southern European market, as well as by our Top Ranking process, in which hotels bid for the best listings with increased commission rates. We are nevertheless still the best-priced provider in the market.”
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 01.07.2010. Retrospective cancellations lead to a corresponding reduction in booking totals.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
20/05/10 Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG
Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG
- All agenda items approved with large majorities
- hotel.de to pay dividend of Euro 0.27 per share
- Independent financial expert Bernhard Butz elected to Supervisory Board
Nuremberg, 20 May 2010 – At today’s Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG, the shareholders approved all agenda items, including the distribution of a dividend of Euro 0.27 per share, with large majorities in each case. Said Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG: “We would like to enable our shareholders to participate in our positive results for the past financial year, although it was equally important for us to distribute this dividend from the company’s accumulated earnings, rather than tapping its substance.”
Following his report on the past 2009 financial year, Dr. Raufer provided an outlook for the current 2010 financial year. The company managed to increase its sales once again in the first quarter for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis, benefiting in particular from the recovery in the business travel segment. “Medium-sized companies and wellknown large corporates alike are showing increasing interest in inexpensive online travel management systems. We expect this to generate positive momentum in the coming months as well. All in all, we are confident that we will achieve sales growth in a low double-digit range in 2010 as a whole and generate operating earnings slightly in excess of the previous year’s figure.”
A further agenda item related to the election of Bernhard Butz, an independent financial expert, to the Supervisory Board. Mr. Butz, who will take over the position of the retiring member Peter Hoffmann, was elected to the Supervisory Board for a term running until the 2012 Annual General Meeting, and thus consistent with that of the other Supervisory Board members. Based on his longstanding activity as a managing director with finance responsibilities, Mr. Butz has extensive experience and expertise in the field of accounting.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe. 18/05/10 hotel.de reports successful start to new financial year
hotel.de reports successful start to new financial year
- Sales rise by 7.5% to Euro 7.46 million
- Dynamic developments in corporate customer business
- Forecast upheld for overall 2010 financial year
Nuremberg, 18 May 2010 – hotel.de AG has emerged from the economic crisis in robust shape and can report sales growth of Euro 0.52 million from Euro 6.94 million to Euro 7.46 million in the first quarter of 2010. This growth was driven on the one hand by the recovery in private and business customer travel volumes, and on the other by ongoing marketing and sales measures in conjunction with a higher rate of new customer totals. The international business contributed Euro 2.95 million to total sales (previous year: Euro 2.59 million), as a result of which the international share of sales rose to 39.5% (previous year: 37.4%). Sales in Germany grew from Euro 4.35 million to Euro 4.52 million.
This increase in sales volumes and the cost-cutting measures introduced impacted positively on the company’s earnings performance. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved year-on-year by Euro 0.38 million from Euro -1.17 million to Euro -0.79 million in the first quarter of 2010. Net income for the period amounted to Euro -0.60 million (previous year: Euro -1.04 million). The company’s consistent investment in its international expansion burdened quarterly earnings to the tune of Euro 1.00 million.
Outlook
The climate in the sector has improved significantly compared with the previous year. The business travel segment in particular has benefited from the gradual economic recovery. Due to increased cost pressure, companies will nevertheless continue to look at their cost structures very closely in future and opt for less expensive booking and travel solutions. Here, cost-saving online booking systems are also playing an ever more important role. “Our corporate customer business showed a very pleasing start to the year. We are seeing ever greater interest in inexpensive online solutions. Here, we have also been able to access increasing numbers of interested medium-sized companies and large well-known players that were not open to our products before the crisis. We expect this to impact positively on our booking volumes in the coming months”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
The company also expects the launch of its “Hotel Centre” to generate positive momentum for its international business in the coming months. Here, hotels from all round the world can register themselves easily, conveniently and quickly on hotel.de, input the relevant hotel information at their own initiative and thus make themselves directly available for bookings via www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. This way, hotel.de is laying a foundation to improve the range of hotels it offers at international destinations. With targeted advertising, this should lead to higher booking rates and increased commission revenues.
Furthermore, sales and earnings for the 2010 financial year as a whole should benefit from the planned increase in the hotel commission margin from its current average of around 11.1% to an average of around 12.0%. hotel.de will nevertheless still be the least expensive provider on the market. Against this backdrop, the Management Board has confirmed its sales and earnings forecast for the overall 2010 financial year. “The first quarter is traditionally our weakest period,” remarked Dr. Raufer. “However, the measures we have taken to enhance our sales and our efficiency will enable us to consistently improve our key figures in the coming months. For 2010 as a whole, we therefore still expect to generate sales growth in a low double-digit percentage range and operating earnings slightly in excess of the previous year’s figure.”
The extensive quarterly report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s homepage at www.hotel.de.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
08/04/2010 Booking volumes rise by 9.7% in first quarter; international business maintains its positive performance
Booking volumes rise by 9.7% in first quarter; international business maintains its positive performance
Nuremberg, 8 April 2010* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, can report booking volume growth of 9.7% to Euro 100.9 million in the first quarter of 2010 (Q1 2009: Euro 92.0 million). International booking volumes, which rose by 13.8% to Euro 43.1 million, contributed significantly to this development (Q1 2009: Euro 37.9 million). The marked upturn in the international business already apparent from the fourth quarter of 2009 has been driven in particular by the global economic recovery. Italy and the UK, still negative in previous quarters, have now made positive growth contributions once more, with booking volume growth of 4.2% and 12.2% respectively. Especially strong performances were seen once again in France (+26.3% on the previous year’s period) and Spain (+14.5% on the previous year’s period). Booking volumes in Germany, hotel.de’s home market, also improved substantially, rising by 6.8% from Euro 54.1 million to Euro 57.8 million. The new conference business segment contributed booking volumes of Euro 2.1 million (Q1 2009: Euro 3.1 million).
Number of bookings grows in line with booking volumes
The number of bookings increased by 9.5% from 461,407 to 505,390, and thus grew at a similar rate to booking volumes. The international business accounted for 166,351 bookings, 13.8% more than in the first quarter of the previous year. The number of bookings in Germany increased by 7.8% to 339,039. “The economic recovery has led conditions in the business travel segment to gradually return to normal,” commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. “Following the drastic fall in room prices and average length of stay per booking last year, these two key figures are slowly coming back to pre-crisis levels. Bookings by our key account customers have also picked up noticeably Our business customers’ travel volumes are like a barometer of economic activity – one which is now clearly pointing upwards.”
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 01.04.2010. Retrospective cancellations lead to a corresponding reduction in booking totals.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
29/03/10 hotel.de AG publishes key figures for 2009
hotel.de AG publishes key figures for 2009
- At Euro 34.2 million, sales on a par with prior year
- EBIT exceeds expectations at Euro 1.0 million
- Proposed dividend of Euro 0.27 per share
- Projections for 2010: Growth in booking volume and sales
Nuremberg, 26 March 2010 – As had been expected, hotel.de AG, a leading worldwide online hotel reservation service, generated sales of Euro 32.4 million in the fiscal year 2009 (previous year: Euro 32.7 million), thus outperforming its sector. Sales in the hotel industry declined by 5.4% in nominal terms in the past year. The sector primarily suffered from the sharp decline in business travel resulting from the financial and economic crisis. To offset these adverse effects, hotel.de introduced measures aimed at increased sales and earnings at an early stage. The company expanded its business with existing customers, strengthened its new business efforts and increased its margin. Growing by 7.2% to Euro 19.2 million, domestic sales showed a positive trend (previous year: Euro 17.9 million). The increase reflects the trend towards more domestic trips among private travellers. International activities contributed Euro 13.2 million to total sales (previous year: Euro 14.8 million). At Euro 0.55 million, sales generated by the young Meetings segment were on a par with the previous year’s Euro 0.53 million in spite of the sharp decline in the market for conferences and meetings.
Earnings clearly positive
Earnings picked up steadily in the course of the year, which is primarily attributable to the process optimisation and cost-cutting measures initiated by the company. In particular, personnel expenses were reduced by 3.6% from Euro 14.1 million to Euro 13.6 million. Accordingly, personnel expenses as a percentage of sales stood at 41.9%, compared to 43.0% in the previous year. In the fiscal year 2009, hotel.de employed 414 people on average, which represents a decline of 17.9% from the previous year. The cost of materials increased from Euro 3.2 million to Euro 3.6 million due to higher commission payments to the participants in the sales partner programme. Other operating expenses totalled Euro 16.2 million (previous year: Euro 15.3 million) and primarily included marketing expenses in an amount of Euro 7.9 million (previous year: Euro 7.5 million). This represents 50.0% of sales (previous year: 46.9%). Ongoing improvements in search engine marketing should help to reduce this ratio in the medium term.
Overall, hotel.de generated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of Euro 1.0 million (previous year: Euro 1.3 million) and thus exceeded its projections of a balanced result issued at the beginning of the year. The operating result of Euro -0.9 million (previous year: Euro 0.7 million) was offset by the neutral result of Euro 1.9 million (previous year: Euro 0.8 million), which is reflected in other operating income. Net income for the year amounted to Euro 1.0 million, as tax and interest expenses of Euro 0.6 million were offset by a financial result in the same amount.
“Given the difficult environment, the operating result is acceptable but not satisfactory for the management. We nevertheless exceeded our target of a balanced result, while at the same time continuing to invest in our internationalisation, which has an annual effect of approx. Euro 4 – 4.5 million on the bottom line. We used the past fiscal year to optimally position our company for the coming years,” said Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. As in the previous year, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of hotel.de AG want to give the company’s shareholders a share in the performance of the fiscal year 2009 and will propose a dividend of Euro 0.27 per share to the Annual General Meeting on 20 May 2010.
Outlook on 2010
At the ITB, the international travel trade show, which was held in Berlin in March 2010, industry representatives expressed their optimism about the business trend in the current fiscal year. In particular, the business travel segment should benefit from the global economic recovery. “We believe that booking volumes began to bottom out in 2009. Should the environment continue to improve, we expect both booking volumes and sales to increases at low double-digit rates,” said Dr. Raufer.
The company intends to continue to invest in its internationalisation and has earmarked approx. Euro 4.0 million for this purpose. In addition, staff will be hired in the fields of IT development and project management. The operating result will nevertheless exceed the prior year level. The measures aimed at increasing sales, optimising processes and cutting costs will be continued in the coming months with a view to improving earnings figures in the long term.
The 2009 Annual Report, which includes detailed information on the past fiscal year, will be published at www.hotel.de, Investor Relations, on 21 April 2010.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
11/01/10 Booking volumes rise in fourth quarter; noticeable revival in international business
Booking volumes rise in fourth quarter; noticeable revival in international business
Nuremberg, 11 January 2010* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, can report positive developments in its booking volumes for the fourth quarter of 2009. The initial trend towards recovery already seen in the domestic business in the third quarter was followed by a recovery in the international business as well in the fourth quarter. Overall booking volumes for the period from October to December 2009 increased slightly to Euro 82.7 million, as against Euro 82.2 million in the previous year’s period. At Euro 48.7 million, domestic booking volumes were at the same level as in the previous year (Q4 2008: Euro 48.8 million), while international booking volumes improved by 1.8% from Euro 33.4 million to Euro 34.0 million. As in the previous quarter, this positive performance was driven in particular by developments in France (+25.9% on previous year’s period) and Spain (+8.0% on previous year’s period). Booking volumes in the conference business segment amounted to Euro 1.6 million in the fourth quarter.
“The latest rise in booking volumes affirms the turnaround already apparent since the third quarter. Although we were unable to match the growth seen in past years in the difficult overall 2009 financial year, we nevertheless succeeded in offsetting the negative implications of the economic crisis, such as the decline in business travel volumes and lower room prices, not least by consistently implementing our marketing and sales campaign”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
Rise in number of bookings in fourth quarter
The number of bookings grew year-on-year by 4.6% from 424,664 to 443,984 in the fourth quarter of 2009. Bookings in the international business totalled 140,206 and thus even improved by 7.8% compared with the equivalent quarter in the previous year. “This was chiefly due to the stepping up of our new customer acquisition activities and increasing visibility abroad”, added Dr. Raufer. The lower growth shown by booking volumes compared with the number of bookings was chiefly due to the sharp reduction in hotel room prices and the lower average length of stay per booking.
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 07.01.2010. Retrospective cancellations lead to a corresponding reduction in booking totals.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
Corporate News 2009
10/11/09 hotel.de AG posts positive figures for first nine months
hotel.de AG posts positive figures for first nine months
- Third quarter ushers in turnaround in earnings
- Strong business performance in home market
- Earnings forecast raised for overall year
Nuremberg, 10 November 2009 – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, finished the third quarter of 2009 on a successful note. Within the ongoing weak sector climate, the company generated sales of Euro 8.9 million, thus matching the previous year’s figure (Euro 8.9 million). Sales for the first nine months totalled Euro 24.3 million (previous year: Euro 24.8 million). In terms of its earnings, hotel.de achieved a turnaround. Compared with the first six months of the current year, all of the company’s key earnings figures returned to the black. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to Euro 0.9 million in the third quarter of 2009 (previous year: Euro 1.0 million) and to Euro 0.6 million in the first nine months (previous year: Euro 1.7 million). Net income for the period from January to September amounted to Euro 0.7 million (previous year: Euro 1.3 million).
The development in the company’s key figures thus already clearly shows the impact of the measures introduced at the beginning of the year to enhance sales and earnings. Margins have been raised from 9.3% to their current level of 11.0%. Not only that, the company has stepped up its marketing and sales activities to boost both business with existing customers and new customer acquisitions. One further focus has involved measures to optimise processes and cut costs. All in all, hotel.de AG has therefore managed to compensate for much of the negative impact of substantial price cuts in the hotel sector and the decline in longer hotel stays.
