While 2021 will go down in hospitality history as one of the most challenging years ever faced, it will also be remembered for the exceptional resilience, solidarity and strength shown by the people who make our industry so special, both leaders and workers alike.

As we look back on this atypical year, at The Hotels Network (THN) we feel extremely thankful to have been able to forge ahead along our strong growth journey. We expanded our team of experts globally, built close relationships with countless new partners and hotel clients, and launched highly innovative new products and features.

A year of growth

Being the most trusted partner in direct growth for hoteliers worldwide requires us to have the best team possible to ensure we consistently deliver on our promises and exceed our clients’ expectations. This is why we continued to invest heavily in recruitment and development last year, growing our team by 35% to reach more than 150 people from 30 different nationalities. 

Throughout the year, THN also supported the recovery of our industry by building powerful, new technology for our hotel clients, not just a better version of existing solutions. In March 2021, we launched BenchDirect, the first benchmarking platform for the hotel’s direct booking channel. The adoption in the market was incredible, with more than 12,000 hotels already using these invaluable competitive insights to identify opportunities for improvement and take action to drive more direct bookings. 

Strong partnerships and teamwork continued to play an important role in the ethos of THN. We strengthened our collaborations with both new and existing technology partners, ensuring our combined offerings provide incremental value for our customers. We watched our network of hotels grow daily and are honoured to have welcomed as new clients both independent properties and prominent brands such as Preferred Hotels & Resorts and Kenzi Hotels Group. We also chose to support the excellent work of multiple hospitality industry associations, from HSMAI to The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers. 

Raising the bar

Last November, at THN we got a call from a luxury hotel chain in France. They wanted to activate personalized marketing campaigns on their website for Black Friday (which was only one week away). Their e-commerce manager told us: “I heard from others that you are the best”. Within 48 hours, the campaigns were up and running. 

In the last five years, we’ve become not only the largest but the fastest growing provider of personalization and benchmarking solutions for hospitality brands, working with over 12,000 hotels worldwide. The reason for this success is embedded in the comment above: “I heard from others that you are the best”. When you build the most advanced product, you always optimize for the client, and you don’t play games but deliver results. Clients recognize and appreciate this.

However, this is just the very beginning. I recently read a book about time and space, and the author Carlo Rovelli put it beautifully: “Each time we look further, our universe gets larger”. At THN, every time we launch a new product, or land a new client, or hire a great new team member, we raise our ambition for the next step. We are winning the first inning of a very long baseball game. And we are not just looking at the playing field, we are designing what that field will be. 

Hospitality is a great place to be. There’s just so much to build, and we sure are having an exciting ride building it. Hope you can be there on the journey with us.

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