Hotel Urbano (company)

Hotel Urbano
Tourism
Founded Rio de Janeiro Brazil (2011)
Headquarters Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Key people
 José Eduardo Mendes e João Ricardo Mendes
Products Lodging in hotels, serviced apartments and B&Bs; travel packages, vacation rentals and car rentals.
R$ 500 million or approximately USD$125 million
Owner Kevin Efrusy, Priceline.com, Insight Venture Partners and Tiger Global
Number of employees
 600
Website hotelurbano.com.br

Hotel Urbano is a Brazilian online travel agency. It is the company in Brazil that markets the largest number of lodging options on the internet, with a booking of over 9 million days since its inauguration.[1] Founded in January, 2011 by brothers José Eduardo and João Ricardo Mendes, Hotel Urbano is valued at 2 billion reais or approximately USD$500 million.[2][3][4][5][6][6][7] Its headquarters are based in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

History

Hotel Urbano was initially founded as a collective buying website in 2011.[3] Hotel Urbano was operated under this business model for only 5 months. Also in 2011, the two brothers repositioned the company in the market, and it then began operating as an online travel agency with focus on short-term off-season packages. In this new model, lodging rates are reduced in up to 40% compared to high-season rates.[2][3][5]

In a few rounds of investment, American fund companies Insight Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management became Hotel Urbano’s partners. They are known to have invested in companies such as Facebook, Netflix and Linkedin.[2][3][8]

Hotel Urbano began marketing hotel accommodations and international travel packages. In 2013, Hotel Urbano offered hotels and travel packages to 35,000 destinations in over 180 countries.[8]

Hotel Urbano’s Facebook page is the most popular tourism page in the world (with 12 million fans) and is the 4th most popular page in Brazil.[8][9][10][11][12]

2014 to Present

By the end of 2014 Hotel Urbano had formed a partnership with Rock in Rio and became the only Brazilian company to market travel packages to the two festival editions in 2015.[13][14]

In the beginning of 2015, Hotel Urbano and RentalCars, belonging to the group Priceline.com, formed a partnership that allowed Hotel Urbano to market car reservation and rental services in over 26 thousand destinations in 180 countries.[9][15]

Thinking of the medium-term IPO, Hotel Urbano implemented an Administrative Council in 2015, made up of independent members. These members are: Derek Zissman, former director of the KPMG group in the UK; Stelleo Tolda, executive vice-president and operations director at Mercado Livre; Leonardo Rocha, a business executive who has worked at Telefônica, Ponto Frio and Camargo Corrêa. The Council also includes the participation of João Ricardo Mendes and José Eduardo Mendes, founders of Hotel Urbano, and Brad Twohig, managing partner, and Elodie Dupuy, vice-president of Insight Venture Partners, an investment fund company that has led three rounds of investments in the company.[16][17]

Also in 2015, the American tourism group Priceline.com invested 60 million dollars in Hotel Urbano and gained a minority stake in the business. Priceline.com is the world leader in the online tourism segment and operates companies such as Booking.com, Kayak.com, Priceline.com and Agoda.com.[18]

This new partnership with the The Priceline Group aims to expand Hotel Urbano’s operations, especially in Latin America, through the global network of more than 780 thousand lodging partners who benefit from Priceline.com.[19][20][21][22]

Voltem.com

In 2014, Hotel Urbano launched a website for vacation room rentals in Brazil called Voltem.com.[3] In 2015, Hotel Urbano made an investment contribution of R$5 million to improve the Voltem.com platform.[23][24]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Hotel Urbano prevê faturar R$ 100 milhões com novo app" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "O Hotel Urbano é a Netshoes do turismo" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Do zero ao bilhão" (in Portuguese). Exame PME. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  4. ↑ Revista Exame, Ed. Abril, "Já vale 2 bilhões de reais", September 2, 2015, pp. 30. (in Portuguese)
  5. 1 2 Revista Forbes, Ed. Forbes, "Prodigiosos", February 1, 2014, pp. 52. (in Portuguese)
  6. 1 2 "HotelUrbano.com". CrunchBase. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  7. ↑ "Rio bets it can become Brazil's Silicon Beach". Reuters. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 "Brazilian Vacation Bookings Goliath HotelUrbano Gets $20M Third Round Led By IVP". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Hotel Urbano firma parceria com RentalCars.com e Priceline para oferecer aluguel de carros em todo o mundo" (in Portuguese). Segs. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Hotel Urbano promove concurso do maior grito de "FÉÉÉÉRIIIIAAAS" no Facebook" (in Portuguese). Portal da Propaganda. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  11. ↑ "A ASCENSÃO DO HOTEL URBANO NO MERCADO DE TURISMO ONLINE" (in Portuguese). Época Negócios. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  12. ↑ "As marcas brasileiras com mais fãs no Facebook em novembro" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Hotel Urbano planeja crescer 58% em 2015" (in Portuguese). Brasil Economico. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Hotel Urbano será agência de viagens oficial do Rock in Rio" (in Portuguese). UOL. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Priceline’s Rentalcars.com Could Be the Next Big Thing". Skift. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Hotel Urbano cria Conselho de Administração para abrir capital" (in Portuguese). G1. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Hotel Urbano cria Conselho com vistas à abertura de capital" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Hotel Urbano recebe aporte de R$ 120 milhões para expandir operação" (in Portuguese). Pequenas Empresas Grandes Negócios. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Grupo Priceline investe US$ 60 mi no Hotel Urbano" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Priceline partners with Hotel Urbano, invests $60M". Vator News. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Priceline Pours $60 Million Into Brazil’s Hotel Urbano". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Hotel Urbano e Priceline anunciam parceria estratégica" (in Portuguese). E-commerce News. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  23. ↑ "O Airbnb do Hotel Urbano" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Hotel Urbano investe 5 milhões de reais em site de aluguel por temporada" (in Portuguese). Info. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Prêmio Empreendedor do Ano" (in Portuguese). EY. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Veja as 150 empresas mais respeitadas do país por setor" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  27. ↑ "O ranking do atendimento ao cliente em 2014" (in Portuguese). Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  28. ↑ "As empresas vencedoras do Prêmio ÉPOCA ReclameAqui" (in Portuguese). Epoca. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  29. ↑ "The Winners of Inaugural Skifties Social Media Travel Awards, the Full List". Skift. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  30. ↑ "IstoÉ premia as empresas mais conscientes do Brasil" (in Portuguese). Isto É. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  31. ↑ "100+ inovadoras em TI 2014" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Melhores Empresas para Trabalhar GPTW - Varejo" (in Portuguese). Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  33. ↑ "VENCEDORES" (in Portuguese). Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  34. ↑ "Uber, Netflix e Apple são exemplos de bom atendimento" (in Portuguese). Exame. Retrieved October 13, 2015.

External links

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