Growth in the home market
Positive momentum came above all from Germany. Domestic sales grew year-on-year by 8.6% from Euro 13.2 million to Euro 14.3 million in the first nine months. The home market also showed a slight upward trend in terms of booking volumes. At Euro 54.8 million, third-quarter booking volumes in Germany were at the same level as in the previous year. September bookings were even slightly ahead of the equivalent figure for the previous year. The economic crisis continued to impact more severely on the international business. International sales amounted to Euro 10.0 million, as against Euro 11.6 million in the previous year. This was due to the decline in international travel as a result of the crisis and to significant cuts made in travel expenses at international booking customers. In spite of this, the company will be maintaining the targeted expansion of its international business activities so as to tap further long-term growth potential.
Earnings forecast raised
“Our business performance in the third quarter shows that our extensive package of measures was the right response to the deterioration in the sector in the wake of the crisis. As expected, earnings in particular improved markedly in the past quarter. In view of this, we still expect to be able to match the previous year’s figure in terms of sales for 2009 as a whole. Earnings should even be slightly positive, and thus better than originally expected”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, hotel.de AG. With regard to the coming year, the company “will continue to focus on processes and costs so as to sustainably boost our starting position for long-term profitable growth. Over and above this, our strategic focus will be on our increasing internationalisation and on expanding the range of products and services offered in the high-growth segment of small and medium-sized companies.”
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe. 05/10/09 hotel.de sees booking volumes as bottoming out and even posts slightly positive development in domestic booking totals
hotel.de sees booking volumes as bottoming out and even posts slightly positive development in domestic booking totals
Nuremberg, 5 October 2009* - hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, believes that booking volumes have begun to bottom out. "Together with increasing acquisitions of new private and corporate customers, our marketing and sales campaign has enabled us to compensate ever more effectively for the subdued business travel booking behaviour at many companies, as well as for the negative development in hotel room prices", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, with regard to the company’s situation within the ongoing difficult macroeconomic climate.
Booking volumes increasingly stable
At Euro 93.3 million, total booking volumes in the third quarter of 2009 were still 7.4% down on the figure of Euro 100.8 million in the same period in the previous year. When compared with the sharp decline in the second quarter of 2009, however, in which booking volumes dropped by 13.5%, this figure underlines the effectiveness of the measures introduced by hotel.de. While booking volumes in Germany remained virtually stable at Euro 54.8 million (-1.3% on Q3 2008), developments in the international business were more markedly negative, with booking volumes of Euro 38.5 million (-14.9% on Q3 2008). More positive impulses, on the other hand, were provided by France (+11.8% on Q3 2008) and Spain (+5.6% on Q3 2008). "The monthly figures also show that we have already come through the worst. September booking volumes in Germany were even slightly ahead of the previous year’s figure", added Dr. Raufer. The new conference business segment contributed Euro 2.2 million to total bookings in the third quarter of 2009.
Booking totals in Germany slightly up on Q3 2008
The turnaround is even more apparent in terms of booking totals. With 481,434 bookings in total, hotel.de virtually matched the number of bookings in the same quarter in the previous year (-1.1%), while the total of 322,379 bookings in Germany was even slightly ahead of the previous year’s figure (+0.6%). This development underlines that the decline in booking volumes is due in particular to the sharp reduction in hotel room prices and to a lower average length of stay per booking. "Booking behaviour at existing customers is beginning to pick up, while our new customer business continues to perform well", remarked Dr. Raufer confidently.
Further consistent implementation of profitability enhancement measures
As well as implementing its marketing and sales campaign, hotel.de has also pressed further ahead with the measures introduced to enhance its profitability. The aim is to raise the agency fee paid by hotels to up to 11.5% by the end of 2010, while at the same time optimising the company’s cost structures. The increased efficiency of processes led to a significant streamlining of the company’s workforce in Germany in the first half of 2009. hotel.de had a total of 416 employees in Germany as of 30 June 2009 (31.12.2008: 517 employees).
* The booking figures stated here correspond to the data retrieval status on 01.10.2009. Booking figures may be reduced by subsequent cancellations.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool. hotel.info
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
14/08/09 hotel.de publishes half-year figures for 2009
hotel.de publishes half-year figures for 2009
- Sales virtually match previous year’s figure despite lower travel volumes
- EBIT clearly positive in second quarter
- Forecast confirmed for overall 2009 financial year
Nuremberg, 14 August 2009 - hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, boosted its sales significantly to Euro 8.4 million in the second quarter of 2009, up 21.2% on the first three months of the year (previous year: Euro 8.9 million). Sales for the first half of 2009 as a whole amounted to Euro 15.4 million and thus fell only slightly short of the previous year’s figure of Euro 15.9 million in spite of the sharp downturn in business travel due to the economic crisis. Positive developments were shown by sales in Germany, which rose year-on-year by 10.3% from Euro 8.3 million to Euro 9.2 million. Due to the crisis-induced decline in international travel and foreign booking customers substantially cutting back on travel expenses, international sales amounted to Euro 6.2 million, as against Euro 7.6 million in the previous year.
The company’s earnings position also improved significantly in the second quarter. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) returned to the black, rising from Euro -1.2 million in the first quarter to Euro 0.9 million in the second quarter. EBIT for the first half thus amounted to Euro -0.3 million, compared with Euro 0.7 million in the previous year. At Euro -50 thousand, net income for the period was now only slightly negative (previous year: Euro 0.6 million).
Measures to enhance sales and earnings take effect
“In spite of ongoing tough conditions in the business travel segment, we have reported a very good performance for the second quarter and thus virtually made up for the negative results of the weak first quarter. This is first and foremost a result of the consistent implementation of our package of measures. We will be pressing ahead with these in the coming months as well, so as to conclude the challenging 2009 financial year on a positive note,” commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. The company acted at an early stage to counter the negative impact of declining travel budgets due to companies cutting costs, falling room prices and the marked decline in longer trips by introducing process optimisations, consistent cost management, commission increases and a marketing and sales campaign. Personnel expenses, for example, could be reduced to Euro 3.4 million in the second quarter, down Euro 0.4 million on the first three months. The workforce numbered 416 employees as of 30 June 2009 (previous year: 527).
The stepping up of the marketing and sales campaign had a positive impact in two respects. On the one hand, the company has been able to establish the hotel.de brand as the best-known hotel reservation service. This was confirmed by an independent, representative online survey in May 2009. On the other hand, hotel.de is increasingly attracting new customers from small and medium-sized companies, which are expected to generate above-average growth in the business travel market in coming years. This is also confirmed by the German Business Travel Association (VDR) in its latest study.
Positive outlook overall
Against this backdrop, hotel.de AG is optimistic about the future. “We believe that our product is absolutely in step with its time. Rising cost awareness will continue to affect travel management at companies and among private customers in future as well, and customers will increasingly turn to inexpensive online solutions. Not only that, the consistent enlargement of our customer base and optimisation of our internal structures mean that we are superbly positioned for the expected upturn in the economy,” added Raufer confidently. For the 2009 financial year as a whole, the Management Board confirmed its forecast of achieving sales at the same level as in the previous year with a neutral earnings performance.
The extensive half-year report is available for downloading from the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.hotel.de.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool. hotel.info
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
06/07/09 hotel.de: Crisis-driven reduction in booking volumes in 2nd quarter of 2009, further rise in number of new corporate customers
Crisis-driven reduction in booking volumes in 2nd quarter of 2009, further rise in number of new corporate customers
Nuremberg, 6 July 2009* – In line with expectations, hotel.de AG, one of the world’s leading online hotel reservation services, witnessed a decline in booking volumes in the 2nd quarter of the 2009 financial year. This was due to many companies’ ongoing need to economise and the related lull in business travel activity in the wake of the negative development in the global economy. The number of bookings made via hotel.de, however, only fell by 5.9%, and thus less markedly than booking volumes. This development reflects the reduction in the average length of stay per booking on the one hand, as well as the sharp decline in hotel room prices, currently amounting to around 10%, on the other.
All in all, booking volumes amounted to Euro 88.7 million in the 2nd quarter of 2009 were thus 13.2% down on the record figure of Euro 102.2 million reported for the previous year. While booking volumes in Germany amounted to Euro 51.1 million, and thus fell only slightly short of the previous year’s figure (-5.2%), the crisis impacted more clearly on the international business, which reported booking volumes of Euro 37.6 million, equivalent to a 22.1% reduction. With a 28.0% increase in booking volumes to Euro 2.3 million, by contrast, the new conference segment contributed positively to overall booking volumes.
Rise in number of new customers confirms trend towards online reservations
hotel.de can report pleasing developments in the number of new corporate customer registrations, with more than 50,000 new registrations in the second quarter alone. However, these customers’ booking activities were only able to compensate in part for the decline in bookings from existing customers due to economic developments. “New customers continue to show great interest in using our corporate application, a factor which is due in part to the noticeable trend towards inexpensive online bookings”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. “What’s more, our sales campaign targeted at acquiring smaller and medium-sized companies is also having a positive impact. We stand to benefit directly from the successful expansion in our customer base as soon as the economy regains momentum”, added Raufer.
Measures to enhance sales and earnings already taking effect
Alongside the stepping up of the marketing and sales campaign, the further increase in the commission payable by hotels to 11.5% in 2010 should also contribute towards boosting sales. Over the past nine months, commissions have already been raised from 9.3% to a current average of 11.0%. hotel.de is thus still the best-priced online hotel intermediary in the market. A further key focus currently involves adjusting cost structures. By introducing targeted measures to optimise processes and by making increasing use of IT, the company is consistently reducing its personnel expenses and other related costs.
The company expects sales and earnings to have benefited from these measures in the second quarter already. The extensive half-year report is due for publication on 14 August 2009.
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 01.07.2009. Booking figures may be reduced by retrospective cancellations.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
25/05/09 Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG on June 25, 2009
Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG on June 25, 2009
- Annual General Meeting approves all agenda items
- Dividend distribution resolved for the first time
Nuremberg, 25 June 2009 - The Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG, one of the world’s leading online hotel reservation services, held today in Nuremberg approved all agenda items with large majorities, thus also endorsing the proposal to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.33 per share for the 2008 financial year, the first in the company’s history. "By distributing a dividend, we aim to enable our shareholders to participate in the business performance in the past 2008 financial year", commented company CEO, Dr. Heinz Raufer. In addition to the appropriation of profit, shareholders also voted on releasing the Management and Supervisory Boards from responsibility for the financial year, as well as on the election of the auditor for the 2009 financial year.
In his speech, Raufer informed the shareholders present, numbering around 60, about the company’s business performance in the past 2008 financial year and about its current position. Despite the ongoing macroeconomic downturn, hotel.de AG posted sales of EUR 6.9 million in the first three months of 2009, traditionally the weakest quarter in the travel industry, and thus matched the previous year’s figure. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), which were affected by investments made in the company’s international expansion, amounted to EUR -1.1 million. "We will continue to invest in accessing interesting growth markets in future as well. Only in this way can we expand our market position and optimally position ourselves for the time after the crisis. On the other hand, we will also be consistently pressing ahead with the measures introduced to optimise processes and reduce costs, so as to enhance our efficiency and thus positively affect our earnings position", commented Raufer. He also confirmed the forecast issued for the 2009 financial year as a whole, namely that the company would match the previous year’s level of sales and report a neutral earnings performance.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China (Shanghai). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
06/04/09 hotel.de: booking volumes in 1st quarter of 2009 slightly down on previous year; further increase in number of bookings
Booking volumes in 1st quarter of 2009 slightly down on previous year; further increase in number of bookings
Nuremberg, 6 April 2009* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, could not entirely escape the negative developments in the global economy in terms of its booking volumes for the first quarter of 2009. Even though Germany still posted growth of 3.9%, the downturn of 15.4% in the international business led total booking volumes to decline slightly to Euro 96.9 million. This corresponds to a reduction of 5.0% compared with the previous year’s quarter (Euro 102.0 million). Commisionable net checkout volumes fell by 6.4% from Euro 72.5 million in the previous year to Euro 67.9 million as of 31.03.2009. Bookings in the new conference business segment showed very pleasing developments, with net checkout volume growth of 40% compared with the first quarter of 2008.
Alongside the poor overall economic situation and subdued levels of business travel at companies, overall hotel room prices also declined by around 7.5%, a factor which had a corresponding impact on booking volumes.
Increase in number of bookings via hotel.de
In terms of the number of bookings, by contrast, hotel.de reported slight growth in the first quarter of 2009. Overall, the number of bookings rose by 2.5% at the reporting date on 31.03.2009. hotel.de increased booking totals in Germany by 6.9%. “Widespread uncertainty among our business customers as to future economic developments has led them to cut back on travel. It is nevertheless positive to note that the need to cut costs is obliging many companies to rethink and to book an ever greater share of their travel online“, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
Italy and France post further growth
Disparate developments were seen in the company’s business activities in its international markets. The outlets in France and Italy in particular performed well, reporting further growth, while booking volumes in Spain fell short of expectations. This was notably due to subdued levels of consumer confidence on the Iberia peninsula.
Provided that the economic situation in Europe does not deteriorate significantly in the coming months, the management is confident that hotel.de will increasingly benefit from the trend towards companies using cost-saving online hotel reservation services and will once again outperform its sector in the current year.
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 31.03.2009. Booking figures may be reduced by retrospective cancellations.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate. All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels’ own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de’s own myRES reservation system under hotel.de’s standard user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona) and Italy (Rome). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
08/01/09 hotel.de reports double-digit booking volume growth in 4th quarter of 2008 as well
hotel.de reports double-digit booking volume growth in 4th quarter of 2008 as well
Nuremberg, 8 January 2009* - Thanks to its strong market position in Germany and abroad, hotel.de AG, one of the leading global online hotel reservation services, has reported double-digit growth rates in its booking volumes for the fourth quarter as well. In addition to that, according to a study undertaken by Nielsen Netratings, hotel.de is once again the hotel reservation service with the highest degree of coverage in Germany.
