Genesis of ehotel@
The success story of ehotel® began 22 years ago with the simple idea of helping business travelers to quickly and effectively find suitable hotel rooms from a wide range of offers and contingents, and at the best price. At the time, such a search was still associated with a lot of effort and frustration for employees, as well as being cost-intensive. In contrast to many other hotel booking portals on the market, ehotel® has always considered the process holistically when developing suitable technologies, and strives to find solutions that complement each other optimally – from searching, to booking, to billing.
Sustainable Hospitality Service
Then as now, ehotel®’s work is characterized by its approach of focusing on customers and using their everyday lives and specific requirements as the starting point for the further development of various offers. Technological innovations and modern tools are therefore part of the Berlin-based company’s DNA. As a data-driven business, ehotel® bases its operations on comprehensive analyses in order to continuously optimize processes and services. In this way, core products as well as new features evolve in response to current changes in the industry.
With the unique meta-search technology, for example, customers can factor their own company guidelines into the search for hotel rooms and filter for, among others, sustainability factors in addition to standard factors such as facilities and comfort. ehotel®’s new green filter functions help companies find green-certified hotels for business trips, conferences and meetings, and thus reduce their CO2 footprint. In addition, the meta-search technology filters the over 7 million potentially available hotel rooms to only display actually valid offers, which has become a crucial factor in the search for hotel rooms due to the pandemic.
ehotel® Analytics is another example of how the company constantly evolves its offering: The comprehensive tool enables travel managers to produce structured statistics and to create travel volume analyses based on high-quality data management in order to identify savings opportunities. The analytics dashboard comes with 26 integrated reporting modes, which sort all data by country, city, hotel, cost center, order number, contract rate or payment method. Customized reports are of course also available at any time. During the pandemic, the tool provided further added-value by enabling companies to reliably locate business travelers, enabling travel managers to fulfill their duty of care even in crisis areas.
Smart Management Tool
ehotel®’s claim to drive progress in the interest of its customers is also fulfilled by its sourcing tool, the ehotel® Rate Manager, which checks negotiated contract rates for their availability, correctness and completeness. Thus, unwanted contract rates are excluded and data-based purchasing is promoted through systematic audits across all GDS or non-GDS channels. ehotel®’s end-to-end offering is rounded off by ehotel® central billing, which allows customers to effortlessly automate the payment processes and bookings. The billing system is individually adjustable and of course allows for full cost control.
All tools can be combined with each other or used as a stand-alone solution. Overall, ehotel® reliably supports its customers in optimizing their internal processes and saving costs. In this respect, the pandemic has had no impact on the hotel booking platform and its mission – apart from the fact that customers are now using the many functions that ehotel® offers differently. The company-specific usage behavior of customers remains, as does customers’ growing need for flexibility in bookings and travel plans and the desire for more security. Hotels’ hygiene standards and protocols as well as the availability of contactless payment methods have become decisive criteria for many business travelers. Digital check-in options are also growing in popularity. ehotel® is prepared to cover the “new normal” in all areas – from sourcing, to payment, to billing – be it for individual trips or group bookings, for the organization of meetings, large events or hybrid conferences.
Advancing Growth with Technology
Technological progress and the comprehensive evaluation of data will continue to determine ehotel®’s actions in the coming years. Instead of gimmicky marketing methods, the hotel booking portal continues to rely on fairness and transparency in order to attract customers and, above all, to keep them in the long term. This strategy has served the company well, with satisfied customers staying loyal and recommending the service to others. In this sense, the ehotel® model serves as an example for young entrepreneurs to consider: In order for a company to establish itself in the long term, the focus must be placed on internal quality and trustworthiness in order to convince customers. The biggest challenge for many seems to be trusting in organic growth. But only those who act step by step can keep an eye on the big picture and avoid mistakes – ehotel® is an example of that.
Becoming carbon is New-Normal
Driven by its relentless mission to perfect the digital cycle of business travel processes, ehotel® remains, not only an industry pioneer, but also a reliable constant for its customers and partners. As a growing company, ehotel® is committed to becoming carbon neutral. Here, too, the company is acting with care and prudence. The resource-saving measures are welcomed and supported by the employees of ehotel®, as the future of the planet and people is at stake. For ehotel®, the only natural consequence is to rethink even tried and tested processes and to set its own bar as high in sustainability as in the development of innovations.