Hotelbeds has unveiled its latest venture, HBX Group, to spearhead the company’s transition into a comprehensive global travel ecosystem provider. With a focus on delivering a seamless end-to-end travel experience, HBX Group introduces new product lines designed to cater to the diverse needs of its growing clientele spanning more than 190 global markets.
As the CEO of Hotelbeds, Nicolas Huss, emphasized, “As we continue our transformation as a world-leading TravelTech company, HBX Group simplifies our structure into four distinct brands under our new umbrella.” This strategic shift follows a complete overhaul of their technological infrastructure over the past year, aimed at enhancing reliability and self-service capabilities to maintain their market leadership.
The HBX Group comprises four best-in-class B2B solutions, each tailored to address specific market needs:
- Hotelbeds: Serving hoteliers, tour operators, airlines, and online travel agents.
- Bedsonline: Exclusively catering to the retail travel segment, offering a comprehensive range of travel products.
- Roiback: The HotelTech partner for independent hotels and chains looking to expand through direct channel solutions.
- TravelStack: Providing a range of products, services, and solutions for businesses entering the lucrative travel industry.
HBX Group will streamline its brand architecture, offering partners a more coherent experience. Existing product brands, such as last-minute travel and Carnect, will eventually be fully integrated into the HBX Group ecosystem. Moreover, Hotelbeds’ long-standing flagship event, MarketHub, and its innovation hub, the TravelTech Lab, will now operate under the HBX Group umbrella.
Technologically, HBX Group has undergone a significant transformation, bolstered by a re-engineered transaction platform featuring an open-source relational database management system, enhancing extensibility and data utilization. This technological shift paves the way for a more robust, cloud-based infrastructure, making it easier to implement functional changes and enhancing the efficiency of data access and response times.
In addition, HBX Group is poised to enter the realm of financial technology (fintech) in 2024, introducing products like travel insurance, payment solutions, and multi-currency options. These offerings will be seamlessly integrated into the core business, providing clients and partners with a comprehensive suite of services.
The travel insurance sector alone is a substantial opportunity, expected to grow from €15 billion to €99 billion by 2030. Nicolas Huss emphasized, “As travelers increasingly seek the connected trip experience with all aspects of their travel included in the same ticket, we must ensure we’re meeting this need through travel insurance and associated financial products.”
This strategic evolution positions HBX Group as a comprehensive ecosystem player within the travel industry, offering interconnected products and services that cater to the evolving needs of both businesses and end consumers. The move is set to streamline the buying process, enhance client experiences, and promote frictionless travel. As part of this shift, Hotelbeds’ accommodation, mobility, and attractions sales teams have been integrated to foster cross-selling opportunities and streamline client relationships.
HBX Group’s journey reflects its commitment to innovation, making travel simpler and more connected for everyone involved.