Major sales success abroad
In the period from October to December, hotel.de increased its booking volumes to Euro 86.5 million, up by 10.7% on the 4th quarter of 2007 (Euro 78.1m). Booking volumes, a good indicator of future commission revenues, and thus of sales growth, rose in Germany alone by 14.3% to Euro 50.3 million (Q4 2007: Euro 44.0m). The company thus clearly outperformed its sector, where business travel has fallen by 20% in some regions due to the economic crisis. Booking volumes also continue to rise in the international business, where hotel.de reported growth from Euro 34.2 million in the 4th quarter of 2007 to Euro 36.2 million between October and December 2008.
"The pace of growth may have slowed in the 4th quarter, traditionally a weaker period, but our strong market position and tangible sales success, especially abroad, have enabled us to maintain our growth course in spite of the difficult market climate", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. Thanks to high acceptance levels for its international brand www.hotel.info, as well as to successful sales activities on location, the company thus achieved year-on-year growth of 118.7% in international booking volumes in its French private and business customer sector. Significant growth rates have also been noted in reservations made by hotel.info booking customers in the UK and Italy. The 2008 financial year as a whole was therefore characterised once again by positive developments. Taken together, the domestic and international businesses of the hotel.de Group reported growth of around 30% in commissionable net checkout volumes.
hotel.de once again Germany’s most popular hotel reservation site
hotel.de’s strong market position is reflected not only in its comparatively good business performance figures. According to a study undertaken by the well-known market research company Nielsen Netratings, hotel.de is one of the top ten most popular travel sites in Germany, alongside companies such as bahn.de, lufthansa.de and tui.de. Based on October figures, hotel.de is once again the hotel reservation service with the greatest coverage. "Compared with the Nielsen assessment in the summer of 2008, we have even improved our position from rank nine to six", added Raufer with regard to the company’s pleasing ranking. The Management Board expects customer totals to continue to rise in future as well. Economic developments mean that companies will be increasingly on the lookout for potential business travel savings. Free online reservation portals in particular, such as hotel.de, offer considerable time savings and significant price benefits compared with traditional booking channels.
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 07.01.2009.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Customers booking via hotel.info achieve significantly better prices in comparison with other booking channels. In addition, hotel.de shows all available room prices for each hotel, so that the customer can always select the cheapest or most suitable room price. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. hotel.de’s corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst & Young AG.
hotel.info
hotel.info – the international brand of hotel.de AG – was created to promote the company’s expansion into international markets. To acquire new customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona) and Italy (Rome). The high percentage of international business travellers facilitates the Company's entry into new markets. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then step by step across the whole of Europe.
Corporate News 2008
11/12/08 hotel.de is once again the most wide-reaching hotel reservation service on the German internet
hotel.de is once again the most wide-reaching hotel reservation service on the German internet
Nuremberg 15th December 2008. The specialist magazine for the tourism industry, fvw, has reported that hotel.de, the online hotel reservation service with more than 210,000 hotels globally and that is free of charge to the user, has once again achieved a place amongst the Top Ten websites for travel in Germany according to Nielsen Netratings and is thus once more the hotel reservation service with the widest reach.
In October 2008 hotel.de generated 1,606,000 net visitors (so called unique visitors - meaning that they were counted in the statistics only once despite several visits to the website). The Nielsen figures are based on a so called @home+@work panel, which measures both the use at home and at work. The Top Ten Germany travel sites together recorded approximately 22 million visitors in October 2008.
hotel.de's CEO Dr. Heinz Raufer is delighted with the new placing: "We have improved our position from ninth to sixth place in comparison with the Nielsen rating last summer. This is especially pleasing."
The Top Ten placings in October 2008 for the German travel sites based on unique visitor figures are: 1. Bahn.de 7,114,000 2. Thomas Cook 1,951,000 3. Expedia 1,921,000 4. Lufthansa 1,909,000 5. TUI 1,829,000 6. hotel.de 1,606,000 7. Ab-in-den-Urlaub 1,492,000 8. Holidaycheck.de 1,476,000 9. Opodo 1,392,000 10. Air Berlin 1,382,000
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Customers booking via hotel.info achieve significantly better prices in comparison with other booking channels. In addition, hotel.de shows all available room prices for each hotel, so that the customer can always select the cheapest or most suitable room price. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
hotel.info
hotel.info is the international brand of hotel.de AG. Diese Marke wurde geschaffen, um die Expansion innerhalb Europas voranzutreiben. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. In order to acquire customers and hotels abroad, offices in London, Paris and Barcelona have been set up, to be followed by other important countries. The strong customer loyalty and the high ratio of business customers facilitate hotel.info’s entry into the new markets as many foreign-based subsidiaries or parent enterprises of German companies contracted by hotel.de already have been using hotel.info. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business as well as private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and – step by step – in Europe as a whole.
03/11/08 Interim Release by hotel.de AG as of 30 September 2008
Interim Release by hotel.de AG as of 30 September 2008
hotel.de posts significant growth in all key earnings figures
- Increased pace of growth compared with previous year
- Opening of outlet in Italy
Nuremberg, 03 November 2008* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading online reservation services for worldwide hotel accommodation, increased its sales in the first nine months of the current year to Euro 24.8 million, up from Euro 18.3 million in the equivalent period in the previous year, thus virtually matching the sales reported for the previous year as a whole. With revenue growth of 35.4%, the company successfully achieved a slight increase in its pace of growth compared with the previous year’s period (33.6%). Moreover, the strong earnings performance reflects initial benefits of scale within the business model.
Course of business in period under report
Notable success abroad affirms the management in the internationalisation strategy it has adopted. Having acquired the www.hotel.info domain at the end of the first quarter of 2008 and since established this among customers as its international brand, the company has now opened an outlet in Italy as part of its growth strategy. From there, hotel.de aims to press ahead with the acquisition of new customers and hotels on location, building on the success of its outlet concept in the UK, France and Spain. In these countries, the company has already achieved high rates of growth in new booking customers, especially in the business customer segment.
Significant sales growth
hotel.de increased its sales by 35.4% in the first nine months of 2008 compared with the same period in the previous year. With growth to Euro 8.9 million, the third quarter was similarly strong (Q3 2007: Euro 6.7 million). In both the quarter under report and the nine month period, the international business once again accounted for a large share of the growth in sales to Euro 24.8 million. The international share of sales for the first nine months amounted to 46.9% (previous year’s period: 41.0%).
hotel.de with jump in earnings
The benefits of scale expected from the business model have become increasingly apparent in the course of 2008, and especially in the third quarter. Here the company posted year-on-year EBIT growth of 74.6% from Euro 0.6 million to Euro 1.0 million, thus achieving a double-digit EBIT margin of 11.2%. Above all, it was personnel expenses, which rose from Euro 3.0 million to Euro 3.4 million, and thus declined significantly as a proportion of sales, which illustrate the emergence of benefits of scale. For the first nine months as a whole, hotel.de generated EBIT growth of 50.3% to Euro 1.7 million. The net surplus for this period rose from Euro 1.0 million to Euro 1.3 million.
The earnings for the third quarter in particular affirm the forecast made by the Management Board, which continues to expect sales growth in a medium double-digit range and substantial year-on-year growth in EBIT and the net surplus. More detailed information will be released in the quarterly report to be published by the company on 27 November 2008.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Customers booking via hotel.info achieve significantly better prices in comparison with other booking channels. In addition, hotel.de shows all available room prices for each hotel, so that the customer can always select the cheapest or most suitable room price. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
hotel.info
hotel.info is the international brand of hotel.de AG. Diese Marke wurde geschaffen, um die Expansion innerhalb Europas voranzutreiben. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. In order to acquire customers and hotels abroad, offices in London, Paris and Barcelona have been set up, to be followed by other important countries. The strong customer loyalty and the high ratio of business customers facilitate hotel.info’s entry into the new markets as many foreign-based subsidiaries or parent enterprises of German companies contracted by hotel.de already have been using hotel.info. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business as well as private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and – step by step – in Europe as a whole.
07/10/08 hotel.de: 9-month booking volumes already ahead of figure for entire previous year
hotel.de: 9-month booking volumes already ahead of figure for entire previous year
Nürnberg, 07 October 2008* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, generated booking volumes of Euro 317.6 million in the first 9 months of 2008. The company has thus already exceeded the equivalent figure for the previous year as a whole – an indication of its continuing strong growth momentum. At 45%, the international share of sales remained at a high level.
France beats expectations
Total booking volumes rose year-on-year by 43.9% from Euro 220.8 million to Euro 317.6 million between January and September. International reservations grew by 54.9% from Euro 94.1 million to Euro 145.7 million. The French market in particular outperformed expectations once again. “We boosted our booking volumes in France by almost 70%, both in the quarter under report and in the first nine months. We have acquired a large number of new booking customers in this market in recent weeks. Not only that, the other core European markets where we have outlets, the UK and Spain, also reported high rates of growth in new booking customers, especially in the business customers segment”, comments Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
The development in booking volumes also reflects the great success of the company’s strategy of focusing on high-volume business customers. With booking volumes of Euro 110.4 million, the third quarter was still the strongest this year (Q3 2007: Euro 81.9 million). Raufer, however, is also confident with regard to the quarter just started. “We already saw a slight shift in high booking volumes towards the fourth quarter in 2007. Following a strong performance in September, we therefore expect to see strong growth, especially in the months of October and November”. hotel.de achieved further signifcant growth in commissionable net checkout volumes, a key figure that, unlike booking volumes, which provide an indication of future commission revenue, reflects commission income during the period under report. In the first nine months, commissionable net checkout volumes grew by 35.0% to Euro 259.4 million (Q1-Q3 2007: Euro 192.3 million). The international business, where this figure rose by 51.1% to Euro 120.7 million, also proved to be a key growth driver.
hotel.de acquires its one millionth corporate booking customer
The number of booking customers registered at hotel.de from among small, medium-sized and large companies rose to more than one million at the end of September. “By crossing the magic threshold of one million corporate booking customers, we have been able to increase the total number of our booking customers, including private customers, to around three million”, remarks Raufer enthusiastically. hotel.de AG has witnessed a sharp rise in the pace of growth in new corporate customer acquisition in recent months, especially in other countries, where the company acquired around 30,000 new corporate booking customers in the last quarter alone. “Our success abroad affirms our internationalisation strategy. We will therefore continue to focus on our expansion”, Raufer adds. The company plans to open an office in Italy before the end of the current quarter.
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 10.01.2008.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Customers booking via hotel.info achieve significantly better prices in comparison with other booking channels. In addition, hotel.de shows all available room prices for each hotel, so that the customer can always select the cheapest or most suitable room price. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
hotel.info
hotel.info is the international brand of hotel.de AG. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. In order to acquire customers and hotels abroad, offices in London, Paris and Barcelona have been set up, to be followed by other important countries. The strong customer loyalty and the high ratio of business customers facilitate hotel.info’s entry into the new markets as many foreign-based subsidiaries or parent enterprises of German companies contracted by hotel.de already have been using hotel.info. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business as well as private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and – step by step – in Europe as a whole.
14/08/08 hotel.de posts strong half-year results
hotel.de posts strong half-year results
- Sales growth remains high at plus 37% to Euro 15.9 million
- EBIT improves by around 25% in first half and around 85% in 2nd quarter
- International growth especially strong
Nuremberg, 14 August 2008 – hotel.de AG, one of the leading online reservation services for worldwide hotel accommodation, has reported a strong first-half business performance. The company increased its sales to Euro 15.9 million, equivalent to growth of 37.0% (H1 2007: Euro 11.6 million). The international business in particular performed very robustly, boosting its sales by 63.8% from Euro 4.6 million to Euro 7.6 million in the first six months of 2008. The company raised its operating earnings (EBIT) by 24.7% to Euro 0.7 million (H1 2007: Euro 0.5 million). The net surplus for the period also improved, showing slight growth of 4.5% to Euro 0.5 million (H1 2007: Euro 0.5 million).
The 2nd quarter was especially strong, indicating that benefits of scale are beginning to kick in. The company achieved substantial growth in both sales and all key earnings figures. Sales revenues rose by around 37.6% from Euro 6.5 million to Euro 8.9 million, while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew by 85.7% to Euro 0.7 million (Q2 2007: Euro 0.4 million). The net surplus for the period also rose by a substantial 38.0% to Euro 0.5 million in the 2nd quarter.
Measures to enhance sales and margins take effect
Sales and EBIT have both benefited from the introduction of various measures. “Launching password-free booking has enabled us to increase the activity shown by occasional bookers and to tap additional sales potential”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. According to Nielsen Netratings, alongside bahn.de and TUI, hotel.de was among the top ten travel sites for German internet users once more in June and was thus again the online hotel portal with the highest number of visitors. Not only that, commission bidding, i.e. the auctioning of top listing positions on the results pages at hotel.de/hotel.info is meeting with increasing acceptance from hotel customers, as are the higher minimum commission levels already successfully introduced for the majority of hotels and due to be completed in the fourth quarter.
“Our efficiency enhancement programme, which we only introduced a few weeks ago, has also led to initial optimisations in organisational and IT divisions, thus impacting positively on the personnel expenses ratio. This dropped from 45.9% to 44.9% in the first six months, an improvement of one percentage point compared with the equivalent period in the previous year”, Raufer continued. To be able to handle its ongoing substantial sales growth, hotel.de increased the number of its employees from an average of 361 in the first half of 2007 to its current level of 489. As a result, personnel expenses rose by 33.9% from Euro 5.3 million to Euro 7.1 million in the first six months of 2008.
Other operating expenses, which also include marketing expenses for search engines such as Google, also rose significantly by 55,6% to Euro 7.4 million (H1 2007: Euro 4.8 million). To enhance its cost effectiveness in this area as well, hotel.de AG has strengthened its search engine optimisation programme (SEO) in recent weeks. Initial success is already apparent in terms of coverage, especially on foreign Google sites.
