Listed by WIRED magazine as one of Europe’s 100 Hottest Startups two years in a row, VC-backed travel tech startup HotelRunner has today announced that it has acquired rate analysis, shopping and comparison platform RateFor.
As a global sales management and distribution platform for online travel agents (OTAs), hotels and payment providers to ‘find, contract, connect, and transact with each other’, HotelRunner is the first peer to peer networked marketplace for the travel sector with over 40,000 accommodation providers registered on the platform in 193 countries. The move to purchase RateFor forms part of its big data strategy – to offer a complete tech stack for hotels, including property management, online direct bookings, channel management and rate intelligence and comparison.
Founded in Turkey by Mesut Mert and Alican Soysal in 2018 and already being used by numerous travel agencies and hotels, RateFor is known for its ability to report property rates across a number of online sales channels on just one screen. Post-acquisition, it means that HotelRunner’s accommodation partners will be able to optimise their rates by analysing the rates of competing properties in their region and be able to view which rooms of their property are sold, on which platform and at what rate in real-time, and ensure rate parity. Conversely, agencies too will benefit since they’ll be able to perform data-based competitive analysis by monitoring the rates of the properties they follow on other agencies.
Founding partner Mesut Mert at RateFor said: “We’re thrilled to be joining the HotelRunner team – another step in our ambitious growth plans! Together with our market-leading offerings and technology strengths, we see great potential to deliver a unique and broader offering to OTAs, hotels and payment providers.”
Alican Soysal added: “As we merge with HotelRunner’s scalable and reliable technological infrastructure, we believe the RateFor platform will grow rapidly. Exciting times ahead!”
Founders and Managing Partners of HotelRunner, Arden Agopyan and Ali Beklen commented on the acquisition: Agopyan said: “Despite the enormous challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued with our investment and innovations plan and are on track to achieve – and exceed – our financial targets. As such, we’ll be making further business acquisitions in the upcoming period to accelerate our global growth and move closer to our goal of becoming the data-driven driving force for the travel industry.”
Beklen concluded: “We’re delighted that the founders of RateFor have joined our expanding team and the RateFor platform will continue its operations within HotelRunner. Our goal is to take both ourselves and the currently stagnant tourism ecosystem one step further through strategic moves. The long-term relationships we have with business partners and the industry’s trust in us, play an important role in our growth and we’re committed to creating innovative products and services that increase their revenues with fewer costs and no additional fees.”