Positive outlook
The measures taken to boost sales and improve margins have already shown initial success and are supporting the company’s ongoing high rate of growth. What’s more, the Management Board expects further sales growth to result from the continuing trend towards reducing the cost of business travel and from maintaining the company’s expansion strategy. We will be stepping up our efforts to tap the South European market by opening an outlet in Italy in the second half already. Even though we have completed the majority of our investments, we will continue to invest and expand in high-growth foreign markets under our international www.hotel.info brand”, added Raufer. For the financial year as a whole, the company plans to achieve sales growth of between 31% and 39% to Euro 34.0 million to Euro 36.0 million and thus to grow notably faster than the online market. Moreover, the substantial earnings growth seen in the 2nd quarter is to be maintained in the remainder of the year, leading the Management Board to expect considerable growth in the company’s operating earnings (EBIT) and annual net surplus.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Customers booking via hotel.info achieve significantly better prices in comparison with other booking channels. Additionally, all available rates for every single hotel are always displayed, so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate (“Best-Buy”). Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
hotel.info
hotel.info is the international brand of hotel.de AG. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. In order to acquire customers and hotels abroad, offices in London, Paris and Barcelona have been set up, to be followed by other important countries. The strong customer loyalty and the high ratio of business customers facilitate hotel.info’s entry into the new markets as many foreign-based subsidiaries or parent enterprises of German companies contracted by hotel.de already have been using hotel.info. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business as well as private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and – step by step – in Europe as a whole.
03/07/08 hotel.de reports further sharp growth in booking volumes
hotel.de reports further sharp growth in booking volumes
Nuremberg, 03 July 2008* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading online hotel reservation services worldwide, performed strongly in the 2nd quarter as well. The company increased its booking volumes to a new quarterly record of Euro 107.8 million, up 53.1% on the same period in the previous year. The measures initiated over the past months to increase booking volumes have led to more dynamic growth, especially in Germany.
France posts substantial growth of around 70%
Total booking volumes in the months of April to June (volume of reservations made in the 2nd quarter) rose from Euro 70.4 million in the equivalent period last year to Euro 107.8 million. The international business, which grew by 61.7% to Euro 50.1 million, accounted for 47% of total bookings in the 2nd quarter already. The most rapid growth was reported by the French business, which grew by around 70%. hotel.de nevertheless also stepped up the pace of growth in its German business, which expanded by 46.4%. In absolute figures, bookings in Germany grew from Euro 39.5 million in the 2nd quarter of the previous year to Euro 57.8 million. “Even though we have once again reported very high year-on-year growth rates both in Germany and abroad, our figures would have been even better had it not been for the EURO 2008 football championship”, commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, with regard to the figures. “Our private customer business benefited from additional bookings due to the championship. However, this major sporting event also led numerous business customers to postpone travel.”
Higher sales growth expected for 2nd quarter
Given the sharp growth in commissionable net check-out volumes, which rose by 43.6% to Euro 94.5 million (volume of commissionable accommodation actually taken up in 2nd quarter), the Management Board expects to see stronger sales growth than in the 1st quarter of 2008. The company will publish its figures for the 2nd quarter and for the first six months of 2008 on 14 August. In view of the measures already initiated to increase booking figures and the margin, Raufer expects sales for the year as a whole to grow to between Euro 34.0 million and Euro 36.0 million and to see substantial growth in EBIT and annual net income. The CEO is pleased by the prospects for his company. “With sales expected to rise by between 31% and 39%, we are growing almost twice as fast as the online market, whose growth is estimated at 15% to 25%”.
* The booking figures quoted correspond to the data query status on 01 July 2008.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG with its international brands hotel.info and TravelRes runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.hotel.ch and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and booking system. Compared to other booking channels, customers benefit from considerable cost savings (on average 40% for business customers). Additionally, all available rates for every single hotel are always displayed, so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate (“Best-Buy”). Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
hotel.info
hotel.info is the international brand of hotel.de AG. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. In order to acquire customers and hotels abroad, offices in London, Paris and Barcelona have been set up, to be followed by other important countries. The strong customer loyalty and the high ratio of business customers facilitate hotel.info’s entry into the new markets as many foreign-based subsidiaries or parent enterprises of German companies contracted by hotel.de already have been using hotel.info, representing first potential customers. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business as well as private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and – step by step – in Europe as a whole.
28/05/08 hotel.de publishes report on 1st quarter of 2008
hotel.de publishes report on 1st quarter of 2008
- Strong growth in the first three months of 2008
- New international brand hotel.info
- Positive outlook for the year as a whole
Nuremberg, 28 May 2008 – At its analysts’ and press conference held today, hotel.de AG presented its report on the 1st quarter of 2008 and backed up its pleasing quarterly figures with a positive outlook for the year as a whole. One of the leading online reservation services for the global mediation of hotel accommodation, the company posted substantial year-on-year sales growth of 37.7% to Euro 6.9 million (Q1 2007: Euro 5.0 million).
hotel.de acquires new international brand
As part of its growth and internationalisation strategy, hotel.de acquired all of the rights relating to www.hotel.info at the end of the 1st of quarter 2008, taking over hotel.info HI GmbH for this purpose and launching a free hotel evaluation and booking portal at the new domain "The international character of the hotel.info domain will enable us to access international target groups far more rapidly and inexpensively than with the existing TravelRes brand, which we will be gradually replacing with hotel.info", explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. In the first weeks since going online, the company has already seen great interest from users worldwide and very wide coverage.
Significant sales growth and balanced result
The international business once again posted an especially strong performance. International sales grew by almost 60% to Euro 3.0 million (Q1 2007: Euro 1.9 million), thus providing a resounding confirmation of hotel.de’s internationalisation strategy. Sales in Germany rose from Euro 3.2 million to Euro 4.0 million. "The consistent increase in our international share of total sales, which now amounts to 42.7%, underlines the great progress we have made with our internationalisation ", added Raufer.
The very warm reception granted to the hotel.de and hotel.info portals by international hotels and booking customers was also reflected in the 1st quarter by a further rise in expenses by around Euro 1.1 million merely for the internationalisation programme. Other operating expenses therefore rose from Euro 2.0 million to Euro 3.3 million. Personnel expenses also increased slightly as a proportion of sales, rising by 40.4% to Euro 3.5 million (Q1 2007: Euro 2.5 million). The personnel expenses ratio, generally high in the 1st quarter due to seasonal factors, thus amounted to 51.1%. In the medium term, hotel.de aims to significantly reduce this figure, partly by means of a process optimisation programme launched this year. The management expects to see initial benefits in 2008 already. hotel.de had 505 employees in the 1st quarter (Q1 2007: 292 employees). The company reduced its cost of materials by 16.9% from Euro 0.6 million to Euro 0.5 million.
Overall, with EBIT of Euro -0.1 million (Q1 2007: Euro 0.2 million), the company virtually broke even on an operating level and did break even in terms of its net surplus for the period (Q1 2007: Euro 0.1 million). The margin improvement programme has already shown initial success. As in previous years, due to seasonal factors, the 2nd and 3rd quarters will see far more substantial sales and earnings contributions.
Outlook
The Management Board is confident about the future. “For the 2008 financial year as a whole, we expect sales to grow to between Euro 34.0 million and Euro 36.0 million. Given the international comprehensibility of the new www.hotel.info domain, the international expansion can be expected to show even more dynamic growth." Now that the conference tool has been integrated into corporate customer programmes, the management also expects to see more marked growth in the conference division. In terms of costs, the process optimisation programme launched this year will have a positive effect. The measures taken to improve margins will also have a more marked impact on the company’s earnings performance in 2008, leading the Management Board to expect substantial growth in operating earnings (EBIT) and the annual net surplus.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG with its international brands hotel.info and TravelRes runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.hotel.ch and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has also been offering conferences. Therefore, the company had taken over the conference data base, the online booking tool and the customer base of intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG. Compared to other booking channels, customers benefit from considerable cost savings (on average 40% for business customers). Additionally, all available rates for every single hotel are always displayed (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
hotel.info
hotel.info is the international brand of hotel.de AG. This brand was established for pushing ahead its expansion into the European countries. In order to acquire customers and hotels abroad, offices in London, Paris and Barcelona have been set up, to be followed by other important countries. The strong customer loyalty and the high ratio of business customers facilitate hotel.info’s entry into the new markets as many foreign-based subsidiaries or parent enterprises of German companies contracted by hotel.de already have been using hotel.info, representing first potential customers. The aim is to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for business as well as private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and – step by step – in Europe as a whole.
03/04/08 hotel.de reports highest quarterly booking volume in its history
hotel.de reports highest quarterly booking volume in its history
Nürnberg, 3 April 2008* – hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, increased its booking volume in the 1st quarter, traditionally a weaker season, by 56.2% attaining a record level of Euro 107.1 million. This growth was mainly due to the exceptional performance of international business and to the higher share of bookings made by corporate customers.
International business as key growth driver
Booking volume in the months of January to March (volume of reservations made in the first quarter) rose from Euro 68.6 million in the previous year to Euro 107.1 million. With growth of 75.9% to Euro 48.8 million, the international business once again posted a very strong performance. “Internationalising our business at an early stage has proven to be the right step. With our offices in other countries we are very well positioned and expect to generate further remarkable growth as the year progresses”, commented Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, with regard to the figures reported for the international business. Booking volume in Germany also showed substantial growth of 42.8% to Euro 58.3 million. “The additional booking volume seen in Germany is particularly due to our important cooperation with bahn.de and the acquisition of further major customers, such as Deutsche Lufthansa and Air France. We expect to see further growth following the introduction of password-free booking in April”, added Raufer. Net post-checkout volumes eligible for commission (volume of accommodation eligible for commission taken up in the first quarter) showed overall growth of 38.1% to Euro 71.3 million in the first quarter (Q1 2007: Euro 51.6 million).
Positive outlook for the year as a whole
"By amending our commission structure, we have succeeded in raising our average commission to around 10%. We expect further international growth potential to be generated by the www.hotel.info domain acquired in March, where we launched a hotel assessment portal just a few days ago, with the ability to book rooms. The domain name is easy to remember, internationally comprehensible and includes the key words for users searching for information on hotels", remarked Raufer. For the year as a whole, the Management Board expects to see sales grow in a medium double-digit percentage range. However, the CEO's optimism is by no means limited to the company's sales performance. but also to the expected substantial earnings growth in the current year, notably in terms of operating earnings (EBIT) and net income.
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 01.04.2008.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG with its international brands hotel.info and TravelRes runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.hotel.ch and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has also been offering conferences. Therefore, the company had taken over the conference data base, the online booking tool and the customer base of intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG. Compared to other booking channels, customers benefit from considerable cost savings (on average 40% for business customers). Additionally, all available rates for every single hotel are always displayed (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
31/03/08 hotel.de AG acquires www.hotel.info and launches international evaluation and booking platform
hotel.de AG acquires www.hotel.info and launches international evaluation and booking platform
Nürnberg, 31 March 2008 - hotel.de AG, one of the leading online hotel reservation services, acquired all rights for the domain www.hotel.info and thereby took over hotel.info HI GmbH. With this new domain, an international free of charge platform for hotel evaluation and booking purposes has been put online. Besides the hotels’ key information, such as room prices and amenities, customers in search of a room can now rely on hotel evaluations released by hundreds of thousands of guests from all over the world in order to also base their decision hereupon.
Compared to other platforms, www.hotel.info guarantees its users 100% genuine hotel reviews, as only evaluations of guests who recently stayed in the respective hotel are displayed. Evaluation scales as well as individual guests’ comments are shown in the user’s language. In addition to the publication on the multilingual platform, the intention is to forward the comments to the hotels in order to improve quality continuously. In doing so, the hotels will get immediate feedback from their own customers.
After having decided for a particular offer, customers can book the hotel directly online, simply following hotel.info’s slogan "Check & Book". Room allotments are delivered by the hotel.de database providing 210,000 hotels of all categories worldwide, often labelled with "best price guarantee". Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, is pleased with the acquisition of www.hotel.info: "We benefit from this take-over in many respects. On the one hand, at times in which user generated content is vital to a platform’s success, we will make use our existing and valuable hotel reviews even more effectively from now on. On the other hand, the domain hotel.info stands for internationality. People all over the world understand the key words "hotel" and "information" immediately. Because of its catchy internet address, www.hotel.info will help us obtain an even higher international reach even faster, attract additional new international customers and generate extra booking volume." Besides hotel evaluations, as one component of "Web 2.0", additional customer-generated benefits, such as hotel videos, are at a planning stage.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG with its international brands hotel.info and TravelRes runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.hotel.ch and www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has also been offering conferences. Therefore, the company had taken over the conference data base, the online booking tool and the customer base of intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG. Compared to other booking channels, customers benefit from considerable cost savings (on average 40% for business customers). Additionally, all available rates for every single hotel are always displayed (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
05/03/08 hotel.de publishes preliminary figures for the 2007 financial year
hotel.de publishes preliminary figures for the 2007 financial year
- Record sales on budget at Euro 25.9 million
- At Euro 1.9 million, EBIT exceeds expectations
- Very good start to 2008
Nuremberg, 5 March 2008 - hotel.de AG (WKN 691093) today published its preliminary figures for the 2007 financial year. The company, a leading online reservation service for the global mediation of hotel accommodation with a focus on business customers, was able to meet its sales forecast. Based on initial calculations, sales revenues rose by 34.0% to Euro 25.9 million (previous year: Euro 19.3m).
At Euro 1.9 million (previous year: Euro 3.3m), preliminary earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) even exceeded the management’s own expectations, which had lain between Euro 1.3 million and Euro 1.7 million. The preliminary annual net surplus fell from Euro 2.1 million to Euro 1.4 million. “We used 2006 and especially 2007 to expand the business model established in Germany to other countries. In 2007 alone, we invested more than Euro 4 million in our internationalisation at the expense of our EBIT. These investments include translating our booking platform into 15 languages, setting up two offices in France and Spain, establishing an international multilingual 24-hour call centre and hotel procurement, as well as launching operations at a new computer centre capable to deal with our significantly higher booking volumes. However, this high level of investment will begin to pay off in the current year already,” explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
hotel.de AG has seen a very good start to the new year and has maintained its highly dynamic growth. The company’s booking volumes in the first two months rose to Euro 71.4 million, up by 61.5% on the equivalent period in the previous year (Euro 44.2m). The international business once again proved to be the key growth driver. Over this period, the company increased its international booking volumes by 83.1% to Euro 32.6 million (January/February 2007: Euro 17.8m). Net post-checkout volumes (number of overnight stays taking place in first two months of 2008) also rose substantially by 49.0% to Euro 51.4 million (previous year’s period: Euro 34.5m). Raufer sees this positive business performance as a confirmation of the company’s expansion strategy. “Our extensive investments are already bearing their first fruit. We expect this dynamic growth to continue throughout the rest of the year.” hotel.de will be publishing its 2007 Annual Report along with an outlook for 2008 in the Investor Relations section of the company’s homepage at www.hotel.de on 24 April.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg, London, Paris and Barcelona, operates a free hotel reservation services for companies and private users on http://www.hotel.de, http://www.travelres.com, http://www.travelres.fr, www.travelres.es, http://www.hotel.at and http://www.hotel.ch. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for booking online. Since January 2007, hotel.de has also been offering conferences. Therefore, the company had taken over the conference data base, the online booking tool and the customer base of intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG. Compared to other booking channels, customers benefit from considerable cost savings (on average 40% for business customers). Additionally, all available rates for every single hotel are always displayed (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Further, all bookings via hotel.de are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de’s unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, Texas Instruments Inc. And Ernst & Young AG already use the hotel.de corporate application.
08/01/08 hotel.de: 4th quarter booking volumes show highest growth rate in 2007
hotel.de: 4th quarter booking volumes show highest growth rate in 2007
Nuremberg, 08 January 2008* - hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide online hotel reservation services, posted an above-average performance in the final months of the year. Booking volumes rose by 55.5% in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with the same period in the previous year, thus showing an even higher rate of growth than that reported in the second and third quarters, traditionally a stronger period due to seasonal factors. This success was primarily driven by the pleasing performance of the international business and the higher share of bookings attributable to corporate customers.
Substantial growth driven by corporate customers and international business
hotel.de increased its booking volumes in the months October to December (volume of reservations made in the fourth quarter) from Euro 55.3 million to Euro 85.9 million. With growth of 76.2% to Euro 36.5 million, the international business once again posted a very strong performance. "We invested heavily into our expansion in 2006 and 2007, extending our bookings sites and establishing subsidiaries in the UK, France and Spain, as well as boosting our marketing activities in Italy. Our strong sales performance has been another factor for our success in 2007. We see further potential for the current year", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, with regard to the pleasing figures for the international business. hotel.de also achieved further growth in Germany, where booking volumes rose by 43.1% from Euro 34.6 million to Euro 49.4 million. Total net post-departure volumes (volume of accommodation actually taken up) rose by 44.9% to Euro 83.0 million in the fourth quarter (equivalent period in previous year: Euro 57.3 million).
Raufer was also very pleased by the substantial growth in bookings made by corporate customers, the company's main target group. "We were able to acquire major new corporate customers, and implemented various measures to increase the number of bookings made by existing corporate customers. We thus more than doubled the booking volumes made by important key account customers", added Raufer.
Measures to boost sales and very substantial earnings growth planned
December witnessed the highest growth during the quarter, with a growth in booking volumes of 66.0% compared with the equivalent month in the previous year. "We aim to maintain this increased momentum in the current year", remarked Raufer. "We expect to achieve a sales growth in a medium double-digit range in 2008". Alongside the company's major cooperations with Opodo and bahn.de, this growth would also be driven by further measures. "We aim to offer password-free booking in the current year. This will enable us to acquire new customers, as well as to reactivate dormant accounts. Various commission-related measures will also enable us to additionally boost our revenues", explained Raufer. However, the CEO's optimism is by no means limited to the company's sales performance. The management expects to see very substantial earnings growth in the current year, especially in terms of EBIT and the annual net surplus.
* The bookings figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 02.01.2008.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg, London, Paris and Barcelona, operates a free hotel reservation services for companies and private users on http://www.hotel.de, http://www.travelres.com, http://www.travelres.fr, www.travelres.es, http://www.hotel.at and http://www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
Corporate News 2007
11/12/07 Bahn.de integrates hotel.de
Bahn.de integrates hotel.de
Frankfurt am Main / Nuremberg, 11 December 2007 - Starting on 11 December 2007, the German national railway company Deutsche Bahn AG will be cooperating with hotel.de, the online hotel reservation service, integrating the hotel provider's entire offering into its website. The aim is to enable railway customers to book hotels in combination with railway tickets in a single booking process.
The range of hotels offered by hotel.de will be directly integrated into the booking process at www.bahn.de. Train passengers booking their tickets online will be offered suitable hotels at their destinations. Along with their train tickets, railway customers will be put into the position to reserve their accommodation in a single step online - and that with hotel.de's proven best price guarantee. Room prices will be updated on a daily basis, with all prices available at a given hotel being displayed (e.g. early bird, last minute and promotional prices). Thereby, railway customers will be able to select the lowest room price.
Deutsche Bahn was convinced by hotel.de's extensive range of hotels, superb service and innovative technology. "Our aim is to provide our customers with easy access to mobility modules. We are very pleased to have created an innovative solution for this purpose by offering integrated hotel bookings in cooperation with hotel.de", comments Mathias Hüske, Director of Online and Agency Sales at Deutsche Bahn AG.
This collaboration lets hotel.de extend its comprehensive cooperation network by Germany's most frequently visited travel webside. "Deutsche Bahn is an ideal top-class partner for us. Many of the thousands of customers booking train journeys online every day require hotels at their destinations. We expect this cooperation to generate annual booking volumes in a double-digit million range", adds Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany), London (UK), Paris (France) and Barcelona (Spain), operates a free hotel reservation services for companies and private users on http://www.hotel.de, http://www.travelres.com, http://www.travelres.fr, http://www.travelres.es, http://www.hotel.at and http://www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
30/11/07 hotel.de publishes 9-month report for 2007
hotel.de publishes 9-month report for 2007
- Sales in first nine months of 2007: +33.6%
- More than 46,000 new business customers acquired in 3rd quarter alone
- Management Board specifies 2007 forecast and provides outlook for 2008
Nuremberg, 30 November 2007 - hotel.de AG, one of the leading online reservation services for hotel accommodation, today published its nine-month report. As well as pleasing figures for the first nine months and third quarter of 2007, the company also provided a positive outlook for the financial year as a whole and for 2008.
Strong sales growth in international business
hotel.de AG has posted substantial year-on-year sales growth both for the third quarter of 2007 and for the first nine months. The international business, where sales rose by 45.4% to Euro 7.5 million in the first nine months, once again proved to be a key growth driver (nine months of 2006: Euro 5.2 million). Sales in Germany also showed substantial growth from Euro 8.9 million to Euro 11.2 million. Overall, consolidated sales rose by 33.6% to Euro 18.3 million in the first nine months of 2007.
Extensive sales activities supported by additional marketing measures enabled hotel.de to acquire 46,111 new corporate bookings customers in the third quarter alone, thus further extending the company's pleasing position in the lucrative corporate customer market. "The share of total sales attributable to our corporate customers has risen in the course of the year. As a result, the seasonal impact of vacation periods has intensified. Within the third quarter, the holiday months of July and August were relatively weak, while September saw above-average bookings and sales volumes. We achieved sales growth of 27.5% to Euro 6.7 million in spite of the two holiday months in the third quarter", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG with regard to the company's latest sales performance. The fourth quarter, by contrast, will benefit from the higher share of business customers.
Earnings situation remains positive
"Our notable success in other countries affirms our expansion strategy. In the third quarter, we therefore stepped up our marketing activities in Italy and pressed ahead with the development of a sales office in Spain", added Raufer. In spite of increased expenses for marketing in other countries, personnel and materials, as well as additional provisions for commission payments to cooperation partners such as travel agencies and web portals (affiliates), the company nevertheless posted operating earnings (EBIT) of Euro 1.1 million and an EBIT margin of 6.1% in the first nine months of 2007. This figure also already includes amortisation in connection with the purchase of the online conference business. "In the third quarter alone we managed to increase our EBIT margin to 8.5%. This already provides an indication that there is significant potential for scaling up the business model in 2008 and 2009 following the growth investments made in 2007." The net surplus for the period is also clearly positive. The net surplus for the first nine months of 2007 amounted to Euro 1.0 million (first nine months of 2006: Euro 1.4 million). In the third quarter, the net surplus grew year-on-year by 1.7% to Euro 0.5 million.
Substantial sales and earnings growth forecast for 2008
The Management Board expects the business to show above-average positive developments in the fourth quarter and has confirmed and specified the growth forecast for 2007. "We expect to see sales of between Euro 25.5 million and Euro 27.5 million and EBIT of Euro 1.3 million to Euro 1.7 million", commented Raufer. "Our increased investments in other countries mean that we have sacrificed a few margin points in the current year, but this will pay off in coming years." The Management Board is therefore confident that the company will succeed in generating sales growth in a medium double-digit range once again in 2008. Following the major investments made in developing and expanding the European business in 2007, the management expects EBIT and the annual net surplus to show very substantial growth in 2008.
The Management Board and other management staff are convinced by the sustainability of the company's performance and used the favourable share price seen in recent weeks as an opportunity to acquire shares via the stock market and off-market with a total volume in a six-digit euro range.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany), London (UK), Paris (France) and Barcelona (Spain), operates a free hotel reservation services for companies and private users on http://www.hotel.de, http://www.travelres.com, http://www.travelres.fr, http://www.travelres.es, http://www.hotel.at and http://www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
22/11/07 hotel.de boosts internationalisation with new outlet in Spain
hotel.de boosts internationalisation with new outlet in Spain
Nuremberg, 22/11/07 - hotel.de, the free online hotel reservation service for 210,000 hotels worldwide, today announced the opening of an outlet in Barcelona (Spain).
Following the successful launch of the hotel.de brand in Germany, the company is increasingly focusing on its expansion into other European countries. Under the international "TravelRes" brand, outlets were already opened in London (UK) in September 2006 and in Paris (France) in January of this year. While the sales offices support the acquisition of new customers, hotel rooms can be booked free of charge using the respective national language under www.travelres.com or www.travelres.fr in France. "Both countries have generated sales growth of more than 50% in the first 9 months of 2007 compared with the same period in the previous year", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
"The success of the outlets opened to date affirms our expansion strategy. To enhance hotel.de's international presence in Southern Europe as well, we have now established an outlet in Barcelona", added Raufer. The outlet's first customers are the Spanish-based subsidiaries, affiliates and parent companies of existing German business customers. The acquisitions list at TravelRes Ibérica nevertheless also includes Spanish companies, which are currently increasingly on the lookout for direct bookings systems. Following the company's success in the UK and France, the aim is now to use www.travelres.es to establish hotel.de's TravelRes brand as a leading hotel reservation service for corporate customers in Spain as well.
Hotel bookings totals are also developing positively in Spain. More than 100,000 overnight stays with a value of almost Euro 10 million have already been mediated in 2007 to date. This equates to booking volume growth in a medium double-digit range compared with the same period in the previous year. "We are pleased to be represented by an outlet in Spain now as well. This will enable us to further boost our pleasing growth figures in the Spanish hotel market," remarked Raufer.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany), London (UK), Paris (France) and Barcelona (Spain), operates a free hotel reservation services for companies and private users on http://www.hotel.de, http://www.travelres.com, http://www.travelres.fr, http://www.travelres.es, http://www.hotel.at and http://www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
08/10/07 hotel.de: strong bookings figures for the 3rd quarter of 2007 underline success of international expansion
Strong bookings figures for the 3rd quarter of 2007 underline success of international expansion
Nuremberg, 8 October 2007* - hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide hotel reservation services, generated booking volumes of Euro 230.2 million in the first nine months of 2007, already exceeding the figure reported for the entire previous year. During the 3rd quarter, traditionally a strong period, hotel.de increased its booking volumes by 51.6% from Euro 57.0 million to Euro 86.4 million. With growth of 59.1% to Euro 35.5 million, the international business once again reported very pleasing developments in this respect (previous year: Euro 22.3 million).
International business exceeds expectations
"Our expansion into other European countries is developing very well", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. "We have gained a foothold in France and the UK more rapidly than expected." hotel.de will therefore be establishing an office in Spain in November of this year already. The company is also planning to step up its marketing activities in Italy. "The success of our international activities to date provides our expansion plans with extra momentum. We aim to quickly build up a leading position in the most important markets", explained Raufer.
hotel.de with new cooperation partner
With booking volumes of Euro 31.6 million and growth of 58.7% compared with the equivalent period in 2006, September was the most successful month in the quarter. Raufer is confident that hotel.de will maintain its course of strong growth. "We expect the cooperation agreed with Opodo in September alone to generate additional booking volumes in a double-digit million range in the first year of the partnership already."
* The booking figures quoted here correspond to the data query status on 02/10/07.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
19/09/07 hotel.de cooperates with Opodo - New bookings record in September
hotel.de cooperates with Opodo - New bookings record in September
hotel.de cooperates with Opodo
New bookings record in September
Nuremberg, 19 September 2007 - hotel.de AG, one of the leading online reservation services for hotels worldwide, achieved a new record level of bookings at the beginning of September. Furthermore, the company has also agreed on a major partnership with the well-known online travel service Opodo.
Additional booking volumes in double-digit million range expected for the first year already
The new affiliate partner has integrated hotel.de's complete hotel offerings into its website and is thus able to offer its users inexpensive accommodation prices and a selection of more than 210,000 hotels. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, expects to see additional booking volumes in a double-digit million range in the first year of the partnership already. "This partnership has provided us with access to another major group of booking customers." Opodo operates a leading online travel portal in Germany at opodo.de and is also represented by proprietary websites in the UK, France and Italy, among other markets.
New bookings record underlines pleasing business performance
The third quarter has also been developing very positively for hotel.de AG. This is underlined by a new record level of bookings reported by the company in September. On one single day customers booked almost 17,000 overnight stays, equivalent to a booking volume of Euro 1.67 million, via hotel.de and its international TravelRes brand. "New key account customers and our increased international expansion have helped us to set a further new record", commented Raufer proudly with regard to the positive news. The company plans to intensify its activities in the Italian market and to open a further office in Spain before the end of the current year.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
15/08/07 hotel.de publishes report on first half of 2007
hotel.de publishes report on first half of 2007
- Further substantial year-on-year sales growth
- Net income remains positive
- International expansion schedule
Nuremberg, 15 August 2007 - hotel.de AG today published its figures for the first half of 2007, reporting further substantial sales growth of 37.4% and a positive net income for the period. The Management Board also expects to see sales growth in a medium double-digit range and a continued positive net income for the financial year as a whole.
hotel.de acquires new major customers in Germany and abroad
As one of the leading online hotel reservation services worldwide, the company increased its sales by a notable 37.4% to Euro 11.6 million in the first half of 2007 (first half of 2006: Euro 8.4 million). This growth was chiefly due to the pleasing performance of the international business and the acquisition of further renowned key accounts in Germany and abroad.
The current financial year is characterised by major investments in the company's international expansion. hotel.de supplemented the office in London with a subsidiary in Paris in February 2007. Moreover, by purchasing the online conference business from the market-leading conference agency, intergerma, in the first quarter, the company has invested in a lucrative niche offering great synergy potential. "In spite of the high level of investment in the first half of the year, we nevertheless achieved an EBIT margin of 4.6%", reported Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. The company's EBIT amounted to Euro 0.5 million (first half of 2006: Euro 1.5 million). The initiation of the expansion strategy led the positive net income to decline from Euro 0.9 million to Euro 0.5 million. hotel.de's robust financial position is underline by its cash flow from operating activities, which improved sharply to Euro 1.0 million (first half of 2006: Euro -0.4 million).
Positive outlook
The booking volume providing an indication of the company's future sales volume, also increased substantially in the first six months of 2007. This key figure rose by 50.6% compared to the equivalent period in the previous year. The international business even reported growth of 88.7% from Euro 35.5 million to Euro 67.0 million. The Management Board intends to further expand this pleasing performance in other countries in the second half of the year. "We are planning the establishment of a further office in Spain. Over and above this, we intend to boost our activities in the Italian market", commented Dr. Raufer.
For the financial year as a whole, the Management Board continues to forecast sales growth in a medium double-digit range, a clearly positive net income and an EBIT margin of almost 10%. "However, if we see any opportunity of gaining a foothold in Spain and Italy more rapidly than planned, we will extend our investment programme and forego the odd margin point", added Dr. Raufer in view of the success of the international expansion to date. "Following the year of investment in 2007, our consolidated earnings can be expected to show significant growth in 2008", added the company's CEO confidently.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
04/07/07 hotel.de announces positive booking figures for the 2nd quarter of 2007
hotel.de announces positive booking figures for the 2nd quarter of 2007
- Booking volumes in other countries: +97%
- June - strongest month in terms of bookings: +72%
Nuremberg, 4 July 2007 - The global hotel reservation service hotel.de built on the strong growth reported in preceding months in the second quarter as well. The company today announced a 49.2% increase in its booking volumes to Euro 78.1 million (Q2 2006: Euro 52.4 million). With year-on-year growth of 71.7%, June was the strongest month in this respect. In the first half of 2007, the company's bookings volumes therefore rose by 50.6% to Euro 153.3 million compared with the first six months of 2006 (Euro 101.8 million).
Positive performance in international business
Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG is particularly pleased with the performance of the company's international business. "With growth of 96.25% from Euro 17.7 million to Euro 34.7 million in the second quarter, we virtually doubled our booking volumes in this division, thus increasing the international share of total booking volumes to 44.4%. Our success in other countries has thus affirmed our expansion strategy, as well as our target of becoming the market leader in Europe." In the first half of 2007 as a whole, international booking volumes rose from Euro 35.5 million to Euro 67.0 million, equivalent to growth of 88.7% on the first six months of 2006.
Booking volumes act as an indicator of the company's future business performance, given that revenues are generated at a later date from the commissions on such bookings. Commissions account for the largest share of the company's sales. The company will publish its operating results for the second quarter in mid-August. "These will also reflect the success of the measures we have taken to reactivate existing customer relationships and to acquire new customers", added Dr. Raufer.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
03/07/07 Notification pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation (EC) 2273 / 2003
Notification by hotel.de AG pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation (EC) 2273/ 2003 concerning share price stabilisation measures:
03. July 2007 - UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG) acted as stabilisation manager within the framework of the private reallocation of hotel.de AG share from the holdings of the founding shareholders undertaken on 19 June 2007.
More specifically, UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking undertook the following purchases:
21. June 2007: purchase of 3,760 shares at a price of EUR 36.00
22. June 2007: purchase of 150 shares at a price of EUR 36.00
UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking exercised the greenshoe option granted for the purposes of price stabilisation prematurely and in full upon the conclusion of the trading day on 26 June 2007. The total of 612,526 hotel.de shares offered in connection with the reallocation were therefore placed in full with investors.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
27/06/07 Greenshoe upon hotel.de reallocation prematurely exercised in full
Greenshoe upon hotel.de reallocation prematurely exercised in full
- Total of 612,526 shares reallocated
- Free float increases to around 36.4 percent of share capital
Nuremberg, 27 June 2007 - By the close of trading yesterday, UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG) had prematurely and completely exercised the greenshoe option granted in connection with the reallocation of shares undertaken by existing shareholders in hotel.de AG (ISIN DE0006910938; WKN 691093) on 19 June 2007.
The existing shareholders yielding part of their shareholdings in hotel.de AG had granted UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking the possibility of additionally acquiring up to 15 percent of the original transaction volume of 520,647 shares at the allocation price of EUR 36.00 per share (so-called greenshoe option). A further 91,879 shares have therefore been placed as part of an additional allocation within the overall reallocation. The number of shares placed in the context of the reallocation of shares by existing shareholders therefore amounts to 612,516 in total, with an equivalent value of approximately EUR 22.1 million. Following the complete exercising of the greenshoe option, the free float now amounts to around 36.4%.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
26/06/07 Press information on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting
Press information on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting
- Supervisory Board re-elected with large majority
- Foreign expansion developing on schedule
- Increased free float enhances attractiveness of share
Nuremberg, 26 June 2007 – Shareholders at today’s Annual General Meeting of hotel.de AG, the company’s first since its successful stock market flotation in October, approved all agenda items requiring resolution with large majorities in each case. The comments made by the Management Board concerning the continuation of the company’s growth strategy also received considerable support. This was true both for the company’s foreign expansion and for the extension of its business activities in the conference division. Moreover, shareholders reaffirmed their trust in the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dr. Stefan Morschheuser and the members of the Supervisory Board, Peter Hoffmann and Dieter Ahrendt, rewarding their superb efforts in recent years by re-electing them for a further term in office.
Furthermore, the Chairman of the Management Board, Dr. Heinz Raufer, was able not only to present a successful and eventful 2006 financial year, but could also report on a pleasing start to the current financial year. First-quarter sales showed substantial growth of 39.9% to reach Euro 5.0 million (Q1 2006: Euro 3.6 million). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to Euro 0.2 million in the first quarter. This figure already includes one-off items, such as the intergerma purchase and investments in the company’s foreign growth and the expansion of the Groups & Conferences business division.
Positive outlook
The pleasing developments seen in the first three months have also continued into the second quarter. The company has launched new measures aimed at reactivating existing customer relationships and acquiring new customers. These have already shown notable success and will already impact on the company’s operations in the second quarter. “In the second quarter we will surpass the results reported for the first three months of the current financial year in terms of both sales and earnings,” affirmed Dr. Raufer. The company also expects to generate additional sales from its continuing foreign expansion. Before the end of the current year, hotel.de aims to establish outlets in Italy and Spain and thus to boost its sales activities in these countries.
Increased free float enhances attractiveness of share
By reallocating part of their shareholdings, the founding shareholders increased the company’s free float to 36.4% on 19 June. “In the talks in the run-up to our IPO, many investors already expressed a desire to see a higher level of free float,” commented Dr. Raufer. Although the founding shareholders were in most cases only prepared to part company with a small portion of their shares, the company expects this measure to increase the trading liquidity of hotel.de’s share and thus to result in even greater interest being shown by private and institutional investors. No further reallocations are planned in the medium term.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers around 210,000 worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
23/05/07 hotel.de publishes report on 1st quarter of 2007
hotel.de publishes report on 1st quarter of 2007
- Strong growth in the first 3 months of 2007
- Entry into high-volume conference segment
- Positive outlook for the overall year
Nuremberg, 23 May 2007 - hotel.de AG presented its report on the 1st quarter of 2007 at today's analysts' and press conference, providing a positive outlook for the overall year over and above the pleasing figures for the first quarter. As one of the leading online reservation services for the mediation of hotel accommodation around the world, the company posted significant growth of 39.9% compared with the first quarter of the previous year, increasing its sales to Euro 5.0 million (Q1 2006: Euro 3.6 million). The company also expects to achieve medium-range double-digit growth for the financial year as a whole. The EBIT margin is expected to rise to 10%.
hotel.de acquires new business division
Within the framework of its growth strategy, hotel.de took over the conference database, online bookings system and customer base of the conference agency intergerma Marketing GmbH und Co. KG (Hamm) in the 1st quarter of 2007. "We have thus gained access to very interesting sales potential, given that around one third of hotel bookings arise in connection with conferences," remarked Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, confidently. This will now enable hotel.de to generate a high volume of conference bookings with its customer base of around 500,000 corporate customers. Moreover, the conference client base taken over from intergerma, which includes numerous renowned large companies, has provided hotel.de with attractive additional sales and customer potential for traditional overnight bookings.
Foreign expansion proceeding apace
Following the establishment of the hotel.de brand in German-speaking countries, the company is expanding its successful business model and its international "TravelRes" brand into other European countries. hotel.de thus supplemented the subsidiary opened in London in 2006 already with an outlet in Paris in the 1st quarter of 2007 in order to support the acquisition of new customers and hotels.
Positive sales and earnings figures
"Partly as a result of our success in other countries, we managed to increase our sales from Euro 3.6 million to Euro 5.0 million, equivalent to growth of 39.9% on the first quarter of the previous year," commented Dr. Raufer with regard to the company's further strong growth. The international share of total sales amounted to 37%. Overall, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) amounted to Euro 0.2 million in the first quarter. This figure already includes one-off items, such as the intergerma purchase and investments in the company's international growth and in the expansion of the Groups & Conferences division, which is responsible for the conference business. To exploit the potential for growth in this area, hotel.de increased its total workforce from 209 employees in the first quarter of 2006 to 292. Personnel expenses therefore rose to Euro 2.5 million. Costs of materials also showed year-on-year growth to Euro 0.6 million. As in previous years, it will be the second and third quarters which generate the most significant contributions to sales and earnings.
Outlook
As was already the case in 2006, the current financial year is largely characterised by investments in the further growth of the company. "With this aim in mind, we intend to press ahead with our international expansion by founding further outlets", added Dr. Raufer. The Management Board nevertheless expects to post an EBIT margin of 10% and clearly positive net income of around Euro 2.0 million. Earnings are then expected to show substantial growth in 2008.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
19/04/07 hotel.de announces number of bookings for the first quarter of 2007
hotel.de announces number of bookings for the first quarter of 2007
- For the first time hotel.de generates more than 16,000 room nights on one day
- Strong growth in the first 3 months of 2007
Nuremberg, 19th April 2007 - hotel.de, one of the leading global hotel reservation services, was able to increase its booking volume by 52.2% to Euro 75.2 million (previous year: Euro 49.4 million) in the first quarter. Within the same period the number of bookings rose by 36.7% totalling 820,000 room nights.
The booking volume is a good indicator for the future business development as it implicates the expected turnover of commission revenues. "The figures do not only prove our strong growth but also show our successful expansion into the corporate hotel booking market, which we - in addition to continuously serving the leisure business - address at full speed and power. Business customers are very interesting for us, since they book more often and prefer higher class hotels compared to leisure travellers," explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG.
International success
International sales also show a pleasant progress. The international booking volume rose by 81.5% totalling Euro 32.3 million (previous year: Euro 17.8 million). The set up of branches in France and UK has also essentially contributed to that success. Therewith hotel.de generates about 43% of its turnover abroad.
New booking record
The good development in the first three months seems to continue in the second quarter. On April 17th 2007, hotel.de was able to generate more than 16,000 room nights on that very day accompanied by a top booking volume of Euro 1.4 million.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
28/03/07 hotel.de announces figures for 2006 financial year
hotel.de announces figures for 2006 financial year
- Dynamic sales growth: + 55%
- Operating earnings: + 30%
- Booking volumes at record levels
Nuremberg, 28.03.2007 - hotel.de AG today released its business results for the 2006 financial year. The company, whose operations are based in Nuremberg and Hamm, Germany, is a leading online reservation service, acting as a global intermediary for hotel accommodation. Activities focus on the growing market for online hotel bookings by business customers, The company has succeeded in generating significant operating earnings and sales growth in spite of the additional burden on its personnel in connection with the IPO.
Record level of sales growth
"We succeeded in the past financial year in breaking many of the company's records," commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, with regard to the extremely positive business results for 2006. As a result of its strong position in the market, hotel.de benefited significantly from the trend away from comparatively expensive booking channels, such as travel agents, towards online reservations. Sales grew by 55.3% to Euro 19.3 million, compared with Euro 12.5 million in 2005. Sales were also positively affected by the increased number of large-scale customers booking their accommodation via hotel.de.
The international business reported a particularly strong performance, with sales growth of 68.9% to Euro 7.1 million in this area. The company is thus already generating around one third of its sales in other countries. This substantial growth affirms the strategic decision by hotel.de to map its scalable business model onto foreign markets.
Net income exceeds analysts' forecasts
"Our earnings position in 2006 was characterised by extensive investments into our expansion and by the costs of the IPO", added Dr. Raufer. "Given these factors, we are therefore especially proud of our earnings performance." The company's operating earnings (excluding IPO expenses) amounted to Euro 4.8 million in 2006, equivalent to an increase of 30.4% on the previous year (Euro 3.7 million). Including IPO expenses, hotel.de's earnings before taxes of Euro 3.6 million were at almost the same level as in the previous year (Euro 3.7 million). At Euro 2.1 million (previous year: Euro 2.2 million), net income was markedly higher than the figure of Euro 1.7 million forecast by analysts.
Very good start to 2007
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. In 2007, hotel.de has enlarged its business model - focussing on the placing of hotel stays - by the fast-growing segment of procuring conference hotels for corporate clients. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
20/02/07 Very good start into 2007 for hotel.de AG
Very good start into 2007 for hotel.de AG
- Booking volume in January: + 61% compared to the same period of the previous year
- The number of booking customers continues to rise significantly
Nuremberg, 20th February 2007 - hotel.de AG, one of the leading global hotel reservation services, had a good start into 2007 and continues to grow strongly. In January the company was able to increase its booking volume by 61.0% totalling 25.2 million Euros, compared to 15.7 million Euros in January of the previous year. With 281,068 room nights this January outperformed January 2006 (190,960 room nights) by 47.2%.
"Once again we have been very successful especially within our primary target group, the business customers", Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, explained the strong increase of the booking volume. In general, business customers book more often and prefer higher class hotels compared to private customers, resulting in a higher commission revenue for hotel.de.
"With the acquisition of the Intergerma online conference booking tool and by setting up a branch in France in January 2007, our aim is to strengthen our growth additionally. These are further important steps in achieving our goal of becoming the leading online hotel reservation service for business customers in Europe" said Dr. Raufer.
hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application. 08/02/07 hotel.de to become market leader for online meeting and conference hotel reservations by taking over intergerma's conference business
hotel.de to become market leader for online meeting and conference hotel reservations by taking over intergerma's conference business
Nuremberg, February, 8 - 2007 - hotel.de, one of the leading online reservation services for hotels worldwide, has taken over the online booking system as well as the customer and hotel database of intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG, Hamm, Germany, as of January, 1- 2007.
This takeover will make hotel.de the leading online service for the reservation of conference hotels. In comparison with its current business model, in this segment hotel.de will not only offer individual overnight stays, but also conference packages, comprising of catering and technical equipment, as well as the corresponding facilities. The average value of conference bookings is 15 times as high as is with individual hotel reservations.
"Corporate customers prefer one-stop services offering both individual hotel reservations and conference hotel bookings through only one provider", said Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. The online reservation service will meet this requirement with its all-in-one offer enabling the corporate customer to book both services through one account. The resulting turnover will be displayed within a consistent statistics tool. Through hotel.de's new service the business customer will be able to save considerable time and money also within this area, while hotel.de partner hotels may generate high conference turnover.
"Customer base and product ideally compliment each other. Every third hotel reservation in Germany is conference-related. This proves a high turnover potential, especially when considering our already existing customer database", Raufer continued.
This acquisition of intergerma will let hotel.de benefit from comprehensive synergetic effects and by this profit double: Through its 500,000 existing corporate accounts hotel.de can generate a high volume of conference bookings. Additionally with intergerma's customer base - comprising of numerous renowned large corporations - hotel.de acquires considerable additional turnover as well as customer potential for classical individual hotel reservations.
The low purchase price, which the parties have agreed to keep private, measures strongly according to the economic success of this business segment of the coming four years, thus minimizing the entrepreneurial risk correspondingly. The margin of the new hotel.de business area is expected to amount to approx. 20% already within the first year. The profit potential for the years to come is estimated twice as high. Moreover hotel.de has succeeded in taking over six intergerma professionals securing additional know-how for hotel.de. In the course of the acquisition, hotel.de has extended its organisational structure by a "Groups & Conferences" department, which will exclusively be responsible for hotel.de's conference business.
Overall, hotel.de expects the profitable conference market to deliver a high chance for growth and profit over the next years as this business segment is economically important for the entire travel industry according to relevant studies - as e.g. that of the management consulting firm ghh consult GmbH, located in Wiesbaden, Germany: In Germany alone approx. 88 million conference delegates produced a total turnover of around 54 billion Euros in 2005. The resulting 74 million overnight stays correspond to 37% of the overall lodging volume within Germany's hotel industry. For Europe the fivefold volume is expected. According to the latest studies of the American market research institute PhoCus Wright, the turnover volume of the conference and congress market 2006 in the trendsetting U.S. amounted to 164 billion US dollars. For the year of 2008 a turnover volume of 175 billion US dollars is predicted, 41% of which are to be generated by online reservations - a fact that can be seen as a clear signal for the current and future development of the booking behaviour within the conference segment in Germany and Europe.
hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) London (UK) and Paris (France) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. In 2007 hotel.de has extended its business model by the strongly growing business segment of conference hotel bookings through corporate customers. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG
intergerma has established itself on the conference market as a leading publisher of the most commonly used conference planner "Hotels and Conference Facilities in Germany" as well as the publication "Event Locations". In addition to distributing print catalogues on conference hotels, in 2003 intergerma has developed an online system for conference hotels as a transparent and neutral information and booking platform for corporations and conference organizers. Due to the industry's demand for an all-in-one solution for hotel purchasing, intergerma has transferred its online reservation system to hotel.de AG. intergerma will focus on print media and expand its consulting services towards the hotel industry. intergerma as the biggest individual shareholder holds 16% of the hotel.de AG shares and two seats of the supervisory board at the same time.
Corporate News 2006
12/12/06 November figures reflect continued strong growth for hotel.de - parent company of UK based TravelRes -
November figures reflect continued strong growth
Nuremberg, 14/12/06 – hotel.de, the online hotel reservation service, reports unabated growth as at November 2006. Reaching a figure of Euro 23.2 million, the company's booking volume rose by 82.7% compared to November 2005 (Euro 12.7 million). 257,141 overnight stays were booked in November 2006, a 61.7% improvement on the previous year (159,045).
"The past weeks have seen us recruit numerous new customers from our primary target group of business travellers. These successful efforts are now clearly reflected in our figures. Business travellers are more frequent bookers and they tend to book in the mid to upper price segments. As a result, we have been able to boost our booking volume even ahead of the number of overnight stays booked," explained Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. The booking volume is a good indicator for hotel.de's business trend in that it allows to calculate the commission earnings representing the company's primary source of revenue.
"Having opened a London office in September this year, under the brand name TravelRes, our expansion into the UK continues to make excellent progress. The number of roomnights booked more than doubled in November 2006 compared to the same month in 2005. The booking volume also increased by 155% to Euro 0.5 million over the same period. Our international business will contribute progressively to our sales revenues. In addition to the UK, we will open an office in France in January 2007," Dr. Raufer commented on the company's expansion strategy. Apart from the incremental sales revenues, the international business is also expected to deliver networking effects in that the expanded footprint allows to serve a larger customer base. This, in turn, raises hotel.de's appeal as a booking platform in the eyes of hotel operators. At the same time, having a regional presence makes it easier to sign up potential hotel partners, which, in turn, helps to attract more booking customers.
About hotel.de
hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nuremberg (Germany) and London (UK) runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, www.hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. hotel.de AG offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, hotel.de customers benefit from considerable cost savings, resulting in part from especially advantageous hotel rates that hotel.de is able to acquire due to its high booking volume. Additionally, hotel.de always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of hotel.de is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel's computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by hotel.de's unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Procter & Gamble, SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the hotel.de corporate application.
29/11/06 hotel.de publishes 9-month figures
hotel.de publishes 9-month figures
- Dynamic sales and earnings growth
- Booking volumes at record levels
Nuremberg, 29/11/06. hotel.de AG today announced its financial results for the first nine months and the third quarter of 2006. The company, whose operations are based in Nuremberg and Hamm, Germany, provides online reservation services and acts as a global intermediary for hotel accommodation. Activities focus on the growing market for online hotel bookings by business customers,
hotel.de AG has maintained its strong growth course, with sales rising to Euro 13.7 million in the first nine months of 2006. hotel.de has thus not only exceeded its sales for the first six months in 2006 by 63.0%, but is also already considerably ahead of the annual sales of Euro 12.4 million reported for 2005. At Euro 162.0 million, booking volumes are also at the highest level in the company's history (overall 2005 financial year: Euro 131 million). Business was also positively affected in this respect by the increase in the number of large customers making exclusive use of hotel.de for their hotel accommodation bookings.
"Our international TravelRes brand has also continued to develop very well and its results are lying ahead of expectations", commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. "The investments made in our expansion strategy are already having a positive effect on foreign booking volumes and especially on sales in the UK." hotel.de has invested extensively in technology and personnel in connection with its international expansion. hotel.de's offering can already be used in seven languages.
Including the costs incurred on the company's internationalisation to date, operating earnings (EBIT) amounted to Euro 2.9 million as of 30.9.06, equivalent to a margin of 21%, with annual net income of Euro 1.7 million (prior to costs of stock market flotation). In the first half of 2006, operating earnings (EBIT) amounted to Euro 1.4 million and the annual net income to Euro 0.9 million. The equivalent figures for the overall 2005 financial year were Euro 3.6 million (EBIT) and Euro 2.2 million (annual net income).
"We were highly successful in the past quarter with our IPO and our operating business. The extremely dynamic growth and scalability of our business model mean that we are well positioned to extend our expansion strategy to France, Italy and Spain in the coming year. We will also be making targeted use of funds from the IPO for this purpose", added Dr. Raufer.
02/11/06 hotel.de announces new booking record for the month of October
Not for publication or distribution in the United States of America
hotel.de announces new booking record for the month of October: Room nights have increased by more than 67 percent compared to the previous year.
Nuremberg, 02/11/06. - hotel.de, the online reservation service with 180.000 hotels worldwide, has achieved a new booking record in October. With a total number of 272,300 room nights and a booking volume of € 24.1 million, the month of October significantly exceeded September by 16.3 %. In comparison to October 2005 this means an increase of 67.2 %. According to Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, both bookings of business and private customers had a hand in the strong growth. hotel.de focuses on the increasing market of online hotel reservations done by business customers. Within this sector hotel.de has been able to win numerous new booking customers for its services. Furthermore the strong increase of hotel.de's brand awareness within the last few months has had a positive influence on the business activity.
With 12,500 room nights booked, October, 23rd was the most successful "booking day" since the company's foundation. Thus the number of room nights of its formerly strongest "booking day" in September 2006 was exceeded by more than 20 %. hotel.de's international sales have been developing most gratifyingly too. Especially bookings done in Great Britain - generated via its international subsidiary TravelRes - exceed the management's expectations. Compared to September 2006 there was an increase of 32.6 % in October 2006. The 6,450 room nights booked in October 2006 by British customers made hotel.de's U.K. business triple within the course of a year. "In comparison to our start in Germany five years ago, the market entry in Great Britain has turned out easier so far. This shows how important and precious our yet established, worldwide hotel content is. But also our other strengths such as service and IT-competence have been getting around in the industry and among booking customers across the borders."
The Information contained herein does not constitute any offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. Securities would solely be offered on the basis of a prospectus or other offering circular to be issued by the company in connection with such offering and to be lodged with the Federal Financial Supervisory authority. Any such prospectus or offering circular would be available free of charge as of a date yet to be determined from hotel.de AG or HypoVereinsbank.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
20/10/06 Successful IPO of hotel.de - Issue volume of around Euro 18.5 million
Not for publication or distribution in the United States of America
Successful IPO of hotel.de - Issue volume of around Euro 18.5 million
Nuremberg/Frankfurt, 20/10/06. The shares of hotel.de AG have been successfully placed at an issue price of Euro 21.50. Trading of hotel.de’s shares on the Regulated Market (General Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange commenced on Friday, 20 October. The transaction was managed by UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG) as Global Coordinator and Sole Bookrunner. Due to the high quality of demand from German and international institutional investors, the offer was oversubscribed.
Institutional investors in Germany and abroad and private investors in Germany were able to subscribe shares during the offer period from 16 October to 19 October. The offering consisted of up to 862,500 shares, of which up to 750,000 shares derived from a capital increase. Up to 112,500 shares came from the holdings of existing shareholders in connection with an over-allotment. The total volume of the offering (including over-allotment) amounts to around Euro 18.5 million. hotel.de AG will receive net proceeds of around Euro 15.1 million from the capital increase. These funds are mainly used for the company’s expansion into other European countries. The market capitalisation of hotel.de based on the issue price amounts to around Euro 80.6 million.
The shares of hotel.de were offered in a public offering in Germany, as well as by means of a private placement to institutional investors in selected European countries. Of the offered shares, around 15 percent were allocated to private investors in Germany and around 85 percent to institutional investors in Germany and other countries.
The allocation of shares to private investors in connection with the offering was made in accordance with the “Principles governing the allocation of share issues to private investors” issued by the stock market expert commission at the Federal Ministry of Finance on 7 June 2000. Each private investor submitting a purchase order via Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG was granted an allocation amounting to 90% of the respective order. Within the framework of an employee participation programme, employees of hotel.de subscribed around 1% of the offered shares.
In the event of the greenshoe option being exercised, which may be undertaken by UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG) within 30 calendar days following the initial stock exchange listing, the existing shareholders of the company will proportionately sell up to 112,500 shares. Should the greenshoe option be exercised in full, the free float will amount to 23 percent.
As of 20 October, the shares of hotel.de AG are listed on the Regulated Market (General Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HTL and the international security identification number (ISIN) DE 0006910938.
“The success of our IPO means that we now have the financial scope to roll out our successful business model, which has already made us one of the leading online hotel reservation systems for business customers, on an international basis as well,” commented Dr. Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. “Our medium-term objective is to become the leading hotel reservation platform in Europe, especially for business customers.”
Admission applied for: Regulated Market / General Standard; Frankfurt Stock Exchange
ISIN: DE 0006910938
Stock market ticker: HTL
The Information contained herein does not constitute any offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. Securities would solely be offered on the basis of a prospectus or other offering circular to be issued by the company in connection with such offering and to be lodged with the Federal Financial Supervisory authority. Any such prospectus or offering circular would be available free of charge as of a date yet to be determined from hotel.de AG or HypoVereinsbank.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
12/10/06 hotel.de sets price range: Euro 21.50 – Euro 27.00
Not for publication or distribution in the United States of America
hotel.de sets price range: Euro 21.50 – Euro 27.00
Nuremberg, 12/10/06. hotel.de AG together with UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG), the lead manager for the offering, today set the price range for its shares. Shares in the company may be subscribed by investors within a price range of Euro 21.50 to Euro 27.00 per share in the period from 16 October to 19 October. A total of up to 750,000 shares resulting from a capital increase are to be offered for subscription. Furthermore, up to 112,500 shares from the holdings of the current shareholders may be offered in connection with a greenshoe option. The gross proceeds from the capital increase are expected to amount to between Euro 16.1 million and Euro 20.3 million. Following the deduction of costs relating to the offering, this amount will be allocated in full to the company. In case the greenshoe option will be exercised in full, the gross proceeds would increase to between Euro 18.5 million and Euro 23.3 million. The gross proceeds resulting from the sale of the greenshoe shares (less comissions) will be allocated in full to the current shareholders. The offering period ends on 19 October at 12.00 p.m. (noon) (CET) for private investors and at 2 p.m. (CET) for institutional investors. The final issue price is expected to be determined and published on 19 October 2006. The trading of the share in the Regulated Market / General Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is set to commence on 20 October 2006.
Admission applied for: Regulated Market / General Standard; Frankfurt Stock Exchange
ISIN: DE 0006910938
Stock market ticker: HTL
The Information contained herein does not constitute any offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. Securities would solely be offered on the basis of a prospectus or other offering circular to be issued by the company in connection with such offering and to be lodged with the Federal Financial Supervisory authority. Any such prospectus or offering circular would be available free of charge as of a date yet to be determined from hotel.de AG or HypoVereinsbank.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
09/10/06 hotel.de plans first trading day on 20 October
Not for publication or distribution in the United States of America
hotel.de plans first trading day on 20 October
- Offering period from 16 October to 19 October
The Management Board of hotel.de AG announced the transaction details concerning the planned IPO at a press conference held today in Frankfurt. The public offering will include up to 750,000 shares resulting from a capital increase against cash contributions. Furthermore, UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG), which is managing the IPO as global coordinator and sole book runner, will be granted an additional greenshoe option amounting to up to 112,500 shares from the holdings of the existing shareholders. All shares (ISIN: DE 0006910938, WKN: 691093) will carry full dividend rights of January 1, 2006. The publication of the price range within which the shares will be offered for subscription is scheduled for 13 October 2006. The offering period is scheduled to begin on 16 October 2006 and to end on 19 October 2006. The final offer price is to be set on 19 October 2006. The trading of the new shares in the Regulated Market / General Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is scheduled to commence on 20 October 2006.
"We intend to use the proceeds from the issue to accelerate our international expansion, given that there is as yet no service for business reservation customers in other countries precisely comparable to that provided by hotel.de," stated Dr. Heinz Raufer, founder and CEO of hotel.de AG. The company plans to become Europe's leading online intermediary for hotel reservations of business customers in the medium to long term.
Marketing will start as of today in the context of a national and international management roadshow. The offering consists of a public offering in the Federal Republic of Germany and private placements in certain other European countries.
The largest current shareholder in hotel.de AG is Intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG, which holds 20% of the shares. The three members of hotel.de's Management Board each own 14.5% of the shares. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dr. Stefan Morschheuser, owns 12.5%. Furthermore, 21% of the shares are owned by company employees and a further 3% by private investors. Following the capital increase and the execution of the IPO the free float will amount to 20% (23%, if the greenshoe option is exercised in full).
hotel.de has grown steadily ever since its foundation in 2001. The company has benefited in this respect from the significant growth in the market. Between 2004 and 2005, the share of hotel reservations of business customers made via the internet rose from 8% to 17%. In 2006, this share has even risen to 34%, although there has also been an increase in the share of reservations made directly via hotels' own websites. hotel.de succeeded in more than doubling its annual sales from Euro 5.9 million in 2004 to Euro 12.4 million in 2005. Its operating earnings even rose from Euro 1.3 million to Euro 3.6 million. The net return on sales amounted to 17.6%.
At today's press conference, hotel.de also announced its half-year figures. The company's sales rose to Euro 8.4 million in the first six months of 2006. This is equivalent to a growth of 60% compared with the figure of Euro 5.2 million reported for the corresponding period in the previous year. Booking volumes also showed significant growth in the first six months, rising from Euro 58 million to Euro 104 million. hotel.de has already made considerable investments in the technology and human resources required for its expansion. Personnel expenses thus rose by 90% from Euro 1.8 million to Euro 3.4 million in the first six months of 2006. Other operating expenses also showed an increase of 93.9% from Euro 1.5 million in the first six months of the previous year to Euro 2.94 million in the first half of 2006. This increase is mainly attributable to a higher level of accruals in connection with the "Freenights" customer retention programme as a result of the substantial increase in the popularity of the programme among reservation customers. hotel.de nevertheless succeeded in further increasing its operating earnings from Euro 1.4 million to 1.5 million, thus underlining the company's earnings power. The number of key accounts in the business customer segment, an important key figure for hotel.de, has risen to 144 in 2006, an increase of 80% on the equivalent figure in the first half of 2005. "And the second half, which is traditionally stronger due to seasonal factors, is still to come," commented Raufer with regard to the positive results.
The offering circular for the IPO was approved by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) on 6 October 2006 and published in German and English on hotel.de's website at www.hotel.de. Moreover, the offering circular can be obtained from the company and from UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking (Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG) during customary business hours.
The Information contained herein does not constitute any offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. Securities would solely be offered on the basis of a prospectus or other offering circular to be issued by the company in connection with such offering and to be lodged with the Federal Financial Supervisory authority. Any such prospectus or offering circular would be available free of charge as of a date yet to be determined from hotel.de AG or HypoVereinsbank.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
25/09/06 hotel.de plans IPO in the second half of October 2006
Not for publication or distribution in the United States of America
hotel.de specifies IPO plans
- hotel.de plans IPO in the second half of October 2006
- CEO Heinz Raufer named as "Entrepreneur of the Year 2006"
Nuremberg, 25/09/06. hotel.de AG has published further details regarding its planned Initial Public Offering. Based in Nuremberg and Hamm, the company offers online reservation services for hotels throughout the world. Activities focus on the growing market for online hotel bookings by business customers,
Subject to a positive capital markets environment, the company plans to go public in mid to late October. The envisaged market segment is the regulated market (General Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The share placement will be led by HypoVereinsbank as Global Coordinator and Sole Bookrunner. hotel.de plans to issue shares almost exclusively from a capital increase. The disposal of shares by existing shareholders is planned only within an additional Greenshoe Option customary to the market. The proceeds of the offering are primarily intended to finance the European expansion strategy of hotel.de.
International expansion as motive for IPO
“To date there is no service for corporate customers in non-German speaking countries exactly comparable to that offered by hotel.de. This is therefore a favourable opportunity of positioning ourselves in other countries as well. Now that we have already successfully established the hotel.de brand in German-speaking countries, we aim to make our company one of Europe’s leading online mediators of hotel accommodation around the world in the medium to long term,” commented Dr. Heinz Raufer, founding shareholder and CEO of the company. “The additional funds from an IPO will enable us to implement the expertise gained in German-speaking countries, as well as our three strengths of IT competence, hotel offerings and service, far more rapidly in other European countries,” explained Dr. Raufer. “We believe that we are an interesting candidate for the stock market and that we can provide investors with a convincing equity story in view of our dynamic growth and the proven profitability of our business model,” added Dr. Raufer.
The corporate customer programme of hotel.de has already been launched this year in the UK with the new international brand “TravelRes” and using the domains travelres.co.uk and travelres.com. The next step involves establishing the TravelRes brand initially in France, Italy and Spain in the respective national languages and using the domains travelres.fr, travelres.it and travelres.es.
hotel.de has already laid the most important foundations for its international expansion. With 180,000 hotels linked around the world, hotel.de already has a sufficiently attractive international hotel offering to be interesting for customers making reservations. Moreover, a large number of subsidiaries, sister and parent companies of corporate customers in Germany already started to use the new TravelRes portals as soon as they became available. Moreover, hotel.de already has a well-established infrastructure, including a reservation offering available in seven languages, which merely has to be adjusted to the new domains.
Further strong growth
The company succeeded in raising the booking volume to EUR 104 million in the first six months of 2006, equivalent to an increase of roughly 80% compared with the first half of 2005. With 240,000 overnight stays with a value of around EUR 21 million mediated in the month of August, hotel.de succeeded in breaking a further record in the company’s history. The company will publish further details of its planned IPO at a date still to be determin.
Dr. Heinz Raufer awarded the title of "Entrepreneur of the Year"
The company was already awarded the 2006 German Company Founder Prize in the “up and coming” category around two weeks ago. On 21 September, Dr. Heinz Raufer and hotel.de were also awarded the title of “Entrepreneur of the Year 2006” in the “start-up” category. The jury was convinced in particular by hotel.de’s record of sustainable growth and innovation. The competition, which attracted applications from around 350 candidates in Germany, is organised by Ernst & Young in more than 40 countries around the world and is supported by renowned academics, companies and the media.
The Information contained herein does not constitute any offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. Securities would solely be offered on the basis of a prospectus or other offering circular to be issued by the company in connection with such offering and to be lodged with the Federal Financial Supervisory authority. Any such prospectus or offering circular would be available free of charge as of a date yet to be determined from hotel.de AG or HypoVereinsbank.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
08/09/06 hotel.de plans IPO
Not for publication or distribution in the United States of America
hotel.de plans IPO
Nuremberg, 08/09/06. hotel.de AG plans to go public before the end of the year. Based in Nuremberg and Hamm, the company offers online reservation services for hotels throughout the world. Activities focus on the growing market for online hotel bookings by business customers, which accounted for roughly 70% of the company’s 2005 revenues.
hotel.de has grown steadily ever since its foundation in 2001. In fiscal 2005, revenues more than doubled from the previous year’s EUR 5.9 million to EUR 12.4 million. Results from ordinary activities soared from EUR 1.3 million to EUR 3.6 million.
In 2005, hotel.de achieved a booking volume of EUR 131 million (2004: EUR 59 million), which makes the company one of the leading providers of online hotel reservation services for corporate and private customers in Germany and Europe. In the first six months of 2006, the booking volume already amounted to EUR 104 million, compared to EUR 58 million in the same period of the previous year. This represents an increase of roughly 80%. The steadily rising share of international business has been particularly gratifying; in the first half of 2006, foreign customers accounted for 42% of total revenues, up from 38% at the end of last year. The company currently employs 341 people, who arrange an average of 220,000 hotel bookings in a total amount of approx. EUR 17 million per month.
According to trade magazine fvw (18/06), the June report of Nielsen Netratings lists hotel.de as the only online hotel reservation system among the ten most popular travel sites in Germany, making it one of the online hotel reservation services with the widest reach. This is also reflected in the total number of booking customers, which reached a new company record of approx. 1.3 million as of June 30, 2006.
Now that the hotel.de brand has been established in the German-speaking area, the company will increasingly focus on its expansion into other European markets. For this purpose, the company has created the international “TravelRes” brand and secured the relevant local domains. The corporate accounts program of the new “TravelRes” brand has already been launched in the UK at travelres.co.uk and travelres.com. A distribution office has been opened in London to help the company sign up new customers and hotels. Other key European markets will follow.
So far, no identical offering for corporate customers has been established outside Germany. “We therefore see a good opportunity to become the leading European online agent for hotel reservations in the medium to long term,” Dr. Heinz Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG, says with regard to the company’s plans. “We are currently reviewing various options to finance our dynamic growth to allow us to position ourselves in the international marketplace as quickly as possible.” HypoVereinsbank has therefore been mandated to examine available options for the company to go public before the end of the year.
The Information contained herein does not constitute any offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. Securities would solely be offered on the basis of a prospectus or other offering circular to be issued by the company in connection with such offering and to be lodged with the Federal Financial Supervisory authority. Any such prospectus or offering circular would be available free of charge as of a date yet to be determined from hotel.de AG or HypoVereinsbank.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities of hotel.de AG described herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " Securities Act"), or the laws of any State, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account of U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable State laws. hotel.de AG does not intend to register any portion of the offering in the United States or conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.
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Todos os direitos reservados. As marcas mencionadas pertencem aos respectivos proprietários. Ao utilizar este site você reconhece as Condições Gerais de hotel.de.
A hotel.de AG não se responsabiliza pelo conteúdo de sites de Internet interligados.Informações Legais ICP-Licence: 沪ICP备10026152号
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